Unrivaled, a new professional women’s basketball league is preparing a “full-court press” to steal the WNBA’s most prized possession, Caitlin Clark.
According to a report from Front Office Sports (FOS), sources say the women’s 3-on-3 basketball league, co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, have been waiting for just the right time to make a play for Calrk, and they believe that time has come.
Executives at Unrivaled declined to press Clark amid her record-breaking rookie season in the WNBA. Instead, choosing to approach her when her mind was at least partially away from basketball and her schedule much less hectic. The start-up league also wanted to wait until it acquired a national television contract – which it did with TNT – before approaching women’s basketball’s biggest star.
“Get ready for the full-court press,” one source told FOS.
Unrivaled’s pitch to Clark will have to take a different path than most.
Equipped with an 8-year, $28 million deal with Nike, in addition to her growing list of other endorsements and her WNBA money, Unrivaled won’t likely be able to overwhelm Clark with a ludicrously rich contract. Instead, the new league must craft a message primarily appealing to Clark’s competitive side.
“Unrivaled is hoping the lure of a financial stake and the challenge of hooping against the world’s top 30 players will be enough to tempt the phenomenon, who can otherwise spend her off-seasons training, playing golf, and shooting commercials for her growing list of corporate sponsors that also includes Gatorade and State Farm,” FOS reports.
Of course, the WNBA has its own television deal, a $2.2 billion package with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime. However, one thing Unrivaled hopes to entice Clark with is a financial stake in the league. With the kind of ratings Clark can bring in – with a 45-game regular season schedule – her stake in the league could be worth quite a bit of money.
