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Sunday Edition

November 16, 2025

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This week might have been your first seeing major chatter in your social feeds about Project B. After Front Office Sports was first to report [[link removed]] many details about the upstart international basketball league in October, including its code name, the league has made more news and stoked more controversy. In the past week, it announced its first two player commitments, and they are well-known WNBA names: Nneka Ogwumike and Alyssa Thomas. One reaction to Project B in women’s basketball has been confusion, sources tell our Annie Costabile, with so little known about Project B’s funding. But it’s clearly putting pressure on the W.

— Daniel Roberts [[link removed]]

Project B Is Offering WNBA Stars Multimillion-Dollar Salaries [[link removed]]

Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

Women’s basketball has largely been ruled by two leagues for the past three decades.

Beginning in 1997, the WNBA had control of the summer and EuroLeague dominated the rest of the calendar. In recent years the landscape has become more crowded with two new U.S. leagues—Athletes Unlimited in 2022 and Unrivaled last year.

Now, a fourth major player is joining the fall, winter, and spring competition window. Project B— a new global basketball league [[link removed]]—officially announced its plans in October to host tournaments across Asia, Europe, and Latin America beginning in November 2026 and running through April 2027.

On Friday the league, founded by former Facebook executive Grady Burnett and Skype cofounder Geoff Prentice, announced that it had signed Seattle Storm star—and WNBPA president—Nneka Ogwumike as its first player.

Other WNBA players have already signed deals to play in Project B, multiple sources told Front Office Sports.

Those same sources said multiple stars are being offered seven-figure salaries starting at $2 million annually, with their earnings for multiyear deals reaching eight figures. In addition, players will receive equity in the league, similar to Unrivaled.

The questions everyone is asking in women’s basketball right now: How big of a threat is Project B? And to whom?

A number of WNBA executives told FOS the immediate reaction to the new 5-on-5 league, which will feature six teams of 11 players, is one of curiosity. While the season doesn’t come in direct competition with the WNBA calendar, multiple sources questioned whether the league could be an indirect threat to the WNBA in time, and suggested that some WNBA players could consider forgoing the season if CBA negotiations continue to go poorly.

It’s not unheard of: Diana Taurasi skipped the 2015 WNBA season to rest after playing for a Russian team in the offseason. UMMC Ekaterinburg paid her more than her $107,000 WNBA salary to sit out in 2015. Taurasi made $1.5 million playing for the Russian behemoth at the time.

In recent years, players like Emma Meesseman and Gabby Williams have missed time in the WNBA due to the league’s strict prioritization rules. Meesseman notably missed 2023 and 2024 while playing for the Belgian national team and Turkish club Fenerbahçe.

Multiple WNBA executives viewed the Ogwumike announcement—again, she is the WNBPA president—as an intentional move to exert pressure on labor negotiations. There was a similar feeling last year when union leaders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart cofounded Unrivaled. At the time, both players acknowledged [[link removed]] the start-up 3-on-3 league—complete with lucrative salaries and player amenities that were superior to those offered by several WNBA teams—came at a perfect time as negotiations for a new CBA were just beginning.

The WNBA and the union entered into a 30-day extension [[link removed]] last week, making Nov. 30 the updated deadline for a new CBA. The WNBA had no comment when asked about Project B’s potential impact on the league.

The most immediate threat Project B poses is to Unrivaled and foreign leagues that play in the WNBA offseason, as their seasons directly conflict.

Nearly 30 players in Unrivaled are signed to multiyear contracts. The league has exclusivity during its months of play, which could make them unavailable to sign with Project B, depending on the new 5-on-5 league’s allowances. EuroLeague, for example, has multiple clubs with players who are currently under contract but will leave to play in Unrivaled beginning in January.

It’s unclear whether Project B would make the same concession for its players.

“We’re confident with what we’ve built in collaboration with our athletes, partners, and investors,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell said in a statement to FOS. “We remain consistent in our approach to pay players competitively, provide a meaningful stake in the business, and keep them home year-round. We continue to be a player-first league that’s additive to the overall women’s basketball ecosystem and WNBA, and we look forward to building on the success from season one this upcoming January.”

A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Jonquel Jones, and DeWanna Bonner are among the biggest WNBA stars not currently signed to Unrivaled contracts. Other players like Sabrina Ionescu, Jewell Loyd, and Angel Reese played in Unrivaled’s inaugural season, but they are not on rosters for this winter.

Project B’s investor group includes a collection of WNBA champions in Candace Parker, Alana Beard, and Lauren Jackson, as well as tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens.

Beard, whose longstanding relationship with Ogwumike includes eight seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks, is also the league’s chief basketball officer. The league sought to raise $5 billion in funding, according to a Bloomberg report [[link removed]] at the beginning of the year, but it declined to share how much it actually raised when asked by FOS in October [[link removed]]. Maverick Carter, longtime business partner of LeBron James, was advising the group at one point but has since cut ties with the international league.

“We’re paying multiples higher than is available right now in the world of women’s sports,” Burnett told FOS last month. “We are paying the highest salaries and equity packages in women’s team sports, and this will be some of the best players in the world. We want this to be incredible basketball.”

Unrivaled paid its players an average salary of $220,000 in its inaugural season, but Bazzell said those numbers have increased without sharing specifics.

The WNBA’s current supermax salary is $249,244, with the lowest-paid players earning under $80,000 this past season. An October proposal from the league included a supermax closer to $850,000 and a veteran minimum around $300,000 [[link removed]]. The league and union have since exchanged proposals, meaning those numbers have likely changed.

