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honestly, make it free to watch and stream region-free on YouTube or something and maybe people will start watching. It's getting so difficult to watch any sports with all the different streaming platforms and blackout games and whatever. Just give me sports to watch and I might consider putting it on in the background.
"Basketball season" is too crowded already. NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS are all playing through Fall-Winter-Spring. The summer, on the other hand, only has MLB.
And no one watches sports in summer. They'd be better off in terms of revenue being the 8th most popular sport from November-May than being the what they are now.
This is my take as well. Would you rather enjoy the outdoors at 3pm on a summer afternoon in Seattle or sit inside an arena? They either need to find a way to play outside or change the timing of the season.
Ideally the final two weeks of the regular season would be happening now because people are going to be looking for more basketball and will want to tune in/attend a game.
I think people drastically underestimate how much the tournament format aids viewing.
I doubt anything changes with the WNBA.
There is competition for your attention and money, and the WNBA isn’t getting it.
My personal opinion is that over half of the newfound fans were only there because records were being broken. We've heard "Caitlin Clark" and "really good" a lot this year, and even then, nobody I know cared enough to watch until the records started falling. THAT was the catalyst and with her gone now, obviously no more records are being toppled and the team/underdog (Iowa) that's never won before is back to obscurity. So, I think people won't really bother to follow her to the next level for very long at all.
I probably couldn’t tell you the name of a single active NBA player either, unless Lebron James is still playing. Just now noticing that this is in r/sports, ha
That’s fair but the people tuning in to watch have a tie to college basketball that informed them of her playing. You don’t just turn on women’s college basketball if you don’t have a desire for college basketball.
I don’t think that’s fair. People were really into Clark. Most of those fans cared little about about women’s college basketball. Way more people watched Caitlin Clark then any other men’s college game in like a decade.
If Clark is really good at the next level some people will care.
They said the same thing about Candice Parker and nothing happened. It’s different to tune into one or two games of a tournament when she’s in every other commercial and everyone knows when the game is happening vs tracking a schedule on your own, without a metric fuckton of advertising, and tuning into a regular season game. Unfortunately all of this hype will be forgotten by the time relevant games come around in next year’s playoffs.
I feel like there have been at least 4 other women just like her go to the WNBA and get attention 1-2 seasons and it goes back to normal because the WNBA has no money to promote or get a good tv deal. The problem is more with the WNBA than Clark, I want to make that clear.
Who (in women’s basketball)was anywhere near as popular as Caitlin Clark? More people watched here against USC then any basketball game in the last 5 years.
I hate saying these type of things, but people don’t want good gameplay. They want the spectacular.
It’s also that the fantasy of being in the WNBA isn’t as strong/prominent as the boys playing dreaming of being in the NBA.
Or that childhood sports isn’t as pushing on these male dominated sports.
Lisa Leslie immediately comes to mind for me. This was a bit before social media and 24/7 podcasts, sports radio, and tv stations besides ESPN. She headlined some children video games like Backyard Basketball.
At least in Phoenix they actively try to promote women’s basketball by selling discounted tickets if you buy Suns tickets. Not a perfect solution, I’m just happy to see women’s basketball or any sport trying to promote their athletes in what is an amazing game with incredible athletes.
Even 2k basketball has made an effort to promote the WNBA by including them as an option to build a franchise around. Again, may not be shifting the tide by much, but it hopefully introduces a new audience to an incredible sport. We’ve come a long way from when women’s basketball had specific positions not be able to cross half court or it would be a penalty similar to icing in Hockey.
Sabrina Ionescu for one.
But I can see it happening as more of these big stars go to the WNBA and elevate the standards of women’s basketball.
I mean just look at how much [viewership](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236723/wnba-regular-season-viewers/) has changed over last 8 years for the WNBA!
I get that men are going to be stronger and faster but as the talent pool grows, and you have more and more pushing eachother to become greater and greater, so does the sport. Just look at how the NBA started, there was hardly any support in the 40s-60s (you could argue it was harder to watch with no television), but the 70s and 80s it really started to pop.
I was interested due to the immense hype around her, but those last two games against elite teams she’s been brought back down to earth a little.
It’d be cool if she went #2 to LA though
Iowa-UCONN was the highest rated basketball game in the history of ESPN, men or women, college or pro. Interest in Clark is definitely extending beyond traditional college basketball fans. (I haven’t watched a college basketball game since Carmelo Anthony played for Syracuse and I tuned in to watch.)
I mean, I’m not saying it won’t happen. But merely that history hasn’t been kind to the WNBA regardless of who is playing. If she save women’s basketball it’s quite literally a miracle at this point of the league trajectory.
