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(New York, NY) — The New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx tell ESPN they plan to launch a league called Unrivaled.
The league would play in Miami between January and March featuring 30 of the top women’s players playing on six teams. This comes in response to the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement that requires players to return from overseas by the start of training camp to be eligible for the WNBA season.
Instead of the traditional 5-on-5 game, the teams will play 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 at a custom-built court.
The hope is to raise enough funding to pay players roughly what they make in the WNBA season to help offset the money they’d be losing out on by not playing overseas in the offseason.
Many players choose to head overseas during the offseason to enhance their income, including Brittney Griner who was arrested in Russia in 2022 when traveling their to play in the country’s league.
Stewart and Collier said they have partnered with companies like Twitter and WWE to help launch the league in January.
“It’s the ability for players to stay home, to be in a market like Miami where we can just be the buzz and create that with the best WNBA players,” Stewart told ESPN. “We can’t keep fighting [the WNBA’s prioritization rule]. It is a rule that takes away our choices [overseas], which should never be a thing, especially as women, but it is still a rule.”
Both Stewart and Collier have played overseas in their careers.
