Buckle Up, The WNBA Is Going To Skyrocket This Season

Yes, the Caitlin Clark effect is real, but this story is not just about Clark; it is about a 28-year-old league that has struggled to generate the kind of revenue and spark that would set it up for massive success. Yes, its fan base has been growing slowly but surely for the last 20 years, but numerous management missteps have led to a league that, in 2024, only pays its rookies around $76k a year, with some veterans now maxing out just over $250k per season.

While the WNBA's issues are real, the league is about to embark on a new era that it is hopefully poised to take advantage of. This includes finally paying for charter flights for the players to new arenas and practice facilities and finally expanding from 12 teams to 14 in the next three seasons. In fact, the WNBA hopes to expand to 16 teams within the next five years.

On the court, the league is full of veteran superstars and young talent who deliver a highly entertaining brand of basketball. No, it's not the NBA, but the quality of play is considerably better now than it was just ten years ago, which is why the league has such a loyal fan base.

Enter the Caitlin Clark effect, and the WNBA will most likely experience a significant boost in its ratings and overall attention across the highly competitive North American media landscape.

The WNBA Draft in April attracted a record average of 2.47 million viewers, a 307 percent increase from last year and the most-watched WNBA telecast since 2000.

Despite not airing on traditional television, the first preseason exhibition featuring Chicago Sky rookies Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso drew over 500,000 viewers who tuned in through a phone stream provided by a resourceful fan. This kind of misstep has plagued the WNBA since its inception. Seriously, how could the WNBA brass misread the room so badly that they would not air Reese and Cardoso’s first preseason game? These are the things the league needs to clean up immediately if they are going to take full advantage of the Caitlin Clark effect.

“To be very honest, the impact of the wave right now is more profound than I thought it was going to be,” Seattle Storm co-owner Lisa Brummel said. “It got to be a bigger wave a lot faster than what I think we projected it to be. And wow, I’ll say it feels amazing.”

Putting aside any mistakes the WNBA may make, one thing is certain: there is a thirst for women's basketball that the league has never experienced, which makes this year a critically important year for the WNBA to execute at a high level.

They need to take full advantage of the skyrocketing ratings that are to come and work hard to keep the new fan base that follows entertained, intrigued, and wanting more. 

TV ratings are one thing, but we live in a social media world, and the WNBA is in a prime spot to capitalize on the 20-plus stars that play across the league. The question remains: Does the WNBA have the right people in charge to ride the wave of new interest into long-term profits effectively?

Regardless of the long-term profits, the WNBA will have a meteoric season with millions of new fans tuning into their first women's professional basketball game. From an on-court perspective, the league is full of great talent that will not disappoint.