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Project B Basketball League Says It Has No Saudi Funding [[link removed]]

Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Ever since the first reports about a planned upstart international basketball league code-named Project B, questions have swirled about where its money is coming from.

Last February, the Financial Times reported the effort was backed in part by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund [[link removed]]. In October, Front Office Sports broke the news [[link removed]] of the league’s temporary name and its list of athlete investors, including Candace Parker, Alana Beard, Novak Djokovic, and Steve Young. Maverick Carter, who was initially advising the venture, is no longer involved.

This week, WNBPA president and former WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike was the first player to sign with Project B. The news came as a surprise to many [[link removed]] in and around the WNBA, and raised questions about the league’s Saudi backing.

Project B cofounder Grady Burnett, a former Facebook executive, says Saudi Arabia is not a financial backer.

“We’re building a global basketball league, so we want a global diversified cap table around us,” Burnett told Front Office Sports. “That doesn’t include any dollars from Saudi Arabia.”

While Burnett denies Project B is funded in any way by Saudi Arabia, including in the form of promised money if the league hits certain investment thresholds, there is a connection: Sela, a subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, is an event partner of the league.

“We have partnerships with a lot of companies around the world,” Burnett said. “Sela is one event partner that we pay money to. We do not have any dollars coming from them. It’s a wholly owned subsidiary based in London that has done a ton of events globally, including the most recent big boxing events, the America’s Cup, a bunch of other global sporting events. They are a global partner of many people around the world.”

Representatives for Sela did not respond to a request for comment.

Following Ogwumike’s announcement, multiple WNBA sources questioned what it would mean for players to align in any way with Saudi Arabia, which has long been criticized for its human rights record.

One league source shared the opinion that it could limit the social impact players can have.

The WNBA has since its existence been considered an activist league. Throughout the course of its nearly three-decade-long history, players, executives, and coaches have used their platform to advocate for social justice issues ranging from marriage equality and LGBTQ+ rights, to police brutality, racial equality, and voting rights.

In 2020, the WNBA dedicated its entire season to Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker who was shot and killed by police in Louisville, Ky. That same season, the players united in an effort to help elect Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate as a response to his opponent Kelly Loeffler, then a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, calling for the WNBA to drop its support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Less than a year later, the Dream were sold to a new ownership group.

Project B declined to share how much capital the league has raised. The league initially sought to raise $5 billion, according to a report from Bloomberg [[link removed]] at the beginning of the year.

The league’s investors include Mangrove Capital, Quiet Capital, and Sequence Equity, along with a number of tech angel investors that Burnett said believe this league will have “tech-like promise and tech-like returns.”

The league, which will run from November through April beginning in 2026, is offering stars multimillion-dollar salaries [[link removed]], well above what they’re currently making in the WNBA. Players will also receive equity in the league. The WNBA supermax salary is $249,244 [[link removed]], with the lowest-paid players earning under $80,000.

Unrivaled [[link removed]], the 3-on-3 startup cofounded by WNBPA vice presidents Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, paid players an average salary of $220,000 in Year 1, plus equity. Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell said those salaries have risen, but declined to say by how much.

Project B plans to debut with six teams of 11 players that will play seven two-week tournaments across Asia, Europe, and Latin America. It also says it will launch a men’s tournament in the fall in concert with the women’s. Burnett declined to answer whether the league has signed any players for the men’s league.

NFL Abroad NFL Caps 7-Game International Slate With Spain Debut

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The NFL’s record seven-game international slate this season will conclude Sunday with the league’s debut contest in Spain.

The Commanders and Dolphins will square off in Madrid at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, which now has a capacity of more than 83,000 after completing a $1.5 billion renovation in 2024. Miami is the designated home team; it is also one of three NFL franchises with activation rights in Spain through the league’s Global Markets Program (along with the Bears and Chiefs).

Like other international matchups this season, Sunday’s game will include a larger-than-normal halftime show, with Bizarrap and Daddy Yankee taking the stage in Madrid.

Spain is the fourth European nation to host a regular-season NFL game (along with England, Germany, and Ireland), and will likely be in line to host more in the future, as the league continues chasing its international expansion goals of one day playing 16 games per season [[link removed]] outside the U.S.

This season’s seven games abroad are two more than the previous high of five in each of the previous three seasons:

São Paulo: Chiefs-Chargers Dublin: Vikings-Steelers London: Vikings-Browns (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium) London: Broncos-Jets (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium) London: Rams-Jaguars (Wembley Stadium) Berlin: Falcons-Colts Madrid: Commanders-Dolphins

In 2026, the NFL will make its debut in Australia [[link removed]], as the Rams host a to-be-determined opponent in Melbourne. The league is also hopeful it will return to Mexico City for the first time since 2022, as renovations at Azteca Stadium will finally be completed.

Rio de Janeiro will host its first NFL game as the league plays in Brazil [[link removed]] for a third consecutive year. Frankfurt or Munich, which have both previously hosted NFL games, will likely host Germany’s now-annual matchup [[link removed]] (Berlin, which debuted this month, will host again in 2027).

The NFL is expected to return to Ireland after September’s successful regular-season debut at Croke Park [[link removed]].

There could be as many as nine games outside the U.S. next season, since the league is allowed to schedule up to eight, and the Jaguars’ annual “home” game at Wembley Stadium does not count as one of those eight.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]]

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