Women's sports expansion fees have exploded. How expensive are they?

Two new WNBA teams began play this past weekend: the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire. When those franchises were announced in 2024, their reported expansion fees were among the highest in women’s professional sports history ($50 million for Toronto and $75 million for Portland). But in the two years since, expansion fees have skyrocketed.

In 2025, the NWSL announced a pair of clubs in Denver and Atlanta. Denver’s fee was listed at $110 million, while Atlanta reached $165 million.

In the WNBA last year, a trio of franchises was announced in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Per Sportico, each franchise paid a record sum of $250 million.

And then finally, the NWSL announced in April 2026 that a new club would be formed in Columbus for the league’s 18th franchise. Per reports, Columbus’ fee sat at $205 million, a record for the NWSL.

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Compared to its men’s counterpart, the WNBA’s $250 million fees are just behind what the NBA’s Toronto and Vancouver expansion franchises dished out in 1993 and 1994. The NBA’s Canadian pairing paid $125 million each, or around $275 million in June 2025 dollars.

The latest WNBA fees far outstrip those of earlier NBA expansion teams. In the 1980s, four franchises (Charlotte, Miami, Minnesota, and Orlando) paid $32.5 million. Adjusted for inflation, that per-team fee is still only $93 million.