Latest news with #Rockers
Axios
16-07-2025
- Business
- Axios
WNBA expansion teams are entering a league transformed
When Cleveland's WNBA team takes the court in 2028, it will enter a league vastly different from the one the Rockers unceremoniously exited in 2003. Why it matters: This time around, the yet-to-be-named team — along with forthcoming expansion teams in Toronto, Portland, Detroit and Philadelphia — can expect a larger fan base, bigger paychecks and brighter spotlights. The big picture: Ownership groups in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia each ponied up $250 million to secure expansion teams announced earlier this month, record-breaking sums that speak to the explosive growth of a league that was once a backwater and a laughingstock. It's now the hottest brand in pro sports. Owners who in the early aughts struggled to find investors for their distressed assets are now clambering for a piece of a rapidly expanding pie. Driving the news: This weekend's WNBA All-Star Game will feature Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark — one of the biggest reasons for the league's surging popularity — captaining a team on her home court, though she is questionable to play after an injury Tuesday. The 18,000-seat Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis sold out within hours. Flashback: In 2003, the Cleveland Rockers' average attendance was 7,400 per game, a stat juiced by discounted and complimentary tickets. The Rockers were one of the WNBA's eight charter franchises, but failed to turn a profit in each of their seven seasons. Team owner Gordon Gund, who also owned the NBA's Cavaliers, cut ties shortly after that season, and the team folded when Gund and the WNBA were unable to find local investors to assume ownership. Between the lines: Gund was not alone. The WNBA had surfed a cresting wave of enthusiasm for women's sports after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but for years was unable to capture sports fans' sustained attention and spending power. Even the dynastic Houston Comets, who won the WNBA's first four championships, couldn't attract investors at an asking price of $12 million after the league took over the team in 2007. It folded a year later, to the dismay of its former stars. Fast forward: The landscape couldn't be more different today, as the WNBA monetizes the success of magnetic college superstars like Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers. It's now the fifth-most popular league nationwide, behind only the men's big four leagues: the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. Last year, the WNBA signed a lucrative media rights deal that will reportedly net it $200 million per year. Zoom in: Cavaliers CEO Nic Barlage told reporters in a press conference last week that the record-setting 2024 Women's Final Four in Cleveland was a good sign that the city was ready for a WNBA franchise. "Every key performance indicator we've looked at over the last three years has this trajectory that you haven't seen in and around a sports asset in quite some time," he said. "What was even more important to us was the way that communities engage with these assets. They really wrap their arms around these teams." What's next: Cities are doubling down on their investments with ancillary developments like practice facilities for their WNBA teams.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will Cleveland's new WNBA team be the Rockers? How did it earn an expansion franchise?
This has been a historic week in the WNBA. In one day, the league announced three new expansion teams, from the 13 playing now, to 18 by 2030. It continues up-and-to-the-right growth for the W since 2020. The first franchise which will begin play among those three franchises is in Cleveland in 2028. This marks the WNBA's return to the city, where the Cleveland Rockers were one of the eight original teams before they disbanded in 2003. Advertisement If the early interest in tickets is any indication, Cleveland seems ready for a WNBA team again. Nic Barlage, the CEO of Rock Entertainment Group, which owns the new franchise and the Cavaliers, said they already had more than 3,100 season ticket deposits as of Wednesday morning. It is the culmination of what he said was a process that began three years ago as the company grew more interested and invested in women's sports as part of its portfolio of sports properties. Barlage spoke to about how Cleveland got a WNBA team, why it bid for one, whether it'll bring the Rockers name back, and why he feels it was the right time to invest in a WNBA franchise. Congrats on the new WNBA team coming to Cleveland. Obviously, this has all been a long time in the making. Can you walk me through how you guys landed this team? As we were looking at our portfolio, we really started to see the momentum and the movement that was happening around women's sports, and so we partnered with the WTA 250 event here locally, called Tennis in the Land, which we've had a wonderful experience with. We're actually more of the sales and execution agency for them. We were part of the NWSL bid to bring women's professional soccer to Cleveland. Ultimately, that wasn't successful, but it was a great learning for us. But internally, through all these partnerships and endeavors, we've really been focused on the WNBA. Advertisement Our chairman, Dan Gilbert, has a deep, deep, deep, profound passion for basketball, and we have a deep, profound passion for leveling the playing field, if you will, and providing equal opportunity for both men