This is no time for the WNBA to get complacent

There’s a lot to love about the state of the WNBA. Ratings, interest, revenue, skill level, all of it on the rise. But as the engine revs up for season No. 29, beginning with Monday night’s draft in New York, there are warning signs around the longest-running women’s professional league in history. From labor negotiations to league competition, from fan negativity to upheaval in the college pipeline, there is no room for complacency.

Start with the good. Come Monday, the league will welcome another transcendent college star, with newly crowned college champion Paige Bueckers anticipated to go No. 1 to the Dallas Wings.

A recent media rights deal valued at more than $2.2 billion over the next 11 years puts more than 125 games on Disney, Prime Video, and NBCUniversal. Other groundbreaking partnerships continue to be formed, such as the recently announced creation of “Rivalry Week,” which will be sponsored by new official banking partner Ally.

One expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries, begins play this season and two more, the Toronto Tempo and a yet-unnamed team in Portland, start in 2026. Ratings continue to rise, up more than 170 percent from 2023 to 2024 thanks in large part to the arrival of superstar Caitlin Clark, whose impact also influenced the highest average attendance in 22 years, which was up 48 percent from the previous year.

All of it reflects growth across the entire women’s sports landscape, while at the same time, speaking to the mainstay that the WNBA has been, the anchor still there after decades of fighting for its place in the game.

“We’re excited about this draft class, bringing energy, continuing the momentum, where our league is at and where women’s basketball is at,” said Curt Miller, the Wings’ general manager who joined a WNBA pre-draft conference call on Thursday. “For us who have been around — I’m a 35-year guy in the profession between Division 1 and the WNBA — I’ve always believed that we’ve had an incredible product. It was just how do we continue to get more and more eyes on our game and more and more people through the turnstiles to get into those games.

“It’s so popular right now, so it’s at a really good place. I’m excited about this draft class, keeping the momentum going and what is really, really special about our league.

“I like the depth of this league.”

Which brings us to the questions.

Is the league big enough to handle all the growth? Can it move quickly but wisely at the same time, answering to player needs such as finally arranging charter travel for all franchises while encouraging teams to keep up with updated, modern practice facilities and sufficient home arenas? Did the outsized attention, both positive and negative, on Clark teach the league anything last year?

As Miller said, “Our players deserve to be protected and amplified at the same time, really taken care of. It’s a players-first league. Our job all around the league is to create an incredible environment for these players.”

They are an exclusive group. As Rebecca Lobo put it early in that same call, “We talk every year about the difficulty of making a WNBA roster.” She is spot on, with new players flooding a yearly pool that has only 11 or 12 players per roster (the NBA, which plays a much longer season, has 15). While expansion seems like the simple, easy answer (and who wouldn’t love to see a franchise come to Boston via the Donnie Wahlberg/Michael Carter-Williams group?) it comes with its own caveats.

“It’s a great indication of the growth of the league, not only that there are so many cities interested in an expansion franchise, but that the value of those franchises has grown exponentially over the course of even the last decade,” Lobo said. “That’s exciting. But OK, how quickly can the league expand and still fill rosters with really competitive teams, with high-level basketball? That’s the balance that the WNBA is going to have to figure out.

“How quickly can the league expand while keeping it as competitive as it has been over the course of the last couple of decades?”

For this year, the problem has been partly solved by the high number of top talent electing to stay in college, players such as Olivia Miles (Notre Dame transfer to TCU), Azzi Fudd (UConn), Flau’jae Johnson (LSU), Lauren Betts (UCLA), and Ta’Niya Latson (Florida State but is transferring to South Carolina). Miles was projected by many as the No. 2 pick. But with options ever growing in college thanks to NIL money and open transfer portals, and with the WNBA players’ union already opting out of the existing CBA and anticipating a new, more lucrative salary structure with the next agreement, this year changed the calculus.

“It feels like there’s a great relationship now between the growth of the game on the college level and then into the WNBA, players can stay, build their brand, build a following at their school while still making a living that’s worthwhile for them to stay,” Lobo said. “It benefits the college game and it benefits the WNBA game.”

Both are on the rise, but it’s important to remember that keeping that true is not guaranteed.

Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her @Globe_Tara.