The 2026 WNBA All-Star Game is seeing record demand for tickets. According to StubHub, ticket sales are 32% higher than last year’s record. They are also almost eight times higher than when Chicago last hosted the WNBA All-Star Game in 2022.  Fans are not just coming from Chicago or Illinois. People have bought tickets from more than 40 states, and 63% of all ticket buyers are traveling from outside Illinois.

The WNBA All-Star Weekend from July 23 to July 25, 2026, is not just about a basketball game anymore but a way to bring major economic impact to the league. With fans tuning in to the event from various locations and ticket sales increasing tourism and bringing major views to the game, the All-Star Game is generating major revenue.

More people are tuning in to watch the event than ever before. The 2025 WNBA All-Star Game attracted an average of 2.2 million TV viewers. Although this was lower than the record 3.4 million viewers in 2024, it was still the second-most-watched WNBA All-Star Game in league history. It also became the most-watched TV program on Saturday night, showing that the event continued to attract a large audience.

This year, the event is attracting both longtime supporters and new fans. Two out of every three ticket buyers have used StubHub before, which is the highest percentage for any WNBA All-Star Game. Plus, nearly 80% of people who bought tickets have never attended a Chicago sporting event before.

Players’ presence also creates excitement. Last year, the Indiana Fever star injured her right groin, but Caitlin Clark still came to the event to support her team, Team Clark. Fans had voted for her in huge numbers, giving her 1,293,526 votes, which was the highest total of any player in the All-Star fan voting.

So, it’s not just a game but an entire weekend designed to attract more and more fans and even businesses to the court. One example is Full Court Press: Legends, organized by 88 Vines and Chrissy Delisle.

Another major event is The FQ Lounge, organized by The Female Quotient. Leaders from the WNBA, ESPN, Delta, Just Women’s Sports, the Indiana Fever, the Atlanta Dream, and the Golden State Valkyries come together to share ideas about how to grow women’s sports sustainably and create more opportunities in the future.

Why Hosting the WNBA All-Star Weekend Is a Business Bet

The WNBA has signed a historic 11-year, $3.1 billion media rights deal. It increases the league’s annual media revenue to about $281 million, which is nearly 6.5 times more than it earned before.

The new agreement includes several major TV and streaming companies. Disney (ABC/ESPN), NBCUniversal, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount (CBS), Scripps (ION), and USA Network will all broadcast WNBA games. The league first agreed to a $2.2 billion media deal in 2024 and later expanded it by adding USA Network and renewing its agreements with Scripps and Paramount. Big events like the WNBA All-Star Game have helped make this possible.

According to Sports Business Journal, Disney earned more than twice as much money from advertisements during the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game as it did the year before.  Plus, the WNBA All-Star Game featured more than 20 advertisers, including 15 companies advertising during the event for the first time.

As per the Chicago Sports Commission, Kara Bachman, the All-Star weekend significantly added to the nearly $1 billion that came in from sports tourism. So, it’s not just a game weekend but a way to bring in major economic impact to the city.

The comparison people miss

The WNBA is changing All-Star Weekend from just a basketball game into a much bigger event that combines sports, entertainment, and business. In the past, fans mainly watched the All-Star Game. Now, the league is creating a full experience around the weekend to bring in more fans and grow its brand.

WNBA Live presented by AWS became a three-day fan festival at Chicago’s McCormick Place. The event includes basketball activities, music, technology, culture, and opportunities for fans to meet players.

Big companies are also playing a major role in making the weekend bigger. The 2026 WNBA Live event has 34 partners and licensees, including AWS, Nike, Google Pixel, American Express, Ally, Kia, Coach, DoorDash, ESPN, and State Farm. The weekend is also helping the WNBA become part of popular culture. Nike is celebrating 30 years of working with the league, while SLAM is sharing stories about the WNBA’s past, present, and future.

If you compare it to the NBA already has many famous players like LeBron James and Stephen Curry who are known around the world. These players already have huge fan bases, big sponsorship deals, and strong personal brands. So, the NBA’s All-Star Weekend is mainly about celebrating their success and giving fans a bigger entertainment experience.

The WNBA is in a different position. It is still growing its audience and trying to reach more people. Now, if the growth continues, the league will see major growth over time.

The metric to watch

The All-Star weekend generated massive numbers, and if that continuous league can see major success.

1. In 2024, the game on ABC attracted 3.44 million viewers.
2. The 2024 season generated 136.29 million hours of viewing across national networks.

Because of this growth, the WNBA is looking at more than just the final score; they are looking at:

1. Broadcast ratings:
2. Ticket resale prices
3. Sponsorship activations
4. Merchandise sales
5. Social-media impressions
6. Tourism

If these numbers continue increasing, the WNBA All-Star Weekend can become more than a yearly basketball event.

The Hosting and Economics Dilemma

Hosting the WNBA All-Star Game is much harder and more expensive than many people think. It is not just one basketball game. The host team has to organize fan events, concerts, sponsor activities, media coverage, security, transportation, hotels, player events, and many other activities over several days. All of this needs a lot of money and hundreds of staff members.

Many WNBA teams can manage this because they share owners or staff with an NBA team. They can use the NBA’s event planners, marketing staff, security teams, and other resources. The Phoenix Mercury, for example, said they relied heavily on the support of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns organization to host the event successfully in 2024.

Phoenix earned the hosting rights by presenting a strong plan. The team had a brand-new $100 million practice facility, and the 2024 season was expected to be Diana Taurasi’s final season, making the event even more special. The WNBA All-Star Weekend became much bigger after Chicago hosted in 2022. That year, the league introduced WNBA Live, a public fan festival, along with more sponsor events and exclusive parties. These additions made the weekend much more exciting for fans.

But the cost mostly throws them away, and because hosting is so difficult, very few teams want to do it. For the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game, the Chicago Sky was the only team that submitted a bid.

But even with all those restrictions, the event generated a lot of money. The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game did much more than entertain basketball fans. It also helped Phoenix businesses earn more money. The game took place on July 20 at the Footprint Center and attracted a record 16,407 fans. Many fans traveled to Phoenix for the event, stayed in hotels, ate at restaurants and bars, used taxis and other transportation, and shopped at local stores.

The event brought more than $1.07 million into the local economy. According to PredictHQ, restaurants earned about $652,000, hotels made around $218,000, and transportation services brought in about $204,000.

Even though the WNBA All-Star Weekend brought a lot of money to the host city and businesses, the players did not earn much from the event last year; every player selected for the All-Star Game received only a $2,575 bonus. Just the All-Star Game MVP earned an extra $5,150.

However, this year’s Collective Bargaining Agreement increased it to $15,000, while the All-Star Game MVP earns $20,000, giving players a much better financial reward for being selected.

Now, along with the economic impact from the All-Star weekend, it also has other ways to earn.

Stud Budz and the rise of authenticity as a product

Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman’s Twitch livestream became very big last year during WNBA All-Star Weekend as the Minnesota Lynx teammates decided to stream their entire 72-hour All-Star Weekend without editing anything.

Williams and Hiedeman recorded almost everything they did, including WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert dancing to “Knuck If You Buck” and meeting Caitlin Clark’s family.

Many fans watched the livestream live, with about 25,000 people watching at the same time at its peak. One of their videos later reached more than 500,000 views. Hiedeman also said she gained over 100,000 new Instagram followers, and many brands contacted them.

The biggest reason for its success was that Williams and Hiedeman did not use fancy production; they simply acted like themselves. Because of this success, the WNBA now has new ways to make money through sponsored livestreams and brand partnerships.