How Wanda Sykes And Others Helped Bring Women’s Sports To Philadelphia

In 2019, Alex Niedbalski-Sykes complained to her wife, comedian and actress Wanda Sykes, about how Philadelphia didn’t have any major women’s sports franchises. Shortly after, during a dinner on their friends’ porch, the two relayed their conversation to Ashley Lunkenheimer and her wife, Starla Crandall, and asked what they thought about bringing a WNBA franchise to the city and area they now call home.

“My wife and I were like, ‘That would be the greatest thing ever,’” said Lunkenheimer, a longtime attorney who spent nine years as an assistant United States Attorney in Philadelphia. “Not that we knew what to do, but why not?”

From there, the friends formed the Philadelphia Sisters, a group that has been crucial in the rise of women’s sports in the city. This week, Philadelphia is home to a WTA 125 women’s professional tennis tournament, the first time the city has had a WTA event since 2005. Earlier this month, the Women’s Lacrosse League held its inaugural championship game in Chester, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia.

In late January, the Unrivaled professional women’s basketball league held its first road tour at a sold-out Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. And in 2030, Philadelphia will begin play in the WNBA, becoming the league’s 18th franchise.

Philadelphia 76ers’ Bid Draws WNBA To City

Still, the recent success attracting women’s sports to Philadelphia didn’t come quickly and had a much higher price tag than initially envisioned. When the Philadelphia Sisters first inquired about bringing a WNBA team to Philadelphia seven years ago, league officials told the group they would need to raise $25 million to be considered. During their first meeting with a wealthy couple, Niedbalski-Sykes and Lunkenheimer asked if they would invest $5 million. It was a surprisingly easy sell.

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“They’re very financially savvy people,” Lunkenheimer said. “They said, ‘We know this is about take off. Maybe we’ll be proven wrong, but we're pretty sure.’”

The couple didn’t want their names disclosed, either.

“They wanted to do it for the right reasons,” Lunkenheimer said. “It would have been an incredible investment, but they didn’t want it for fame or glory. They just thought this is a really great pitch that we want to be a part of.”

Still, the bid didn’t work out. In October 2023, the WNBA awarded a franchise to the Golden State Warriors, the first time the league had expanded since 2008. Golden State paid a reported $50 million expansion fee for the team, which is known as the Valkyries. The Valkyries are now the league’s most valuable franchise with a $780 million valuation, according to Forbes, $160 million more than the second-place New York Liberty.

As the WNBA’s popularity soared, so did the costs for a new team. When they first thought about putting together a group to get a franchise, the Philadelphia Sisters formed a bond with David Adelman, a prominent commercial real estate executive and entrepreneur in Philadelphia with a net worth of $2.4 billion, per Forbes.

In 2022, Adelman bought a minority stake in the Philadelphia 76ers. He later committed to invest in a Sykes-led bid. As time passed and the costs to get a franchise multiplied, the 76ers’ ownership group put in a bid in January 2025, the same month the franchise announced it would develop a new arena in partnership with Comcast Corp. That June, the WNBA awarded a franchise to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, which will begin play in 2028, 2029 and 2030, respectively. The Philadelphia Sisters worked with the 76ers during the bid process and are now helping the team prepare for its debut.

“2030 still feels far away,” Lunkenheimer said. “Nonetheless, if you think about the new arena being built and some of the things that the women’s team will need in terms of space and things, it also does make sense. It's just sad that we have to wait any longer, But we know it's coming, so everybody feels really excited about that reality, like it’s going to happen. It's not a question anymore.”

Philadelphia Sisters Help Lure Unrivaled To City

As the Philadelphia Sisters wait for the WNBA to arrive, they have been involved in other initiatives. They were instrumental in convincing Unrivaled to come to Philadelphia in January. Sykes and Niedbalski-Sykes own minority equity stakes in Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women’s league founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart that began play in 2025.

That first season, the league played all its games in a production facility in Miami that holds about 1,000 fans. But Sykes helped convince Unrivaled to host two games in Philadelphia this past season. The doubleheader drew more than 21,000 fans, the largest crowd in Xfinity Mobile Arena history for any event and the most fans to attend a regular season women’s professional basketball game anywhere. In September 2025, Unrivaled announced a Series B investment round that values the league at $340 million, up significantly from when it started.

“Women’s sports is booming,” said Niedbalski-Sykes, a longtime business executive who worked for 18 years at Polycor Inc., a company that owns more than 40 quarries and 12 manufacturing plants. “It’s exploding, which is amazing.”

When Unrivaled announced in October 2025 that it would come to Philadelphia, the league held a press conference across from City Hall, where the city honored the Philadelphia Sisters. The gathering drew the attention of Renee Bridges, the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the United States Tennis Association’s Middle States region who stopped to watch what was going on. Bridges at the time was working to get a WTA event to Philadelphia and asked the Philadelphia Sisters to help.

Philadelphia WTA Event Features 9 Top 100 Players

Top Notch Management, an event owner and operator and agency representing athletes, is operating this week’s Philly Open, which is being held at the University of Pennsylvania and is part of the WTA 125, the second-tier of professional women’s tennis. The title sponsor is Ennoble Care, a home health company, where Lunkenheimer works as general counsel and chief compliance officer.

Melissa Pine, vice president of operations for the WTA 125, wrote in an email that the Philadelphia Sisters “are on a mission to make Philadelphia a premier destination for women’s sports.” She added that UPenn’s Hamlin Center is an “exceptional venue” and that Philadelphia’s proximity to New York helped the Tour decide to return to the city. The U.S. Open starts next Sunday in Queens, N.Y., about 100 miles from UPenn, making it convenient for players and officials.

The Philly Open’s 32-player draw includes nine of the top 100 players in the world, each of whom is expected to play in the U.S. Open, including Americans Ashlyn Krueger and Katie Volynets. Krueger and Volynets won their first round matches Sunday in straight sets. Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, is also playing in the Philly Open, having received a wild card. Stephens, who hasn’t played many matches the past two years, plays her first round match on Monday night. Stephens, who was once as high as No. 3 in the world, is now No. 240.

Pine said that the WTA signed a multi-year agreement with the Philadelphia event organizers, so the tournament will be back next year.

“We want to put down roots, build a fan base and create something the city genuinely looks forward to each year,” Pine said. “Philadelphia has the history, the community and the sporting culture to be a long-term home for professional women’s tennis, and that is exactly what we are building toward.”

Philadelphia Sisters Eye Growth In Other Markets

The Philadelphia Sisters, meanwhile, have grander ambitions. They are working to bring other women’s events and teams to the city. And they are planning to help groups in other cities do the same as a way to expand and make an impact.

“The vision is there are a lot a lot of hungry cities that should have women’s professional sports,” Lunkenheimer said. “Maybe they aren't big enough to have a venue for a $250 million dollar WNBA franchise. But why can't they have some of the smaller franchises right now that will eventually get that big?”

Said Niedbalski-Sykes: “They have to just know they can do it because we started with nothing. We started with the taste of wanting to make it happen, and we did. Everybody pretty much can do it if you have the will. You can definitely have some sort of women’s professional sports. We have kind of the blueprint to make it happen. We would love for people to call and say, ‘Hey, help us,’” and we become this big national blueprint.”

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