and women. Our Cavs youth academy, which is 60,000 kids across the state of Ohio, upstate New York, Western (Pennsylvania). The largest growing segment of that has been young girls, who've been growing about 30 percent in participation rates year over year for the last two or three years. And so we noticed all this convergence of all of these things coming together. When we hosted the women's Final Four in 2024, it was historic viewership. We sold out the tournament in the fastest it's ever sold out. … Obviously we had a lot of unique opportunities in hosting Caitlin Clark and the undefeated University of South Carolina Dawn Staley-led Gamecocks. But all those things kind of said, alright, we're going to push our chips all in on something. When we push our chips all in on something, especially with having the backing of Dan and all that he thinks about, dreams about, and the vision that he has, this crystallized pretty quickly. And from there it just got down to how we wanted to execute the bid, and how big and bold we can make it. The bidding process for this latest round seemed to get pretty frothy. There was, I think, the most intense interest I've seen in getting a WNBA team to date. When did you guys find out that you had landed a team? And what do you think put you over the top? We found out right around (NBA) All-Star in February, maybe a little bit after that was the final confirmation. Obviously, there's a lot you have to work through once you're kind of selected. You've got legal documents, those kinds of things. But from our perspective, we think it's very symbolic of the Midwest. We think Cleveland is a city on the rise. We think we had such a great run in the early 1900s, we went through some tough times, and now we're kind of back in a bold way. Advertisement And if you study Cleveland at all, what people realize is sports and entertainment is really leading the resurgence and creating the momentum in this community. When we throw the ball in the air in April 2028 or May of 2028, Dan and the Gilbert family will have invested $1.1 billion in sports and entertainment infrastructure. Not like buying teams and moving them here, but like real infrastructure in Northeast Ohio. And so when you start to think about the infrastructure we have, the fan base that is unrelentingly passionate about sports. We were the most ready-made bid. So is it going to be the Cleveland Rockers 2.0? It's a great question. We're not going to commit to a brand identity at this point. We love the history of the Rockers, obviously, being one of the original eight. But at this stage in the process, we are absolutely going to have a dimension of our brand and our intellectual property that will pay homage to the Rockers, but we want to be very considerate of where Cleveland is going, where our fan base is going, as opposed to where it's been. And so for us, it's a little bit of that balance. Like paying honor and homage to the past while really focused on our bright future. And so from that perspective, we're going to go through a pretty intensive, thoughtful, inclusive process over the next six months. Advertisement Just trying to read a little bit into what you're saying, it sounds like it won't be the Rockers … No, I didn't say that. The Rockers will definitely be an option. The Rockers will definitely be a part of the mix of the options we look at. We just don't know if that's the right move for us yet. We haven't been able to publicly talk about this for a long time. We want to embrace the community. We want to be inclusive of their thoughts and their insights before we just pick a path, but Rockers will absolutely be under consideration. The reason I ask is — you guys might be the Rockers, you might not. The Portland expansion team looks like it's leaning towards bringing the Fire name back. I don't know if Detroit will be the Shock as well. But there is some nostalgia coating for some of these new WNBA teams. Do you think reboots can work for WNBA teams now, bringing back a less successful but sepia-toned era of the league? I absolutely think retro works. I think it can work depending on the situation. But I think for us, there's such a new fan base here in Cleveland. Cleveland has a different vibe to it now. They have a different vibrancy to the city. The communities that are going to be attracted to this demographic of this product, they might even look a little bit different or be a bit more involved. And so we just want to make sure, like I said, we're being thoughtful and inclusive of that. I would never commit to that without getting real data and getting real insights. Honestly, I could speak to the other markets, it would be irresponsible. Advertisement Were you surprised the W went to three teams in the end? Did you think it would be just the 16 teams and were you surprised that they went all the way up to 18? No, I wasn't. As you look at it, whenever this much interest — and this much interest is being met by a real business performance … When I was doing an interview the other day, I mentioned there was a Sunday night Fever and Sky game, I think it may have been about a month ago, on a Sunday, it did 1.7 million viewers. I think Yankees-Red Sox hit 1.3 million viewers. When you're seeing this much insatiable demand for something, I wasn't surprised at all. When the league is led by commissioner (Cathy) Engelbert, and obviously is a part of the broader NBA family led by (NBA commissioner) Adam Silver and (NBA deputy commissioner) Mark Tatum, they're very thoughtful about these things. They put a lot of strategy