bingewatches

Unrivaled tipped off its inaugural season this past weekend, as the new women’s 3-on-3 league saw all six of its teams play twice in their new Miami home. It was, by all accounts, a successful debut weekend. There were some exciting games — headlined by the opener between the league’s co-founders, as Napheesa Collier’s Lunar Owls beat Breanna Stewart’s Mist, 84-80 — the stars showed out, and fans seemed to enjoy the fast-flowing nature of the games.

While the inaugural season runs through March 17, the league is already thinking ahead to their second season, which will look to build on this first year. The hope is to keep adding stars, with Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson as the biggest names not currently signed on for the first season, while Paige Bueckers signed to an NIL deal and expected to play next year once she is a pro. If they can get more stars that might mean expansion beyond six teams, but while that’s still to be determined, what is already being worked out is how to take the league on the road next year.

Right now, all games are being played in Miami in their 850-seat arena built specifically for Unrivaled. Next year, the plan is to still have a home base but also take some games on the road to four cities, per The Athletic’s Ben Pickman.

This season, all 10 weeks of action take place at the Florida facility, but a tour model for competition is planned for next year. The locations are yet to be determined but Unrivaled is targeting non-WNBA cities and college towns. Bazzell said it wouldn’t visit more than four cities and the league will still have a home base. The operational cost, Bazzell said, would be similar as it’s likely only four teams would travel to a given stop. Important to maintaining a premier player experience, the league would use charter airfare to transport its players..

If I were to venture a guess, Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut, home of the UConn Huskies, would be a near lock for one of those trips with Paige Bueckers coming on board and the two co-founders of the league being Huskies legends. If Caitlin Clark joins, I have to imagine Iowa City would be a place they’d look to take a game, while other women’s college basketball strongholds in Columbia, SC, Knoxville, TN, and elsewhere figure to be on the short list of potential destinations for 2026 (and beyond).

Targeting college towns and non-WNBA cities makes a ton of sense, as you can allow fan bases to see some of their former stars back where their road to stardom began. Those games would be huge draws and would allow them to expand their footprint by bringing the league to fans who are already invested in women’s hoops. It certainly sounds like Unrivaled is approaching their early years with a very smart plan of not over-extending themselves (hence a 6-team launch) but has a very coherent and savvy plan on how to build on the early buzz and create even more for their second season and beyond.