Is women’s basketball becoming more popular?
If so, eventually, these teams ought to start turning a profit and then the owners will make some money.
And eventually they could make some profits by selling these WNBA franchises.
I didn’t realize the NBA had been subsidizing the WNBA for so many years. Maybe those operating losses are a tax write off somehow?
Or the NBA owners want to show how enlightened they are by supporting women’s basketball, even though it cost them money?
The NBA may make up for it in the casual fan base of the NBA where you would find some women.
A Tax write off is still a loss of money net. If the parent Company is in the 35% tax bracket & makes $1,000,000 before taxes they would pay $350K in taxes but say that company has an 100% investment in a company that loses $400K they would only have to pay taxes on $600K and maybe that drops them into a 30% tax bracket then the taxes they would have to pay would be $180K. The company without the investment would net $650K after taxes, but the company with the losing investment would only net $420K. This is a simplistic example but in general losses do not generate addition savings in excess of the loss.
How to increase WNBA attendance:
Hire attractive non-lesbian women
Dress them in bikinis
Have frequent “wardrobe malfunctions”