Unrivaled sets professional women’s basketball attendance record in 3-on-3 league’s Philadelphia debut

February 1, 2026

Natasha Cloud rooted for the 76ers as a kid growing up in suburban Philadelphia and — like so many hoopsters back in the day — idolized Allen Iverson.

So when the former WNBA champion and current New York Liberty standout hit the same court where Iverson once dazzled, Cloud couldn’t help but look up to his retired No. 3 jersey in the rafters and let the moment truly sink in; that women’s professional basketball was back in Philadelphia for the first time in nearly 30 years — and she was a key figure in the comeback.

Cloud plays for Phantom BC, one of the teams in the burgeoning 3-on-3 women’s professional basketball league, Unrivaled. Unrivaled hit the road for the first time in its brief history, breaking free of its Florida bubble to expand its reach and stage two games on Friday night in Philadelphia.

The first tour stop was a smashing success.

The previous regular-season attendance record of 20,711 was set in the WNBA by the Indiana Fever and Washington Mystics on Sept. 19, 2024.

Kelsey Plum scored 22 points to lead the Phantom to a 71-68 win over the Breeze in the first game. Marina Mabrey then gave the record-setting crowd a record to cheer on — she scored an Unrivaled-high 47 points to lead the Lunar Owls to an 85-75 win over Philly native Kahleah Copper and league champion Rose.

Copper, the 2021 WNBA NBA Finals MVP for the Chicago Sky, played her role as both tour guide — she took her teammates to Dalessandro’s Steaks — and promoter — she needed 64 tickets to the event — to perfection.

“I think the city is ready for women’s professional sports,” Copper said. “I’m excited that, one, that it’s here, and two, that I’m a part of it.”

Philly’s rich basketball history is largely comprised of household name Hall of Famers and All-Stars out of the men’s game. Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant played high school basketball in the area. Sixers stars from Iverson to Julius Erving to Joel Embiid have brought fans to their feet for decades.

Yet no women’s pro game had been played in the city since 1998 when the Philadelphia Rage played for the now-defunct American Basketball League. Philly native Dawn Staley, who attended the doubleheader, has carried the banner for women’s basketball out of the city — her hometown street was named in her honor in 2017 — but the college teams have largely been immaterial on the national scene.

Unrivaled’s debut is the expected first step toward Philly basketball breaking into the conversation as a women’s hotbed of hoops. Pep rallies and watch parties sprouted Friday night around Philly and a pair of lower bowl tickets on the secondary markets matched the price and high demand of recent Sixers’ games.

Philadelphia is planning on a new arena that will be completed hopefully by 2030 and will serve as the new home for the WNBA team set to join the league.

For all the hype in the city — Cloud gave a shoutout to a credentialed media member wearing a Philly Loves Women’s Sports sweatshirt — Unrivaled’s doubleheader also comes at a pivotal moment for a league experiencing growing pains in televised viewership in its second season.

The eight-team league is averaging 92,000 viewers on TNT and truTV, down 49% from last year through the comparable number of games (183,000 through 26 games). Unrivaled telecasts on TNT in primetime are averaging 68% fewer viewers than primetime programming on TNT the four weeks prior to Unrivaled starting (93,000 viewers vs. 291,000). cbs