From $10M Afterthought to $425M Leader: How Seattle Storm Flipped Women’s Sports

Posted on by

(SeaPRwire) –

By: Logan Pierce

Strip away all the “Seattle basketball revival” PR fluff. This isn’t just a heartwarming underdog sports story. It’s a concrete case study in how undervalued assets can outperform every expectation when run by people who believe in their product. For decades, everyone wrote off WNBA teams as charity projects or side hobbies attached to men’s NBA franchises. The Seattle Storm flipped that entire script from the day local investors bought it.

Back in 2001, Howard Schultz’s group bought both the Sonics and Storm for $200 million total. The Storm was just the tail to the Sonics’ dog. The Sonics left for Oklahoma City in 2008 over an arena dispute. A group of local businesswomen led by Ginny Gilder bought the Storm for just $10 million, 5% of the original two-team price tag. Gilder had no deep basketball knowledge, but she had a lifetime of fighting for equity in women’s sports.

Over 20 years, the Storm won four WNBA championships all with Sue Bird, who joined the ownership group in 2024 after retiring in 2022. Today the franchise is worth an estimated $425 million, ranking top five among the WNBA’s 13 teams. The league as a whole has seen values skyrocket along with its growing popularity. Now the NBA is eyeing bringing the SuperSonics back to Seattle as early as 2028, with One Roof Sports Entertainment lined up as potential owners.

Most industry observers assume a returning Sonics will cannibalize the Storm’s fanbase. That’s the standard take when a bigger men’s franchise moves into a market long held by a women’s team. But that misses the entire dynamics of what the Storm built in Seattle. The Storm didn’t just hang around waiting for the Sonics to come back. It built the entire modern basketball culture of the city from scratch. It cultivated a loyal fan base that cares about more than just big-name men’s basketball.

Seattle University marketing professor Natalie Welch points out the Sonics will actually boost the Storm. New Sonics tickets will be hard to get for years, so many new basketball fans will turn to the Storm for live games. That said, growth isn’t without risk. The WNBA is expanding fast, adding Toronto and Portland this year, with three more teams coming by 2030. Longtime fans love the WNBA’s less corporate vibe. As more big money and sponsors flood in, keeping that core fan base happy will be the biggest test.

Seattle will end up as the first proof point that two pro basketball teams can both win big in one market.

Author bio: Logan Pierce, independent business writer covering sports business and consumer trends on Medium.