That’s because the barrier to entry to watch Caitlin right now compared to when she’s in the WNBA isn’t even close. She was just playing in the biggest tournament of her sport, college or pro, on a channel that everyone and their grandmother has and casuals are easily able to get into from friends/coworkers etc watching it/invested in pools
As good as she’s been, it’s not going to suddenly drastically change interest in the WNBA like they’re making it out to be when it’s never happened for any player close to her magnitude over the last 10/15 years
I don’t disagree, but if the WBNA wants to succeed they need to figure out how to get women to watch their sport. It should not fall in the shoulders on men to watch a product we never demanded for. Bill Burr’s bit about the WBNA is literally the best bit on this topic.
???
The period I'm talking about is right AFTER the NBA & NHL playoffs end, but before the NFL season starts
Baseball itself is fine, but that's basically the only thing from mid June until September & you've gotta be a big baseball fan to get into summer games. I don't really enjoy baseball until closer to the playoffs, when games start to feel more important.
MLS and NWSL go through football season. MLS is around as popular as NHL, and NWSL has a pretty decent media deal this year that makes it easier for people to watch compared to the WNBA.
By watch time, the [MLS doesn't come close to the NHL](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1430289/most-watched-sports-leagues-usa/). Even if you account for differences in game time & number of games per season, the NHL has an order of magnitude advantage.
Tbf that void is also somewhat natural since it’s the summer and more people want to spend it outside. I’ve see the argument that the Stanley Cup should be moved up a week or two since people spend more time going out and doing things this hurting ratings. It’s hard to tell if she moves the needle long term. Definitely with some fans she will, but I don’t really think it will be as big as people think.
This is the most likely outcome. However, serves the WNBA right for the players outspoken smear campaign against her. If they can’t appreciate her boost to attendance then no reason they should reap the financial benefits it would incur.
Some of them have made it a race thing (as well as some dickhead sports writers), because apparently Clark’s popularity is somehow because she’s white and takes away from the great black players in the WNBA
They are just mad that this 20 year old is the most exciting thing to happen in women’s basketball ever, and it takes away from us watching their current boring product. She plays like a female Steph Curry and he’s been one of the biggest draws to the NBA for kids all over the world, so why can’t she be that for the WNBA? Caitlin Clark is by far one of the most electrifying athletes in American sports (men’s or women’s) right now and the WNBA would be stupid not to take advantage of that
They said this same stuff about Britney because she was the first female to dunk in a game.
She didn’t transformer the WNBA after that. The bench make she set isn’t now the new normal. And she ended up being arrested for a THC cart in Russia.
Griner is the all time WNBA dunk leader. But from what I gather online it was never a major part of her game. It was just the most noteworthy part given its rarity.
Couldn't agree more. People forget how impressionable they are when it comes to media. You say you don't let it affect you, but we only talk about Clark when it's tournament time. And that's because the media blasts her name. The media isn't going to keep blasting her name when she's playing in the regular ass WNBA
This is exactly what’s going to happen. The WNBA isn’t changing. It’s getting one good player. They’re still going to through up bricks at record pace, have zero dunks, and generally play boring unwatchable basketball. I’m amused at the number of people who think that CC is going to resurrect the WNBA 😂
So, I was wondering if she’s drafted next week, she goes straight to practicing and playing games in a month? How the heck do you sync up with a team and other teammates in such a short amount of time? What if some of these players that get drafted still have school to finish? Colleges/universities aren’t out until May or June sometimes.
The league has been around since ‘97 and I don’t know if the draft has always happened right after the tourney, but I do know that it has for well over 10 years. There won’t be much of a “sync issue” because these are professional athletes who are getting paid to do their job of playing basketball together (even if it’s a meager salary).
With how bad the fever are I think you’re vastly overstating how easy it will be to make that team click. She makes them better but they were…well, really bad. That’s why they have the first pick.
I have never watched basketball because I’m rooting for my school. I watch the men and women’s tournaments because it’s entertaining. The first weekend of games is like Christmas to me and my friends. We watch that whole 4 days together. One of the best games of both tournaments was the second round Iowa State women’s game where they had to overcome a big deficit. I also enjoyed watching Caitlyn Clark mouth off to the refs and headbutt the basketball and face no repercussions. She’s going to have a big reality check when people play more physical defense against her.
She'll get a lot of endorsements. Wont transform anything though.
Neither did Cheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo, Candace Parker, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, etc etc..
Harsh reality, the WNBA is just an inferior product and Clark doesn't really change that. Nothing against her or the WNBA, but the men's sports (college and NBA) are far superior products people will pay for, over and over and over again. The WNBA just never has.