and rigor into it. And so when they came back into three teams, and all three already had NBA infrastructure wrapped around them, it made a lot of sense. And by the way, they're great cities. They're great markets. I think it made a lot of sense. Advertisement You mentioned the NBA infrastructure. I think it's been unmissable that five of the six expansion teams in the last three years, or six of the six, depending how you want to do your accounting practices, have gone to owners with NBA ties. Do you think that's been intentional? Is there something that has given NBA ownership groups who want a WNBA team a leg up in that process? Are NBA owners the best served to own and run WNBA teams right now? Our thesis on this is . And I think Adam shares a similar thesis. We have commercial infrastructure. We have administrative infrastructure. We have marketing infrastructure. We have venues, right? And so when you start thinking about the infrastructure we can wrap around these assets — and by the way, we have decades of institutional knowledge of how to operate them, both on the business side, but also on the basketball side. There's no doubt there's nuances and there's differences across the board, but, yeah, I think it's very intentional in regards to how the league is expanding. An existing NBA owner is also a minority owner of the WNBA in the current financial structure. So there's a lot of incentive from our perspective to be a part of the growth of the WNBA, and I think Adam is really driving that in partnership with Cathy. The $250 million expansion fee is a really interesting number. It's obviously the largest in WNBA history, and five times more than what the Golden State group paid to get the Valkyries. I've been reporting on WNBA expansion for a while, and there was kind of this apprehension about even getting to $50 million back in 2022. Interested investors didn't know if it would be worth it, if the business of a team and the league could support that kind of valuation. And now you have three teams, three ownership groups, paying that $250 million. There were more than 10 bidders, if I remember correctly. Why did you think that that kind of expansion fee was worth it? And why do you think valuations have risen so much? I won't confirm the fee, but what I will say is, from our chairman, Dan, throughout the entire organization, we have a firm belief that money and numbers, they don't lead, they follow in situations like this. And we look at being the 16th team as being very much still an early mover. When you look at minority stakes that have been reported, that have been sold, whether it's for the Liberty, whether it's for the Seattle Storm in the last couple of months, we think this is an early-mover type of situation, and one that we're fully embracing. Advertisement Once again, it wasn't driven by the money and the numbers. It was driven by the impact we can make in our community, also the trajectory of the game. I mentioned the viewership earlier, but if you look at all the major key performance indicators across the league: attendance, viewership, merchandise, sales — everything is on this rocket ship type of trajectory. So for us, it was about how fast can we get involved and how quickly can we build a platform that inspires the next generation of young girls and young women across the entire state of Ohio and throughout our region? It also is another dimension. We own a local sports network in Rock Entertainment Sports Network. It's another dimension for us to be able to host on there as well. It's a key component and a key asset of this portfolio and this broader platform that we've been building for quite some time now, and it's the perfect complement. So when you have those types of dynamics, you do your diligence, you make sure you're being responsible with the financial resources that you're deploying. But we are firm believers that the best days of this league are in front of us. … If this thing gets to 25, 30 teams, which we think it will, that is all green field opportunity in regards to expansion of regular-season games, expansion of playoff games, expansion of media rights. What you're seeing right now is the fundamental and foundational return of the WNBA, and it's going to be a foundation that's going to launch it to new heights, sustainable heights. I know there's some owners out there that are aspiring for billion-dollar valuations over a period of time, we fully support that. But once again, for us, it's not about the money and the numbers, it's about the impact that we can create, and we think that impact will lead to much higher trajectories of valuation as we go forward. I was going to ask if you think a billion-dollar valuation for a WNBA team might be possible in the future, but maybe I'm setting my sights too low. Look, anytime you have viewership that is hitting these levels, anytime you have attendance that is hitting these levels, and you have a very finite amount of assets, this becomes a scarcity investment at the end of the day. When you have that type of scarcity and that type of stickiness and that type of growth, great things can happen. Advertisement This article originally appeared in The Athletic. WNBA, Sports Business 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BREAKING: The WNBA announces expansion teams in these three cities
