{"id":371511,"date":"2025-11-11T12:24:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/371511\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T12:24:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:24:19","slug":"wnba-rival-league-makes-funding-announcement-after-5b-target-amid-aim-to-attract-caitlin-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/371511\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA rival league makes funding announcement after $5B target amid aim to attract Caitlin Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Project B is getting ready to shake up women’s basketball in 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The competition is a five-on-five women’s basketball league that is set to debut in November 2026, and it has already begun signing some of the WNBA<\/a>‘s best players.<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark endured an injury-ravaged season, which may have impacted her offseason plansCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Former WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike announced last week that she has signed with Project B.<\/p>\n

While she is the only WNBA player who has announced her involvement publicly, it’s reported that several other players from the league have also signed up.<\/p>\n

The WNBA calendar and the proposed competition dates of Project B do not overlap. <\/p>\n

The league is looking for 66 players to make six teams of 11 and is offering salaries that stump current WNBA contracts.<\/a><\/p>\n

While finances have not been confirmed, reports claim that players are being offered seven-figure contracts that begin at $2 million annually. <\/p>\n

How is Project B being funded?<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, The Financial Times reported<\/a> that an upstart international baseball league codenamed Project B was being backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.<\/p>\n

The league had an investment target of $5 billion, a goal that makes sense when considering it wants to host events across Asia, Europe and South America.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it will need lucrative contract offers to appeal to the WNBA’s biggest stars like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark<\/a>, the latter of which is perhaps the most prized asset in women’s basketball.<\/p>\n

Later that year, it was confirmed there were also athletes like Candace Parker, Alana Beard and Novak Djokovic<\/a> as investors. <\/p>\n

However, ex-Facebook executive and co-founder of the league, Grady Burnett, confirmed to reporters last week that there is no money coming from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\"Caitlin<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Clark joining any offseason league would massively increase the amount of eyeballs on the competitionCredit: GETTY\"Angel<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Fellow WNBA star Angel Reese has yet to announce her offseason plansCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building a global basketball league, so we want a global diversified cap table around us,\u201d Burnett told Front Office Sports. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t include any dollars from Saudi Arabia.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she did confirm that a Saudi Arabian company named Sela is involved in Project B.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have partnerships with a lot of companies around the world,\u201d Burnett added. <\/p>\n

\u201cSela is one event partner that we pay money to. We do not have any dollars coming from them. It\u2019s a wholly owned subsidiary based in London that has done a ton of events globally, including the most recent big boxing events, the America\u2019s Cup, a bunch of other global sporting events. <\/p>\n

“They are a global partner of many people around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Caitlin<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark is returning to action this month, but on a golf courseCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Project B will be in direct competition with Unrivaled, as it plans to run from November through April.<\/p>\n

Unrivaled, is another off-season women’s basketball league<\/a>, which takes place between January and March, and had its first edition earlier this year. <\/p>\n

As it stands, it seems that Project B has the advantage when it comes to financials, with its seven-figure contracts much higher than the average contract of $220,000<\/a> that was handed to Unrivaled players earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Stay up to date with the latest from the WNBA across all platforms – follow our dedicated\u00a0talkSPORT USA Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0and subscribe to our\u00a0talkSPORT USA YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Project B is getting ready to shake up women’s basketball in 2026 The competition is a five-on-five women’s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":371512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[233,178971,152287,59707,178969,171745,1497,234,178970,178973,178978,178976,178977,62,67,132,3506,68,178972,178974,178979,232,178975,171740,171739,171750,1706],"class_list":{"0":"post-371511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-caitlin-clark","9":"tag-caitlin-clark-golf","10":"tag-caitlin-clark-indiana-fever","11":"tag-caitlin-clark-injury","12":"tag-caitlin-clark-lpga","13":"tag-caitlin-clark-news","14":"tag-chicago-sky","15":"tag-indiana-fever","16":"tag-is-caitlin-clark-playing-in-unrivaled","17":"tag-project-b","18":"tag-project-b-caitlin-clark-contract","19":"tag-project-b-contracts","20":"tag-project-b-salaries","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unrivaled","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-what-is-project-b-angel-reese","27":"tag-when-does-the-wnba-start","28":"tag-where-is-caitlin-clark","29":"tag-wnba","30":"tag-wnba-2026","31":"tag-wnba-cba","32":"tag-wnba-contracts","33":"tag-wnba-salaries","34":"tag-wnba-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}