The WNBA’s growth in popularity is changing women’s sports for good.
The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has recently skyrocketed to success due to the incorporation of famous players such as Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark into the league. The growth in popularity for the WBNA has put women’s sports on the front stage, changing the way that women’s sports are viewed forever.
The WNBA was founded in 1997, and is comprised of 12 teams, but recently announced the incorporation of two new teams, one in Portland, Ore. and the other in Toronto, Canada. The teams compete in the championship to win the Commissioner’s Cup; the Las Vegas Aces have won back-to-back championships the past two years. This year, the New York Liberty won for the first time since the team’s 1997 creation.
The players average an annual pay of around $116,580, a slim amount compared to the millions NBA players get paid. The recent introduction of players such as Clark, who formerly played for University of Iowa until joining the WNBA in 2024, and Angel Reese, who played for Louisiana State University (LSU) before joining the WNBA in 2024, helped spark a growth in viewership from 505,000 average views in the 2023 session to 657,000 average views in the 2024 season, according to Statista, a statistics website.
Senior Margaret Edwards, captain of the Williston Girls Varsity Basketball team, believes that it is the collegiate players that are making the difference.
“I think it was college players that helped [The WNBA] grow, because people saw Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark who are good at basketball and wanted to then watch them in the WNBA,” she said.
Clark, born in Iowa, got drafted number one all round pick to the Indiana Fever in 2024 where she plays guard and flaunts her famous 22 jersey. Clark just won WNBA’s Rookie of the Year, a title shared with legendary players such as A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces and Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty, both of whom won a gold medal in the Olympics this past summer. She has made a huge impact in her first season as she has broken many records, such as the Indiana Fever’s most three-pointers in a season, and the rookie record for three pointers in a season.
Though she is begging to pave a groundbreaking path in the WNBA, her college carrier was nothing short of incredible. Clark was awarded National Player of the Year twice, and holds numerous Division-1 records: most points, at 3,951, and most assists, at 1,144. According to Yahoo Sports, Clark averaged 28.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 8.2 assists per game.
Angel Reese, on the other hand, is a 22-year-old forward for the Chicago Sky who spent her college carrier at LSU. For the 2024 draft, Reese was picked 7th overall. During her first season on the Sky she averaged 13.6 points, 13.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 13 steals per game. With LSU, Reese won a national championship and was awarded Most Outstanding Player. She also holds the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) single season record for double-doubles and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) single season record for rebounds.
Junior Morgan Dulude, a member of the Williston Girls Varsity Basketball team, agrees with Margaret that “a lot of the players like Catlin Clark and Angel Reese” caused an increase of views.
Vox writes that college players influenced the increased views.
“A first-year class full of college sports phenoms like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink brought unprecedented attention to college women’s basketball during this year’s NCAA tournament and set new records for scoring and viewership during their undergraduate careers,” Vox explained.
These celebrated athletes carried their careers, and their loyal followers, over to the WNBA.
“When these athletes were recently drafted to the WNBA, their many fans followed them, boosting ticket and merchandise sales as well as TV ratings,” Vox writes.
Morgan also believes that there are more reasons behind the increased attention on women’s sports.
“I think that women are starting to do more of the things that men do like dunking,” she said. “I also think women’s sports are also more televised.”
Morgan loves the newfound respect towards women’s basketball.
“I think it is a really good thing because for a long-time woman always saw men [being respected] in that way but now we are becoming more respected,” she said.
Class of 2024 graduate Andie Kinstle is a big WNBA fan, and believes that the league’s popularity will grow because of the famous college players
“Players like Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins [are] still in college, [and] not pro yet.” Due to that, she thinks the WNBA is “going to stay pretty big,” Kinstle said.
Bueckers is a senior at University of Connecticut; Watkins is a sophomore at the University of Southern California.
The growth in respect and popularity for the WNBA leads Margaret to think the “WNBA being bigger [will make] way for younger athletes to get into the sport and it will grow better people to make the sport more competitive and good.”
Morgan also believes that the league will start getting more competitive due to its popularity.
“I think it will [grow] because there are a lot more teams being added, and girls are starting younger because they have something to look up to; getting them to be more competitive and get better faster,” she said.
Yet it is not just the WNBA, which is experiencing rapid growth; many other female sports leagues are growing their industries.
Vox said, “Given the successes and expansions that different leagues are experiencing, Deloitte estimates that elite women’s sports as an industry will rake in over $1 billion in 2024, representing a 300 percent increase in revenue compared to 2021.”
Morgan feels that the growth of women’s sports “gives [young girls] an outlet and something to look up to when they’re younger.”
Kinstle also believes that “it’s good for young girls to see this representation.” She said that she has also has “seen so many photos all over Instagram of young girls holding up signs for their favorite players at WNBA games.”
Kinstle thinks that the growth of the WNBA will inspire everyone, no matter the sport.
“I love they’re getting to see athletic women take up space and do the thing they love and excel at,” she said. “And even for girls who aren’t basketball players or aren’t athletes, I think it’s great that they can still be exposed to strong, talented women.”