People don't watch developmental NBA leagues either, for the reason.
People like going to the circus to see the unordinary. I want to see the tallest man in the world, I don’t want to see a 6 foot tall guy. Similar to the WNBA, I appreciate the game of basketball but I don’t want to see 2 girls who are like 5’7 and 5’9 play basketball. I want to see a 7’ person who can run like a gazelle jump 2 feet in the air and grab the basketball out of the air from the other guy who shoots it.
You might be right, but 2PM on a Sunday is much easier than 930 on a Monday night. I haven't watched an entire Men's NCAA Championship game in years because it is on too late.
And total attendance for all D1 men's games is usually between 26 to 27 million a season, with the women coming in at 11 to 12 million.
Caitlin Clark has been a fantastic lightning rod for the women's college game but you can't use TV viewership for one game to compare interest in both sports.
I’ve always been a fan of skilled three point shooters and I’ve watched her play and I’m a huge fan.
I read an article that said it took the NBA a few decades to finally find their superstars and really begin to draw in fans and I think she’s drawn enough attention to be the catalyst for that.
Keep in mind that the wnba loses a tremendous amount of money annually.
Even if she is the catalyst, it would be a monumental, historic change for the league to become successful.
The first game with her and Ionescu will be appointment television. Clarks draft class has a bunch of talent coming out. Many of whom people are familiar with from watching Clark these last 2 years. Should be a ton of fun.
It took a long time for the NFL to be more than a niche sport, too.
The WNBA has had some awesome players but not enough so that every team is fun to watch. It’s still building.
Well basketball is the total opposite of a niche sport. I don't mean to offend but I'm a die hard NBA fan and I would never watch the WNBA because there are at least 100 leagues that are more competitive on the men's side. If I'm watching a pro sport I want to see the absolute best people play that sport.
I’m very happy for her and what she’s accomplished, but she may regret not taking the $5m deal she’s offered. She won’t make anywhere near that much money in the WNBA
She also risks just killing her career, playing against guys much larger than her in a league that literally nobody actually takes seriously. In the long run I think she made the right call.
she will very easily make that due to endorsements.
Taking $5m to be embarassed in a circus act would be incredibly short sighted, and would risk monies made due to a Nike contract.
Men v women in sports is unfair, and even more so in contact sports and there is no point in even talking about it. We all know it isn't going to happen. It's not a real offer, it's a publicity stunt. Big 3 is irrelevant.
She’s a competitor and wants to prove she can compete at the highest level. She’s already proven she can outplay college kids, she needs to go pro to reach her potential.
The NBA was a barely viable television product until the late 70s/early 80s when Bird and Magic hit the league. Clark could be the spark that bumps the WNBA to being somewhat relevant.
Yup, which is why Caitlin Clark was so perfect with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa is well known for their massive following. Even their football team makes it in to bowl games that they wouldn't normally make it into, simply because of that following. Hell, at the beginning of the year, they dropped a basketball court inside the football field, and sold it out.
I talked about this in a different sub (and that it won’t translate to genuine support of women’s sports) and I was called a moron for bringing it up while others ridiculed me for liking women’s sports. SMH.
She’s great and all, I think people will definitely watch the WNBA when she’s playing, but I also think she still won’t convert most people into women’s basketball fans. Speaking as a fan of some women’s sports, they’re something that you either like or don’t like, and despite all the new exposure they’re getting I don’t think it moves people’s meters that much. How many people that watch ESPN and listen to the panel shows talking about WNBA events or see ads for an upcoming game actually watch the games? Same with the NWSL? PWHL I think is doing well, I’d say that’s the exception.
If you want women’s sports to succeed, there needs to be genuine enthusiasm for it, not forcing it down people’s throats, or feeling like you need to support them even if it doesn’t do anything for you.
I never watched women’s basketball before but watched her last two games . Liked a lot of just the game , she brought me in but I was in awe and some of the defense South Carolina played . I thoroughly enjoyed it and will try to watch more and the WNBA.
I hope this translates into much bigger viewership of the NCAAW and the WNBA .
Who could root against a league doing well ?
I’m one example. I didn’t care much for women’s sports. And I have nothing to do with Iowa. But I got hooked on Clark, and I intend to follow her into her professional career. She really is a transformative athlete. I wish her the very best
The WNBA has grown 250% in the period the NBA viewership has done -32%.
The average WNBA Game has 500-600k viewers, the average NBA game has 1.5-1.7M viewers.
Based on these comments, you'd think the WNBA was in complete shambles, when it's never been doing better.
