What's with all this WNBA talk?

The Parallels

In 1979, a small forward from West Baden Springs, Indiana, sparked a nationwide fascination that–for the first time–forced many to seriously consider the NBA a force to be reckoned with. Larry Joe Bird had just captained his Indiana State Sycamores to the NCAA National Championship game where they lost to the Michigan State Spartans, led by a young Earvin “Magic” Johnson—more on him later. The matchup between the two was, at the time, the most watched college basketball game ever. The rivalry then seamlessly transitioned from the collegiate ranks into the professional leagues where the two would meet again in three more championship series (1984, 1985, 1987). As the league grasped for relevancy, nearly 70% of its teams were unprofitable and very few individual players connected on a national stage. Larry and Magic changed the game and blazed the trail for the $10 billion NBA we‘re all familiar with today. 

Forty-five years later, a six-foot guard from West Des Moines, Iowa, has kindled an unprecedented infatuation with women’s basketball that has transcended the sport. Like Larry Legend, her collegiate career also ended with a defeat in the National Championship game before matriculating into the pros. Said championship game is currently the most watched women’s college basketball game of all time and the most viewed college basketball game on any ESPN platform. 

Ratings records are nothing new for Caitlin Clark. This season her team set attendance, revenue, and viewership marks at every turn. For context, the University of Iowa Women’s Basketball program sold out all of their 2023-24 season tickets two months before the season started when, before 2023, they’d only sold out three regular season games in program history. The team even garnered 55,646 attendees for a preseason scrimmage vs. DePaul. 

Unprecedented hype doesn’t even do it justice. 

The Star

And yet, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that her play on the court has lived up to the hype. Clark holds a litany of records and honors which would be worthy of a thought all on their own. Most impressively: she’s the outright owner of the NCAA’s career scoring record, she was only the fifth woman to win the AP Player of the Year Award for women’s basketball in consecutive seasons, and she holds the NCAA’s D-I record for made three-point field goals in a season, surpassing Steph Curry. Clark’s greatness has undeniably left a legacy that will stand the test of time. Her greatness has prompted many hasty pundits to (questionably) crown her as the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time (as if Cheryl Miller, Candace Parker, or Breanna Stewart don’t exist in this timeline). What’s unquestionable is that her future at this point may be as bright as any athlete’s we’ve ever witnessed and it’s only just beginning. 

With her selection as #1 pick of the 2024 WNBA draft, the league is adding a collegiate superstar to its ranks unlike any draft pick in recent history. The closest comparisons in recent times would be the MLB welcoming Shohei Ohtani in 2018 or Victor Wembanyama to the Spurs as the #1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft. However, at that point, both players were already established All-Stars in their home pro leagues (Shohei, a 5x All-Star in the NPB, Japan’s top baseball league, and Wemby, the 2023 LNB Pro A MVP at just 19 years old). Our best precedents likely come from the NBA’s introduction to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in 1979. 

The Landscape

Today’s WNBA is an aspirational also-ran in the American professional sports landscape. Not unlike the NBA of the late 70s–the league is hindered by low attendance, relative disinterest from the general public, and a lack of mainstream media support. And yet, the WNBA finds itself in an even stronger position today than the NBA of yesteryear did when it embraced two of its all-time greatest stars. The W has seen a continued growth over the last five years in revenues, attendance, and interest. Reports indicate that over 36 million total unique viewers consumed the product in 2023, a more than 25% increase from 2022 and the highest figure the league has seen in 15 years. For comparison, in 2023, the two-time reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces boasted an average attendance of 9,551 — only 725 fewer than the MLB’s Oakland Athletics 2023 per game count. Nationwide interest in the women’s professional game is growing and last season may have only scratched the surface.

So what does all of this mean for the future of the WNBA? The figurative ball is now in the league’s court (pun absolutely intended) to capitalize on this once-in-a-generation opportunity. Then Commissioner David Stern was ahead of his time in marketing the league behind the iconic allure of the Larry vs. Magic rivalry. Stern’s leadership crafted mainstream stardom for the players in the ‘80s, which paved the way for the international acclaim of Jordan in the ‘90s, and is the driving reason the NBA is now a $10 billion operation. 

The Opportunity

As the league welcomes its most popular rookie ever, it has the opportunity to step more fully into a “player first” model. While they appear primed to take advantage of the Clark Effect (the Indiana Fever will play 36 of its 40 regular season games on national television), there are a handful of established stars that could also be uplifted by a league-wide marketing investment. Players like Jewell Loyd (the 2023 WNBA leader in scoring), A'ja Wilson (two-time WNBA MVP), Alyssa Thomas (WNBA all-time leader in triple doubles) and many others bring both the play and personalities that could create a deep network of stars throughout the Association.

Many have bemoaned the league for what seems to be a penchant for uplifting its white players to the forefront of marketing strategies above their Black stars and champions. While this thought won’t fully explore the genuine and routine discrepancies the league has adopted over its 28 year history, comments like Nneka Ogwumike’s highlight where media coverage surrounding the WNBA has a very real opportunity to grow. For example, in 2020, 80% of the playing demographic in the W was Black. Consequently, while 80% of season awards went to Black players, white players still received 70% of media coverage surrounding the league that year.

The Anticipation

With the anticipation of millions of new eyes flocking to the WNBA this summer, alongside high expectations for Team USA Olympics success, the stage is set for the league to create new stars to guide us into its next generation of growth. When Larry and Magic carried the NBA to new heights in the early eighties, new stars like Charles Barkley, Isiah Thomas, and Hakeem Olajuwon also emerged and shaped their own legacies with the increased audience. If the WNBA can parlay the uptick in viewership, commentary, and overall interest into a bolstering of confidence for all of its untapped potential, the league will truly reach never before seen heights.

While it may be easy to poke fun at the WNBA’s standing among America’s most popular sports leagues today, we’re on the cusp of a boom in popularity this country hasn’t seen in nearly fifty years. If managed intentionally, Caitlin Clark could be the impetus for a new renaissance in the league that’s been a long time coming. There’s still room on the bandwagon, for now, but sold-out arenas are nothing new to this generation of women’s basketball!