Valkyries prepare their WNBA expansion draft plan

Tonight in Unpacks: The WNBA expansion draft is Dec. 6, and the Golden State Valkyries are learning that the process of picking players is more intricate than it seems, as SBJ’s Tom Friend reports in this week’s magazine.

Also tonight:

NWSL rides 6% uptick to record attendance in 2024

C-USA taps consultant to explore naming-rights deal

What’s next for Evolv?

Reflecting on a shifting media landscape

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour discusses the tension between the Rays and civic leaders in Tampa, the NWSL’s strong attendance figures, Portland’s efforts to land a future MLB expansion team and more.

PUBLISHING NOTICE: SBJ newsletters (Marketing, Tech, Football, Betting and Unpacks) will not publish between Wednesday, Nov. 27, and Friday, Nov. 29, for the Thanksgiving holiday. SBJ Unpacks returns Monday, Dec. 2. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Golden State Valkyries have an arena, a president, a GM, a director of basketball operations, a head coach and more than 20,000 season-ticket deposits, but if they’re going to do this thing called the WNBA, they might need some players.

But that’s what Dec. 6 is for — an expansion draft that has Steph Curry, the Warriors’ all-world point guard, as curious as anyone. The business of building a WNBA expansion team has to start somewhere, and it began in May shortly after the club hired away Valkyries GM Ohemaa Nyanin from her job as assistant GM of the New York Liberty. Nyanin downloaded all 12 rosters in the league, every player’s contract status, the collective-bargaining agreement, Excel spreadsheets and threw them all into the contours of her brain.

The WNBA league office laid it out for Nyanin. All 12 of the existing teams could protect six players, and she would be able to select no more than one from each team. But she soon discovered it was not so elementary, as SBJ’s Tom Friend reports on the process of building an expansion team in the WNBA in this week’s magazine.

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NWSL clubs averaged 11,250 fans per match during the 2024 regular season, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman, the league’s highest-ever attendance mark and a 6% increase from 2023.

In its first season with 14 teams (up from 12), the league welcomed more than 2 million total fans through the turnstiles for the first time in its 12-season history. Eight of the league’s 12 returning teams increased attendance from 2023, including four who saw upticks of more than 30%.  Angel City FC drew the league’s largest crowds in 2024 with an average of 19,313 fans per match at BMO Stadium, down 2% from 2023. It marks the second time in Angel City’s three NWSL seasons that the club finished atop the attendance rankings.

The Chicago Red Stars saw the biggest boost with a 48% increase to 7,160 fans per game in their first season under the stewardship of controlling owner Laura Ricketts. The increase, however, was fueled entirely by a match against Bay FC at Wrigley Field that drew an NWSL record crowd of 35,038. Excluding the Wrigley Field match, the Red Stars’ attendance for games at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Ill., was essentially flat. The K.C. Current, who opened CPKC Stadium in 2024, sold out all 13 home matches with capacity crowds of 11,500. That’s up 1% from the team’s average in 2023 at Children’s Mercy Park last year.

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Conference USA is working with the sports marketing division of Rev Entertainment to explore a valuation of the league’s naming rights, reports SBJ’s Ben Portnoy. The market valuation is expected to center on categories such as broadcast, earned media and in-person opportunities.  Rev, which serves as the official events partner of the MLB’s Rangers and has myriad clients throughout the DFW Metroplex, is expected to provide guidance throughout the sales process and assist in developing a partnership framework. Conference naming rights have become an increasingly popular discussion around college athletics in recent months as the Big 12, American Athletic Conference and Mountain West have each kicked the tires around the idea in varying capacities, along with C-USA.

Evolv is looking to move past a string of recent bad headlines to continue deploying its tech at sports venuesEvolv

Evolv, the frictionless security tech company whose systems are deployed in 40 sports venues and was named SBJ’s Fan Experience Technology of the Year, has made some undesirable headlines during the past year, such as last week when it announced CFO Mark Donohue and four other employees resigned or were terminated because of an internal investigation into the publicly traded company’s financial reporting practices. As Evolv awaits to see how the post-internal investigation clear-out assuages clients and shareholders’ concerns, SBJ’s Bret McCormick explores what’s next for the embattled firm.

This week’s SBJ Facilities newsletter also covers:

New BSE Global division to explore niche membership offerings

A national architecture firm focused on racquet sports? Um, yes

Independent baseball’s Oakland Ballers zeroing in on a fan to join its board

Would you eat this?

A big idea

With her first Media Innovators conference in the books, SBJ’s Mollie Cahillane is still reflecting over how much the sports media industry has shifted over the last few years. With several pieces of big news breaking immediately ahead of the event — such as WBD and the NBA settling their lawsuit and Comcast spinning off its cable nets — there was much to discuss.

This week’s SBJ Media newsletter from Cahillane and Rachel Axon also covers:

Pac-12 Enterprises to play key role in media rights talks

Culxtured aims to leverage increased attention on the Paralympics

The 2024 NWSL Championship drew a record 967,900 average viewers on CBS in prime time Saturday night, marking an 18% increase from 2023 (816,800) and a 6% jump from 2022 (915,000), reports SBJ’s Mollie Cahillane.

Learfield hired George Scott as president of Sidearm Sports, writes SBJ’s Ben Portnoy. He will oversee business strategy, operational management and client satisfaction.

Crypto.com is coming on board as the title sponsor for the golf competition next month between Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, notes SBJ’s Josh Carpenter.

Sportradar will use generative AI to create personalized audio advertisements for sportsbook operators, reports SBJ’s Ethan Joyce.

Fan data platform StellarAlgo launched a new feature called Segment Automations, giving customers the capability to automate messaging for different cross sections of their fan bases, writes Joyce.

For the first time, Dana White last week revealed at Media Innovators conference that his potential foray into boxing would be done with TKO Group Holdings, notes SBJ’s Adam Stern.

General Motors and financier Dan Towriss’ company will pay a $450 million expansion fee to get into F1, writes Stern.