The league has never, ever made money. People laugh at the players for acting like they deserve to make millions (of what? negative equity?), but at the end of the day, why does it exist in the first place? And the answer is because money is being burned to fuel a Potemkin facade of female employment in contravention to market forces, aka reality.
The WNBA is merely the most obvious exponent of every HR department and Tik Tok tech girlie in the nation. Jew daycare.
Not to mention that all of the leagues have basically become vehicles for selling sports betting and fantasy leagues with a vestigial professional sport attached.