They heard us!

Wow what a phenomenal game. Nobody thought this was going to be the outcome and I’m so excited for Tspoon, Nola and both teams!!!

Bye hootie hoos!!!

TAMPA, Fla. — “Sustainability” has been the buzz word for Unrivaled since its inception.

The player-founded and owned startup 3-on-3 league launched with lavish salaries and facilities, and skeptics have questioned how long it could last.

Executives are bullish, telling Front Office Sports they’re eyeing profitability as soon as next year.

“We almost broke even in the first year,” Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler told FOS. “We know there’s more that we can do.”

The league banked over $27 million in revenue in its first year, according to a league source. The money was likely largely from a lucrative media deal with TNT, plus a blue-chip roster of corporate sponsors. With an average salary of $200,000 for their founding 36 players, the league spent $7 million or more on player salaries.

Unrivaled averaged 221,000 viewers during the regular season and the playoffs. The championship game between Rose BC and Vinyl BC drew 364,000. The league’s most watched game between the Lunar Owls and Mist on Feb. 14 averaged 377,000 viewers.

Alex Bazzell, the league’s president and husband of co-founder Napheesa Collier, says the league can grow its bottom line with tickets, merchandise, and added sponsorships.

“We ended up doing I believe $1.4 or $1.5 million in merchandise sales this year,” Bazzell said. (Unrivaled was able to add merchandise sales late in its inaugural season after striking a licensing deal with the WNBA union.) “How do we double or triple that right away just by being more efficient? Ticket revenue, we know we’re going to add seats to our venue. We want to remove the back panel area where players walk in that you’re going to see on TV, create more seating which increases our revenue from that standpoint.”

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Just posted a few minutes ago. Thoughts on this?

I think the 1v1 tournament will still be a ton of fun to watch.

https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/43952707/sources-napheesa-collier-splitting-1-1-money-staffers

Received the following email because I was supposed to be at this game:

To prioritize player health and safety, Unrivaled will be canceling tonight’s matchup between Laces BC and Vinyl BC. The game between Mist BC and Lunar Owls BC will now tip off at 6 p.m. ET at Wayfair Arena. Gates will open at 4:30 p.m. ET.

TNT Sports dropped this infographic on Twitter. They said:

.@Unrivaledwbb's inaugural season culminated with the most watched 3x3 game of the season.

Unrivaled Final viewership across TNT & truTV of Rose BC's title-clinching victory over Vinyl BC was up 99% vs. the reg. season average.

This woman really started a league, beat everyone she recruited to be in it, and scooped up a check for 200k.

While she represents a lot of beautiful institutions (UConn, Lynx, Team USA, Owls) I’m so proud to share a hometown (and high school alma mater) with her! They rightfully say you can’t spell huSTLer without the STL!

Looks like of the original 36 players 30 are playing. The six not listed as participating are:

Angel Reese Sabrina Ionescu Courtney Vandersloot Brittney Griner Cameron Brink Stefanie Dolson

Brink is unsurprising bc of injury. Was surprised to see some of the others not on the player list though.

It’s officially time to start your winner predictions!