New World League Plans Fall 2026 Launch As NBA Stars Present Curiosity In Fairness Stakes

Challenge B, a brand new international basketball enterprise, will launch a ladies’s league subsequent fall that includes six groups taking part in tournaments throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas, co-founder Grady Burnett informed The Athletic. Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ enterprise associate, is not concerned regardless of preliminary hypothesis about his function.

A number of sources near NBA star gamers indicated real curiosity in regards to the enterprise, with gamers and brokers drawn by the prospect of incomes more cash and receiving fairness stakes unavailable within the NBA. Carter’s departure may considerably influence these discussions.

The ladies’s league will function 11 gamers per group competing in seven two-week tournaments from November by way of April. Former WNBA star Alana Beard will function chief basketball officer, whereas Candace Parker, Steve Younger, Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens are among the many traders and advisors.

Burnett, a former Google and Fb govt, confirmed Challenge B has already signed WNBA gamers and begun negotiations with further stars. Salaries are anticipated to be “multiples larger” than present WNBA compensation, with gamers additionally receiving fairness stakes within the league.

“The expansion in ladies’s sports activities rivals something in AI proper now,” Burnett mentioned. “It’s really majestic.”

The league will likely be headquartered in Singapore and partnered with Sela, an leisure firm owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund. Burnett and co-founder Geoff Prentice, a Skype co-founder, started growing the idea two years in the past.

Burnett didn’t rule out increasing into males’s basketball, doubtlessly as quickly as subsequent fall. Nonetheless, NBA commonplace contracts bar gamers from competing in different leagues whereas underneath contract.

“We’ll deal with the ladies’s facet at this level,” Burnett mentioned. “I feel it is pure to imagine that we’ll do different issues after that.”

A spokesperson for Carter mentioned he offered session months in the past however is not working with Challenge B or any European basketball league. A number of sources informed The Athletic that individuals with NBA backgrounds have interviewed for positions within the new enterprise.