When confetti fell in Municipal Auditorium on March 2, it was a celebration of four weeks of basketball excellence from Dallas Wings forward Maddy Siegrist. The second-year pro was crowned as the top individual performer of Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball, a professional women’s basketball league that made its home in Nashville this year.
But the season finale that day was also a joyous occasion for fans of the game in general. AU Pro Basketball’s first year in Nashville drew record-setting crowds for the league and gave fans in the Volunteer State a chance to see top-class women’s hoops in their backyard. The league helped fuel a wave of renewed interest in pro women’s basketball in the city, where a team of investors announced a bid for a WNBA expansion franchise just days before AU tipped off.
“I think that Nashville’s a really great spot,” Siegrist said following the AU finale. “The food, the music — who wouldn’t want to come here?”
League officials clearly agreed. On Feb. 28, they announced a multiyear deal to make Nashville the league’s home for the foreseeable future.
“What I continue to say is that this market — specifically, the state of Tennessee — has shown that they can show up, and they will show up for women’s basketball across the collegiate landscape,” AU’s vice president of basketball Megan Perry told reporters after the season finale. “They’ve proven that they will show up here for professional athletes. There is a strong demand, and we’re just excited to be able to meet that demand.”
Athletes Unlimited was founded in 2022 to give professional women’s basketball players a place to ply their trade stateside during the WNBA offseason. The league uses a unique scoring system that emphasizes efficient individual performance, and the champion each season is an individual player rather than a team. Siegrist established herself as a contender from opening night on Feb. 5, averaging 24.3 points per game on the court and eventually setting a record for AU points in a season.
Sydney Colson, a two-time WNBA champion who will suit up alongside Caitlin Clark for the Indiana Fever next season, says domestic opportunities for players are especially important. The WNBA will welcome the Golden State Valkyries as an expansion franchise this upcoming season, and teams in Toronto and Portland in 2026.
“The more situations that we have stateside for players to play and for it to be competitive, the better the expansion teams will do,” Colson says. “In 2026, you’re going to have to fill 24 roster spots with new players, and it’s helpful to WNBA GMs and coaches to be able to come here and see players.
“I’ve said this so many times, but AU got me back into the W,” she continues, referring to the WNBA. “Just being able to show I still had life in my legs, that I could still go, still compete.”
Crystal Bradford earned a training-camp contract with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces following strong performances in Nashville and will hope to walk a similar path to Colson. She was the runner-up in a league that included several WNBA players and champions, including Lexie Brown (Los Angeles Sparks), Kierstan Bell (Las Vegas Aces), Kia Nurse (Chicago Sky) and Alissa Pili (Minnesota Lynx).
But no players got louder cheers throughout the season than Alysha Clark — who played at Mt. Juliet High School, Belmont University and Middle Tennessee University before becoming a three-time WNBA champion — and sisters Izzy and Dorie Harrison, who suited up at Hillsboro High School before playing at Tennessee and Lipscomb, respectively.
“To play here in Nashville professionally is honestly a dream come true,” Dorie Harrison told the Scene in February. “A lot of Nashvillians might argue that it’s overdue. I think it’s in perfect timing, especially with the bid just made for [proposed WNBA team] Tennessee Summitt. AU’s a perfect way into that market to get people interested. And Nashville’s excited, man.”
The league’s numbers backed up Harrison’s point. A press release announcing the AU’s return to Nashville reported a 77 percent growth in attendance, 97 percent growth in merchandise sales and 69 percent growth in social media engagement compared to previous seasons hosted in Las Vegas and Dallas.
“I don’t think it’s just a moment — I really think it is a movement,” says Perry. “We have numbers to back what we’ve known all along, and so we’re just really excited to have some proof of concept to offer and build upon.”
Additional reporting by Logan Butts.
