By Kimberly Wilson ·Updated April 9, 2026 < /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… Men lie, women lie, but ticket sales don’t.
And just days after the Atlanta Dream announced they’d acquired the 23-year-old forward from the Chicago Sky (and we saw her debut the cutest pixie cut ever), StubHub reported that ticket demand for the franchise surged 15 times higher than normal. That’s the largest single-day spike in the Dream’s entire history, and Reese hasn’t played a single minute in Atlanta yet.
Atlanta Dream ticket demand spiked 15x after trading for Angel Reese, the largest single day spike in franchise history.The Angel Reese Effect is real. 
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: @Reese10Angel) pic.twitter.com/hH4ZJNGcP4
But the trade is only part of the story. Going into 2026, Reese was the highest-paid Black woman in basketball. Forbes estimated her 2025 earnings at $9.4 million, and only about $400,000 of that came from her WNBA salary. The rest, roughly $9 million, came from brand deals built on who she is off the court, not just what she does on it.
She was the first WNBA player to walk a Victoria’s Secret runway and now she’s the first to star in one of their campaigns, and that’s not even counting the international magazine covers and the podcast.
“I’m excited for a new journey,” she told ESSENCE earlier this week. “Year three is going to be exciting. I’ll be able to play with Rhyne and Paopao and just have a great coaching staff. And, of course, Atlanta has the culture, the family, the food! Everybody’s going to be at the game. I’m excited to get to work for the season.”
The Dream put together a strong 2025 season, finishing third in the league, and still somehow felt like a team the rest of the country was sleeping on. A good record doesn’t automatically make a city feel invested, and Atlanta had been waiting for someone who could do both. Reese already proved she can do that.
Black women have been locked in since LSU, and Atlanta is about to find out why. That city has the culture, the energy, and honestly the fashion to match everything she brings. This feels like the right place at the right time.
Year three starts in a new city with a sold-out fanbase and a franchise record already broken. Sounds about right for Angel Reese.
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