Good news for WNBA fans, as the franchise is now set to add three new cities to the league. Starting in 2028, Cleveland will be the first city added to the league. The next year, in 2029, Detroit will follow suit. Finally, in 2030, Philadelphia will round out the expansion of the league. Advertisement The news follows the 2026 expansions of Portland and Toronto Tempo, with the Golden State Valkyries having debuted in 2025. As for Detroit and Cleveland, this revives a yet-to-be-named teams for each of them, with Cleveland reviving the Rockers that started in 1997 and Detroit reviving the legacy the Shock founded in 1998. 'This is a huge win for Detroit and the WNBA,' Gores, who will be the controlling owner of the new franchise, said in a statement to the Detroit Free Press. 'Today marks the long-hoped-for return of the WNBA to a city with deep basketball roots and a championship tradition." Advertisement 'The demand for women's basketball has never been higher, and we are thrilled to welcome Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia to the WNBA family,' WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told AP News. 'This historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league's extraordinary momentum, the depth of talent across the game, and the surging demand for investment in women's professional basketball.' The investors for each group paid a $250 million expansion fee, and each of the teams are expected to invest more money in practice facilities and similar amenities. The Detroit and Cleveland teams are expected to play in the NBA arenas that currently exist, while Philadelphia is hopeful their new planned building will be done by 2030. Advertisement In a comment to AP News, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment Managing Partner and co-founder, Josh Harris, said, "We tell tell the city it's going to open in 2031. We're hoping for 2030. So we're trying to underpromise and overdeliver." Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia also outbid cities like St. Louis, Denver, and Nashville for spots in the league. 'We didn't know the demand would be where the demand ended up when we ran the process last fall into the winter,' Engelbert said. 'Given the very high demand and supply, we wanted to evaluate, too, because we're very careful about, you know, making sure we're balancing the number of roster spots, the number of teams. But one thing I'm very struck by as we get into a new media deal, as the media market evolves, you know, being in these three big basketball cities is going to help from a media perspective, a corporate partners perspective.' With the proximity of the cities to each other, they're also expected to create a natural rivalry that will hopefully help keep fans on the edges of their seats. This article originally appeared on Pride: BREAKING: The WNBA announces expansion teams in these three cities
Hypebeast
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Noskin's Latest Collection Reworks Subculture Uniforms for a New Generation
Summary Melbourne labelNoskinis proof that rebellion never really goes out of style; it just evolves. Founded by former musicianTony Corrales, the brand merges classic silhouettes with the raw energy of subcultural history, crafting pieces that are timeless, subversive and quietly confrontational. Noskin's design language was built on punk ideals and refined craftsmanship—a meeting of worlds that reflects Corrales' own journey from London and LA's music scenes to Melbourne's fashion underground. The latest drop, 'Wildest Ones Yet,' leans into that ethos with intention. Inspired by the infamous 1960s Brighton Beach Riots between Mods and Rockers, the collection reinterprets that cultural clash through sharp tailoring and gritty details: cropped blazers with raw-edge patches, graphic shirts and button-ups with unfinished hems channel both the polish of the Mods and the rough rebellion of Rockers. Operating from a studio-store tucked away in Melbourne's inner north, Noskin keeps things intentionally off-radar. But with nearly every piece from 'Wildest Ones Yet' selling out, the label's moment in the spotlight feels inevitable, offering subcultural edge, minus the nostalgia trap. Head toNoskin's official websitefor a closer look at their other offerings.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Angels purchase Edwards' contract
HIGH POINT — The Los Angeles Angels have purchased the contract of High Point Rockers first baseman Evan Edwards. Edwards, a former standout at Southern Guilford and N.C. State, leads the Atlantic League with 13 home runs, 43 RBIs and a .375 batting average. Edwards is riding a 15-game hitting streak, which ties for the longest in club history. Advertisement Edwards was a fourth-round pick by the Miami Marlins in 2019. He spent one year with Miami before joining Tampa Bay for three seasons, reaching Triple-A Durham in 2023. Edwards is the fourth Rocker whose contract has been purchased by an MLB team this year and the 43rd player in Rockers history. Since the start of spring training, Peter Solomon has joined the Cubs, Luke Napleton has joined the Twins and Jacob Edwards has joined the Reds. ROCKERS WIN AT CHARLESTON CHARLESTON, W. Va. — The High Point Rockers won 6-2 against the Charleston Dirty Birds in Atlantic League baseball Thursday at Charleston's GoMart Ballpark. Advertisement Max Viera homered in a two-hit, three-RBI performance for High Point (22-8), which has won five of its last six games. Drew Mendoza and Cody Wilson, who drove in a run, each added two hits. DJ Burt and Jack Conley, who doubled, each had a hit and an RBI. The Rockers scored twice in the second and once in the fifth and led the rest of the way. Starting pitcher Matt Solter earned the win, striking out eight in six shutout innings.
