ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:00:39
Guard/forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton joined the team after it moved to Brooklyn in 2020. So what was it like in those early days at Barclays versus now? It was a little quieter. COVID was still very much a thing and something to be cautious of, and so we didn't have as many fans. The top level was--
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:00:55
Closed down. Yeah, it was closed down. And so to see where we are now, like everybody's fighting to even just be there.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:01:04
Success that's been credited to owners Clara Wu Tsai and her husband, Joseph Tsai, who bought the Liberty in 2019. The team had been playing 30 miles outside of Manhattan in a desperate cost-cutting measure. It was playing to really small crowds in a little gym that sat 2,000 people, and all the business metrics were going in the wrong direction.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:01:25
The couple put the team front and center in their Brooklyn stadium, Barclays Center, investing in state of the art facilities, science-backed training, and a powerhouse roster. It paid off in 2024.
ANNOUNCER:
00:01:38
28 years in the making--
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:01:41
When the Liberty won it all, the first New York pro basketball championship in 50 years. I remember when you were on the court after the win. Look what can happen when you have an intention and you put resources and care and attention to it. It gave me chills at the time. What was the message you were trying to deliver? I think if there's anything that the Liberty is a case study for, if you do invest with the same level of seriousness and ambition that you do with men's teams, that you can produce a championship team and a team that puts out a product that's just as good as anything out there in professional sports.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:02:19
And the business world wants in. Three new WNBA teams were added in the last year, and three more teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia, are planned for the next four years. Despite the strides that the Liberty and the WNBA have made, there are still so many inequalities in terms of pay, in terms of viewership, sponsorships. What do you think it will take to level the playing field? Well, I think a really great first step was this collective bargaining agreement that we just signed.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:02:46
The new agreement increases salary caps to $7 million per team, up from $1.5 million teamwide last year. The average player salary goes from $120,000 a year to nearly $600,000. Still, the average NBA player earns nearly 20 times that, more than $10 million a year. How does the business work in terms of where the money comes from for the salaries? Is it-- Media deal. It's the media deal. Exactly. So media is the most important revenue factor, and the way that you can increase the value of your media deal is by growing your fan base.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:03:25
They're also growing the future. With the NBA Nets, the Liberty opened the high-tech Brooklyn Basketball training center for kids right across the street. What do you want to be when you grow up? Definitely a basketball player. Like, definitely.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:03:39
Nine-year-old Avalon Wilson Wagner is a super fan. Her family has season tickets, and her mother, Tirtzah, was at the very first Liberty game in 1997. When I was growing up, I loved basketball, but there was no WNBA. And so getting to do it with her, share it with her now, it's so special. To her, women's sports are normal.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:04:01
For now, the Liberty is focused on one thing, another title. Is there ever too many championships? No, I don't think so. No, I don't think you can ever have too many championships. I mean, it's like you get one. It's just like, OK. We need more.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:04:14
You get a taste. BETNIJAH LANEY-HAMILTON: You get a taste. And the investment only continues. They're building an $80-million training facility in Brooklyn. We have some video of it. It is gorgeous. They're going to have private suites inside. It looks like a luxury hotel--
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS:
00:04:30
That's awesome.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:04:31
--in the locker rooms. Each person will have their own room.
GAYLE KING:
00:04:33
Clara is such a boss, though, what she's doing with the Liberty and the team itself. The games are electric when you go.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:04:38
There's something about Liberty games, right? You guys have all been. It's a party. It really is. I love going to those games. Look at that. Oh! Women's sports are normal. Adriana, thank you very much.