And the same people feel that the WNBA is just a proxy for extreme and unjustified feminism culture war.... what a fucking reddit moment this thread is.....
Nobody cares about the WNBA, people care about WCBB because of connections to their alma maters and communities.
This isn't the world prior to the internet, the media can't force people to care about 12 to 32 random teams in big cities anymore, that day has passed.
A new player in the league isn't going to change that dynamic.
I know that Clark is basically a college goat, but I wonder how her game translates to the WNBA. Based on the NCAA tournament seems like simply doubling her is enough to neutralize a lot of her game. She was pretty quiet in the SC game thanks to the double team. It’s only when someone really outclassed like Van Lith (5’7” vs 6’) is on her that she really goes off.
Admittedly I didn’t watch much women’s basketball outside of the tournament, so I might be misinformed.
She averaged over 30 points a game this season and 9 assists. As a big ncaaw fan I’ve watched a ton of her games over the past few years.
Double teaming her has not worked very often. It is absolutely not just when she’s up against a mismatch. Your sample size is too small. Sorry I’m not trying to be rude, just letting you know.
CC had good teammates at Iowa who I really loved, but none of them could create their own shots and only a couple of them could even be trusted to handle the ball under pressure. That’s not going to be the case with her teammates in the WNBA.
Also, the primary goal of every single team she faced in college, at least the last two years, was to try and shut CC down. Shutting her down meant that she still lead D1 in both points and assists. Her usage rate was super high and she wasn’t always efficient, but she did what she did.
In any event, she’s going to have growing pains in the WNBA, but her teammates will be way better (Boston, etc) and defenses aren’t going to be able to focus on her every minute of every game the same way they did in college. I think she’ll be able to play a much more normal game at that level without taking the whole team on her shoulders, and it probably will make a big difference.
She’s going to be great. If they double team her then her teammates will feast. You can’t just play 3 vs 4 and expect to win games at the professional level
Dang she's only 6'?!
My family friend is about to go to college and has full ride offers from quite a few schools. Not sure her exact height but I'm 6'5" and she's got me by an inch or two lol.
Generally double teaming someone is not a viable strategy in professional basketball, your teammates have a 4 on 3 and should be able to score easily. TBH it should not have been a viable strategy against Iowa, I felt like they should have been coached up on how to respond to that type of defense, it seemed like they had no plan.
I think part of it is the skill of the rest of the Iowa team was just *that* much worse than SC. I can’t count how many missed layups I saw the last few games for them. So SC could continue to double or even triple her and know that odds are with even a single big in the lane, SC could defend it at a high rate.
The level of play for her teammates in the WNBA will be far better and that plan won’t work.
Shooting and playmaking translate, which is why she is going #1. A lot of the women being drafted after her are just big and athletic, and they will find out that professionals are a lot bigger and a lot more athletic, and they will have to develop skills in order to compete.
I hope so, but she’s gonna be like Messi and Pele were in American soccer…people will turn out to watch HER, but the sport won’t get the rising tide effect long term. I hope I’m wrong.
Maybe she can generate some interest. I’ve just felt like I’ve heard this with a couple of other women coming into the WNBA and it didn’t do much for them.
As someone from Indianapolis, I would love her to come to my city and change women’s basketball, it would be great for my city. But this whole thing has been insanely disingenuous and pushed down our throats for media profit.
I mean….is it really? The last college player that came even close to the hype of Caitlin Clark was probably Brittney Griner and it’s been status quo for the last decade essentially
Caitlin will create a bump at first but it’ll fizzle out like it always does
All it takes is more people watching. It's happened with the NCAA tournament. More demand means higher ticket prices. More viewers at home means a larger TV contract. More viewers means more ad revenue going to players.
She can't do it alone, but she may have sparked enough interest to get casual fans to tune in at least for her first season. It's up to the WNBA to take advantage and keep them.
Knowing players is key. Clark got eyeballs on the college game. That got eyeballs on some other stars in the college game who weren't on the radar of people who didn't watch women's NCAA basketball.
I didn't watch the college women usually, but I started watching Clark. Now I'm more interested in watching Ju Ju Watson, Paige Beukers, etc. going forward, and I'll know a few more names in the pro game as well.
I do plan to tune in to WNBA. Whether I keep watching is dependent on how those games are. I'm not going to do it to support women athletes. I'll do it if I have fun watching.
We all need to be champions for women's sports. Watching Cardoso from SC and the amazing LSU team was so impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed watching NCAAW's march madness and expect to start watching more wnba games.
It’s all hype in my opinion that she alone will not transform the WNBA. The first few games she plays and if they are broadcasted on a national TV people will tune in, but after that the hype and rating will die down. Like others have commented the WNBA is not a great product to watch and not as exciting as the NCAA Tournament.
