Can this be the WNBA's G-League? What to know about the Upshot League

On Friday night in Greensboro, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida, a new professional women’s basketball league will play its first games. The Upshot League will embark on its ambitious debut season with the goal of providing chances for players to develop and prove themselves amongst other elite athletes. The teams are full of recognizable names — ones who were all-conference players in college and powered their teams to championships at the NCAA level, and some who were squeezed out of the WNBA.

Spearheading the Upshot League is Donna Orender, who once served as the president of the WNBA from 2005 to 2010 and before that worked for the PGA Tour for 17 years. In addition to being a co-founder of Upshot, she is also its commissioner. “The Upshot League is about building something that the sports landscape, the basketball ecosystem and — most importantly — communities across the country are waiting for, ready for, and are looking for,” Orender said.

“The appetite for (women’s basketball) has never been bigger, the talent pipeline has never been deeper, and yet there's still enormous unmet demand for high level opportunities. ” Another co-founder of the Upshot League is Andy Kaufmann, who is also the CEO of Zawyer Sports & Entertainment, which owns and operates 15 minor league hockey, soccer and baseball teams throughout the U. S.

— including in markets where Upshot will have teams based. “The model was built off the success we've had at Zawyer Sports in the same arenas with NHL affiliated teams, which is sponsorship revenue, ticket sales revenue,” Kaufmann said. “It's built for sustainability… We will grow over the long term.