When people for Unequaled, the new three-on-three women’s hockey group, walked into Wayfair Arena for the first time, it was soon evident that this was unlike the WNBA’s standard locations. Instead of a center-hung jumbotron, it was built inside a generation studio in Miami and has huge LED board adorning the walls. The court has only 850 chairs surrounding the flooring, which is roughly 75 % as big as usual five-on-five layouts.
A bridge rod has a perfect place in the front row for television, allowing TNT Sports to capture the action at a much closer variety than the majority of other sports broadcasts. More devices have been installed near the stanchion and baselines. Madison Square Garden served as inspiration for the league’s lighting scheme for its performing place.

It is, very literally, a glad shop.
” It’s like a period”, Vinyl BC’s Rae Burrell said during a recent press conference. ” It’s not very big, but I kind of like that, because next it’s just kind of more personal for the enthusiasts”.
That’s good music to the ear of Unrivaled leader Alex Bazzell, a self-described theater partner. ” I refer to our club as like a Broadway show on steroids”, he said in a movie meeting.
The club has been conducting play tests of various kinds for years, developing its code and then its spread strategy, despite the initial game’s opening tip coming on Friday night, which pits Unsurpassed co-founder Napheesa Collier’s Lunar Owls against other co-founder Breanna Stewart’s Mist BC.
Off court, since properly, video is still the subject of conversation. The 130, 000-square-foot service also includes an “athlete material development hub” as well as a “glam room”, built by group sponsor Sephora.
” We’re but content-driven in terms of the access—like the exercise days, what the people are wanting to do to create their own brands—and evidently they want to look good”, Bazzell said. ” So we were like, well, we need a hair and makeup room”.
An additional$ 1.5 million was put toward a building extension to give players strength and recovery space. Like any modern production, Unrivaled knows keeping the stars happy ought to be prioritized. ” Yeah, I love it here”, Rose BC’s Angel Reese wrote on X Wednesday, following up her post up by saying, “baby I could be here forevaaaa”.
Unrivaled’s media deal with Warner Bros. The league will promote sponsors ranging from Ally Financial to Samsung’s Galaxy Z series phones, while the discovery is worth up to a reportedly$ 100 million over a six-year period. Unrivaled is not the only company to develop its game from scratch for the digital experience because at-home eyeballs and ad dollars account for increasingly large portions of growing league balance sheets.

Last week, TGL premiered its golf 2.0 concept, with a custom-built venue where camera locations took precedence over seating spots and a space-age roving camera delivers close-ups fans can’t get at the majors.
Both leagues cite as an inspiration. The 1, 300-seat arena that hosts documentary-style crews alongside traditional camera operators is where the youth basketball league, established in 2021 by a digital media company, plays its games. OTE installed a cable cam so that it can fly directly over the baskets and pivot as NBA 2k players would have expected, without a center-hung scoreboard to interfere.
” From day one, I was like, we are playing for the internet”, Overtime CEO Dan Porter said during a recent phone interview. ” No one understood it. They kept saying, like,’ What’s the capacity?’ and ‘ How much do you charge for tickets?’ And I’m like,’ That’s not our model.’ … You’re building a soundstage for the internet”.
” If you launched the NBA or MLB today”, Porter added,” I don’t think you would try to make it as much of a multi-city, live entertainment business. You’d focus on media”.
Of course, some brands do both. The Savannah Bananas have hardly forgotten how to make their way to TikTok as they convert the experience to sold-out baseball park performances. And as it experimented with an LED basketball court during last year’s All-Star festivities, the NBA obviously had at-home views in mind. Teams like the New York Liberty carefully arrange their courtside guests, who are aware of how their faces affect the atmosphere in person and frequently go viral online. The NBA occasionally invites famous creators to its biggest events and lets them have a wild time.
Unrivaled won’t always call its production studio/arena in Miami home. In 2026, Beckell has stated that the league intends to transition to a four-city touring model. ” At some point we do want to go global”, he said.
No matter where they play next, though, cameras won’t be far behind.