The Sports Bra teams up with WPBA to support storytelling, community around women’s basketball developmental league

The GIST: Today, The Sports Bra and the Women’s Premier Basketball Association (WPBA) — a developmental women’s league similar to the NBA’s G League — announced a strategic partnership that will use the sports bar’s reach among women’s sports fans to promote the WPBA as it looks to strengthen relationships with the WNBA and sponsors.

• Yesterday, we spoke with WPBA founder Faatimah A and The Sports Bra owner Jenny Nguyen about how this partnership came to be, the value of the WPBA, and how the bar and other brand partners can help level up its game so everybody knows their name.

The WPBA: Founded in 2022, the league is “building the missing infrastructure for women's basketball that is a direct pipeline to getting players into the WNBA, into other top tier leagues around the world,” said Faatimah. Since then, the league has helped over 100 athletes further their careers while emphasizing financial literacy, wellness, and professional development off the court.

• The two entities will launch their collab at the 2026 WPBA Combine next month, where six out of 15 W teams will be scouting. The W’s small rosters have been a talking point as they limit the league and athletes, which is why Faatimah wants the WPBA to support a better pipeline for players.

• While no WPBA players have ascended through the league to the W (yet), several WNBA players have lost their roster spots in the past and played their way back in through the WPBA. “We’re starting to see the need for these pipelines,” Nguyen added, and The Sports Bra has a history of supporting local grassroots sports organizations.

The alignment: Nguyen said her bar is focused on “telling stories of underrepresented groups” and wanted to boost the WPBA’s visibility with its immense “social capital,” something it's positioned to do as a gathering space for women’s sports fans. Faatimah noted “everyone loves a great underdog story,” and The Sports Bra’s reach allows them to “strengthen the ecosystem as much as possible.”

• And for those wondering: The WPBA is ironing out a streaming deal right now with content currently available on YouTube, Bench, and Instagram, and it will be available to watch at The Sports Bra soon.

Zooming out: The WPBA is filling a crucial role in the women’s basketball ecosystem. Google Pixel and the U.S. Coast Guard have already partnered with the WPBA, but The Sports Bra partnership highlights how two up-and-comers reaching the same community of women’s sports fans can amplify reach with mutually-beneficial partnerships.

• Nguyen and The Sports Bra’s patrons clearly believe in the value of storytelling around all women athletes at all levels. That’s the kind of community who could be converted to fandom and make a difference for the WPBA’s reach and awareness, which could beget future partnerships. And on and on and on…