WTA Finals moving to an NBA arena next year as tennis tour seeks 'Super Bowl for women’s sports'

The WTA Finals , the elite season-ending event in women’s tennis , will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the next three years in a move that organizers hope will create “the Super Bowl for women’s sports .”

The tournament will be played at the Spectrum Center, home of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, the WTA and the Charlotte Sports Foundation announced Wednesday.

The year’s top eight singles players and doubles teams qualify for the event, which is usually held in November.

“Our ambition is for the WTA Finals to be not only the premier championship in women’s tennis, but one of the defining global events in women sports,” WTA chair Valerie Camillo said. “We want to create the Super Bowl for women’s sports. And not just the competition, but an event that is the annual gathering for women’s tennis, women’s sports, and women’s sport business.

“Audiences are growing, investment is growing, female athletes are increasingly at the center of sports and culture around the world. And women’s tennis has helped lead and define that progress for more than 50 years. And we believe our biggest championship should reflect the scale of this moment,” Camillo added.

Camillo called it a “minimum three-year deal. She added, “We’ll see what goes on beyond that.”

The announcement comes at a time of financial difficulty for the WTA after it announced in July that it was opting out of the final year of a three-year hosting arrangement with Saudi Arabia to move this year’s Finals to Indian Wells, California.

There were concerns about going back to Saudi Arabia due to military conflicts in the Middle East.

Camillo noted that “2026 is a year of transition for the WTA” and that “we are doing the normal belt tightening you would expect in any business while also absorbing the unexpected cost of relocating the WTA finals to Indian Wells.

“What’s most important to know is that we have a clear path to deliver consistent, sustainable financial performance in 2027 and beyond,” she added.

With Indian Wells now set to host only once, Charlotte will become the eighth different venue for the Finals since 2018.

The WTA did not announce any prize money figures for the upcoming tournaments, and could struggle to match the record-setting amounts that were on offer in Saudi Arabia.

Elena Rybakina collected $5.23 million for winning the 2025 WTA Finals in Riyadh after going 5-0 at the event. The WTA said that was the largest payout in the history of women’s sports. Aryna Sabalenka earned $2.7 million as runner-up.

Rybakina also beat Sabalenka in Saturday’s U.S. Open final and claimed the No. 1 ranking.

Coco Gauff won the 2024 finals in Riyadh.

The partnership will extend beyond the Finals. The WTA will also relocate its global headquarters from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Charlotte, as part of the deal.

And there's a plan to bring a WTA 500 tournament to Charlotte after 2029.

“The WTA has always owned the WTA finals, but now going forward, we’re going to operate it too,” Camillo said. “We’re taking control of the creation of the revenues and the controlling of the expenses and the delivery of the entire thing.

“And that allows us to control our own destiny,” Camillo added. “Whether it’s around what we’re doing with our media rights and our production, whether it's related to the WTA finals, whether we’re approaching our calendar, we’re going to be making bold and aggressive moves for women’s tennis that shapes the future that we want rather than reacting.”

Camillo replaced retiring chair Steve Simon at the end of last year.

She previously oversaw business operations for the Philadelphia Flyers and Wells Fargo Center as the president and CEO of the sports and entertainment division of Comcast Spectacor, and has held senior roles with the Washington Nationals and the NBA.

Asked if there was a desire to eventually merge with the ATP Finals — the men’s season-ending event — Camillo said “there hasn’t been an in-depth conversation about merging” the two tournaments.

“I think that when we create our ambition, people are going to want to merge with us on this event and many more,” she added.

The move to the Hornets arena during the NBA season means that the Finals will be condensed from eight to five days.

That means the traditional schedule of two singles and two doubles matches per day could become four singles and four doubles matches per day.

“We are exploring a series of alternate formats,” Camillo said.

The Spectrum Center has already hosted high-profile tennis exhibition events in recent years.

“As an organization, our mission is quite simple,” Will Pitts, CEO of the Charlotte Sports Foundation, said of the Finals. “It’s drive economic impact and add to the quality of life through high-profile sporting events and unique partnerships. And this certainly does that.”

The move comes as Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper is investing an additional $500 million into ongoing stadium renovations with an eye toward potentially bringing the Super Bowl, NFL draft, 2031 Women’s World Cup and other major sporting events to Charlotte.

See AP’s full tennis coverage here