Ahhh…thanks for correcting my terminology. Maybe I misunderstood what you meant by business ops when you listed it as a fixed-adjacent cost in your earlier posts. I assumed you meant back office staff.

For shared staff, I was specific to the front office e.g. ticket sales, marketing, etc. not trainers. AFAIK those are team specific & the WNBA sets limits on things like bench coaches.

Re: arenas, economics depends on whether team owns facility & can bank on tkt sales (see Valkyries 22 sellouts).

Fair enough. That explains why so many WNBA teams are getting dedicated practice facilities.

My point is that there are a lot of blended costs and franchise-wide negotiations for contracts that create room for a very liberal expense allocation.

Much of the front office staff is shared. The old Warriors Oakland practice facility was sitting empty AFAIK before it was refurbished for the Valkyries. If you’re telling me that the Washington Wizards facilities were fully utilized by the NBA team in June despite their season ending in April fine.

Only if you calculate those expenses as being solely attributed to the WNBA franchise. But NBA-owned WNBA franchises largely share staff & facilities that would be underutilized or dormant during the NBA offseason. The WNBA charter costs would be negotiated as part of an annual franchise contract.

Also a revenue share that only kicks in after operating costs are covered, as the article states, is not a revenue share. Too little transparency on the expenses side of the books.

Thanks for this. Nneka’s podcast interview with Sue Bird was the 1st time I understood that the 9% of revenue share that has been quoted for the current CBA is really a fixed salary cap with % of revenue calculated after the fact. The question of expense allocation for NBA-owned WNBA teams is huge.

Appreciate your continued coverage. Enjoyed your reporting this season.

“The Golden State Valkyries’ Ohemaa Nyanin (10 ballots) finished in second place”

Not sure why the OP left this out. The Mercury GM came in third.

Was glad to see it. Guess that answers my earlier question.

Was hoping VB might get an Unrivaled nod. Does this mean that’s out?

Enjoyed the article. Fun team with the kind of heart and hustle that makes them easy to root for. Hope much of the squad returns.

You keep writing “MVP-to-be” and it feels like a record scratch. Post All-Star Break it’s a wide open race with many putting A’ja Wilson in the lead.

You got your upset. 🤞🏾 your probabilities hold. If they can get 2 wins in these next 3 home games, I think LAS will help them get the rest of the way.

Happens to the best of us. 👊🏾

Great story. Enjoyed the article but Natalie Nakase’s name was misspelled a few times which was distracting. Wanted to give you the heads up.

Article says Lacob paid franchise fee in 2013. Should be 2023.

It’s gonna sellout in 15 minutes. I’m not sure there’s enough training for that.