As women’s basketball booms, Kansas City is finding itself back in the game
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas City will host a WNBA preseason game for the first time in over two decades.
- Unrivaled launched in 2025 as 3-on-3 league founded by Napheesa Collier & Breanna Stewart.
- Unrivaled leaders cited Kansas City as a priority market due to local roots and interest.
As women’s basketball continues its rapid rise in stature and popularity, leagues like Unrivaled are helping redefine the business side of the sport.
And metropolises like Kansas City, long on the outside looking in when it comes to pro hoops, are finding themselves back in the conversation — with momentum that’s beginning to feel real.
Kansas City will play host to a WNBA preseason game for the first time in over two decades on Monday when the Minnesota Lynx plays the Nigerian women’s national team at T-Mobile Center. This isn’t the first time the Lynx have visited KC for a game. The last time the WNBA played here was a preseason matchup between the Lynx and the Detroit Shock for the WNBA Southern Shoot-Out in 2005. “At the pinnacle of (the growth of women’s sports) by a landslide is women’s basketball,” said Alex Bazzell, co-founder and CEO of Unrivaled. “Kansas City's always been toward the top of our list of eventual spots that we want to go with Unrivaled,” he said. Bazzell and Luke Cooper, two Missouri natives, are helping build one of the newest ventures in the sport through Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women’s basketball league.
Co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart in 2025, Unrivaled has drawn attention for its player-first model, distinctive game format and interactive social teams — all while growing the visibility of some of the sport’s biggest names.
“What we're really proud about is our players get better,” Cooper said, “and the proof is in the pudding.
“Last year, from year one to year two, players that played in our season compared to their stats in the WNBA the following season, 3-on-3 leads to development.” While the league launched in Sephora Arena, a venue that holds about 1,000 fans in Medley, Florida, Unrivaled’s leaders envision taking their product on the road via expansion. They’re eager to attract new fans and build their core of diehard followers. They want to continue making their mark and not just follow the same old blueprint Bazzell said. For both executives, Kansas City is more than just another market. Cooper grew up in Harrisonville, attended UMKC and still has deep roots here. Bazzell, meanwhile, lived in KC during his freshman year of college, playing basketball for the UMKC Roos before transferring. Bazzell has also trained some well-known players, including Kyrie Irving, Candance Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe and Gigi Bryant (up until the accident) ... and most notably, he said, his wife, Napheesa Collier.
Kansas City’s appeal as a basketball market is obvious to Cooper and Bazzell. “The city deserves it,” Cooper said. “Kansas City loves sports. They love their college sports. They love their pro sports. It’s part of the DNA of the city.” Kansas City plays host each year to the Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Years ago, when T-Mobile Center was known as Sprint Center, KC also played host to a number of preseason NBA games.
But sustained access to pro basketball — especially women’s hoops — has remained rare.
That is why Monday’s WNBA preseason game matters, Cooper said. “You still remember the Miami Heat (game played in KC), right?” Cooper asked. “So there's going to be thousands of little girls and little boys that go see this Lynx game. That will be their Heat game.” That same thinking shapes the league’s touring strategy. Bazzell said bringing games to new markets has always been part of the founders’ vision, particularly because meaningful exposure matters. Unlike preseason basketball, Bazzell pointed out, Unrivaled’s road stops feature games that count.
“What’s different about when we travel,” he said, “it’s real, meaningful games that go towards standings, that go towards playoffs. But (we) also have all the best players playing at their peak level.” Cooper said these elements made for a different atmosphere when the league went to Philadelphia earlier this year. That city hasn’t had a women’s pro hoops team since the Philadelphia Rage of the American Basketball League in 1997-98.
The ABL league folded two years after debuting but featured such standout players as Hall of Famer Dawn Staley. “You saw it in Philly,” Cooper said. “Like when we pull up to a city for one night, it's almost like when your favorite artist goes on tour for a concert. “It's the one time that people in Philadelphia can see these players (and) 21,000 people showed up. The energy was unmatched.” The Jan. 30 event sold out Xfinity Mobile Arena, where the Philadelphia 76ers play. Unrivaled’s other tour stop, in New York at the Barclays Center, sold out. That demand, Bazzell said, is proof that women’s basketball has not lacked interest. Rather, it has often lacked investment and intentional effort. Unrivaled’s approach also helped reinforce what many fans of the women’s game have argued for years: Women’s basketball does not have a product problem; it too frequently has an accessibility and investment problem. Bazzell believes the right elements are falling into place for Kansas City.
“What's most appealing to me about Kansas City is there's proof in the pudding with what Chris and Angie Long and the Kansas City Current have done in the NWSL,” Bazzell said. “They have built that in a meaningful way that is solely focused on that team. “If you have intentionality in where you're investing and put all your energy into making the best possible product, then you are probably going to succeed, because there's enough data around women's basketball to say that there's enough interest there.” Whether Kansas City will one day land a WNBA or NBA team of its own is unclear. KC had an NBA team once — the Kansas City Kings, before the franchise moved to Sacramento in 1985.
With the WNBA returning for a preseason game, and new ventures like Unrivaled pushing the sport into new markets, perhaps it’s not out of the realm of possibility to imagine a new pro basketball team in town.
“I think it’s huge to play a game in Kansas City,” Collier, another Missouri native, said in an instagram video ahead of Monday evening’s preseason matchup at T-Mobile Center. “They’re such a sports town … to bring something like that to Missouri is really exciting.”
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