Unrivaled traveled to Philadelphia Friday and truly put on a show. The women's professional 3x3 basketball league brought in 21,490 to the Xfinity Mobile Arena — an attendance number that smashed regular-season women's basketball attendance records in any venue in the history of the sport.
That's a major win for the league, which has battled suggestions its season two viewership numbers mean there's less interest than last year, and it's also a wake up call for the WNBA. Fans are proving they want to watch elite women's basketball anywhere, and these attendance numbers suggest those events don't have to have the stamp of the WNBA to be popular.
Unrivaled hosted a two-day event in Philly
The two-day event began Thursday in Philadelphia, where the league's players hosted a community event and clinic in the city. Friday introduced a double-header between the Phantom and Breeze and the Lunar Owls and Rose.
The trip was the first time the league has traveled outside of its home base in Miami, Florida, and was also the first professional women's basketball game in Philadelphia since 1998. The popularity of the game bodes well for the city, which will join the WNBA in 2030.
Unrivaled plans to travel more next season
The popularity of the event has inspired Unrivaled's team to travel even more next season. Co-founder Napheesa Collier celebrated the attendance win while speaking to reporters. "It's just a testament to what we're building here, how much people believe in it," she explained. "So to have the city show out like this, to break a record in all of women's professional basketball here tonight, and for it to be Unrivaled, I think it's just amazing. The future's Unrivaled."
The event also proved popular with the players themselves, many of whom said they definitely be open to traveling more with the league in the future.
The WNBA and WNBPA will meet Monday
The success of the event is likely to give the players of the WNBA a little more leverage on Monday, when members of the union are set to meet with representatives from the WNBA for the first time in weeks. The two parties are still negotiating terms of a new CBA; the most recent extension date lapsed on January 9. Since then, the players and the league have been operating in a period of status quo and have agreed to a moratorium on league business.