It’s no secret that for a long time, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have been highly popular athletes in the current Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) for a long time. The rise of Clark and Reese dates back to their days playing against one other in Amateur Athletic Union basketball.
It all came to pass in 2023 when the University of Iowa Hawkeyes played against Louisiana State University Tigers. LSU took the first meeting during the National Championship game 102-85. In their next meeting during the 2024 Elite Eight, the Hawkeyes took the second meeting score of 94-87.
The press was all over these games and many fans in the United States tuned in to watch the two rising stars.
When the draft came about for the WNBA, the hype was high. New eyes were all over these two to come in and make their mark on the game.
Soon after drafting Clark and Reese, the WNBA saw a significantly high spike in viewership – more than a whooping 2.45 million viewers tuned in to watch the 2024 WNBA draft.
While I agree that Clark and Reese put new eyes on the WNBA, I do not believe the rise in viewership is only accredited to them. After all, basketball is a team effort.
New WNBA fans came to watch Clark and the other rookies in the 2024 draft class. They stayed to watch the very talented and competitive basketball being played everyday.
The records show that 400,000 fans attended games in the first month of the season, highest first-month attendance the WNBA has seen in 26 years. Fans are showing up and showing out to watch their favorite teams in their local cities.
Clark and Reese were the introduction the WNBA has been waiting for. Fans realized the competitiveness and hype surrounding the WNBA because of the talent on the court.
I have been a fan of the New York Liberty for many years now. In the past two years, attendance at the games was low, and seats were not filling up. However, Liberty went from eighth in the league in attendance in 2022 to the second most watched team in 2024, with an average of 12,000 fans per game.
I believe that this isn’t just a flash in the pan either. The WNBA success is growing and only going to get bigger. Due to the growth in popularity, the WNBA is expanding to two more cities in the coming years. San Francisco will be welcoming the Golden State Valkyries, and Toronto, Canada, will be getting a new franchise, unnamed at this time. Additionally, Portland, Ore., will be welcoming its first franchise back in over 20 years.
The growth of the league has allowed for a new landmark media rights deal spanning 11 years could be valued at almost $200 million a year with no official metric out at this time. It would be distributing more than 125 games around the league on different media platforms that will now stream live WNBA games throughout the season.with companies such as Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video. A record deal was struck which will allow even more eyes to watch the game. New deals means more money that will spread out to the league’s best players. This allows these players to make more money and not have to go overseas.
So, what does all of this mean?
A rise in viewership, attendance and new franchises. The game is growing and talent is finally being recognized in the WNBA. It all easily traces back to Clark and Reese and other rookies tearing up the league. They brought eyes on a league deserving attention for years to come.
But all the credit cannot be given to just them. All WNBA players have put in a lot of work throughout the years to grow the game. Now, it is time for us to do our part and support the teams that we love in every way possible by cheering them on.
Kurt Sippel, FCRH ’27, is a journalism major from Brooklyn, N.Y.