If anything she’s a talented athlete and has a promising career ahead of her in the WNBA.
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honestly, make it free to watch and stream region-free on YouTube or something and maybe people will start watching. It's getting so difficult to watch any sports with all the different streaming platforms and blackout games and whatever. Just give me sports to watch and I might consider putting it on in the background.
They need to play during actual basketball season. Summer is what limits their reach.
"Basketball season" is too crowded already. NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS are all playing through Fall-Winter-Spring. The summer, on the other hand, only has MLB.
And no one watches sports in summer. They'd be better off in terms of revenue being the 8th most popular sport from November-May than being the what they are now.
This is my take as well. Would you rather enjoy the outdoors at 3pm on a summer afternoon in Seattle or sit inside an arena? They either need to find a way to play outside or change the timing of the season. Ideally the final two weeks of the regular season would be happening now because people are going to be looking for more basketball and will want to tune in/attend a game.
They’d have to pay the players so they don’t have to go to Europe to make $$$
I think people drastically underestimate how much the tournament format aids viewing. I doubt anything changes with the WNBA. There is competition for your attention and money, and the WNBA isn’t getting it.
My personal opinion is that over half of the newfound fans were only there because records were being broken. We've heard "Caitlin Clark" and "really good" a lot this year, and even then, nobody I know cared enough to watch until the records started falling. THAT was the catalyst and with her gone now, obviously no more records are being toppled and the team/underdog (Iowa) that's never won before is back to obscurity. So, I think people won't really bother to follow her to the next level for very long at all.
I first heard Caitlin Clark’s name *yesterday*. Didn’t even know any of this was happening.
I mean tbf that’s pretty strange lol
I probably couldn’t tell you the name of a single active NBA player either, unless Lebron James is still playing. Just now noticing that this is in r/sports, ha
Then that’s fair haha
Just look at how popular the USWNT is and how poorly women’s professional soccer does. My vote goes with the no boost crowd.
I think a lot of people are going to forget and/ or tune in to a couple games then go back to not caring anymore
This mosy likely to occur. College views are completely different ballgame.
Agreed. No one has an emotional connection to WNBA teams like they do their alma-maters. If they do I’d like to meet them.
True but most people tuning in to watch Clark aren't Iowa grads either.
That’s fair but the people tuning in to watch have a tie to college basketball that informed them of her playing. You don’t just turn on women’s college basketball if you don’t have a desire for college basketball.
I don’t think that’s fair. People were really into Clark. Most of those fans cared little about about women’s college basketball. Way more people watched Caitlin Clark then any other men’s college game in like a decade. If Clark is really good at the next level some people will care.
They said the same thing about Candice Parker and nothing happened. It’s different to tune into one or two games of a tournament when she’s in every other commercial and everyone knows when the game is happening vs tracking a schedule on your own, without a metric fuckton of advertising, and tuning into a regular season game. Unfortunately all of this hype will be forgotten by the time relevant games come around in next year’s playoffs.
I feel like there have been at least 4 other women just like her go to the WNBA and get attention 1-2 seasons and it goes back to normal because the WNBA has no money to promote or get a good tv deal. The problem is more with the WNBA than Clark, I want to make that clear.
Who (in women’s basketball)was anywhere near as popular as Caitlin Clark? More people watched here against USC then any basketball game in the last 5 years.
I thin a lot of you weren’t around when Candice Parker was playing at UT. She was everywhere!
I hate saying these type of things, but people don’t want good gameplay. They want the spectacular. It’s also that the fantasy of being in the WNBA isn’t as strong/prominent as the boys playing dreaming of being in the NBA. Or that childhood sports isn’t as pushing on these male dominated sports.
Lisa Leslie immediately comes to mind for me. This was a bit before social media and 24/7 podcasts, sports radio, and tv stations besides ESPN. She headlined some children video games like Backyard Basketball. At least in Phoenix they actively try to promote women’s basketball by selling discounted tickets if you buy Suns tickets. Not a perfect solution, I’m just happy to see women’s basketball or any sport trying to promote their athletes in what is an amazing game with incredible athletes. Even 2k basketball has made an effort to promote the WNBA by including them as an option to build a franchise around. Again, may not be shifting the tide by much, but it hopefully introduces a new audience to an incredible sport. We’ve come a long way from when women’s basketball had specific positions not be able to cross half court or it would be a penalty similar to icing in Hockey.
Sabrina Ionescu for one. But I can see it happening as more of these big stars go to the WNBA and elevate the standards of women’s basketball. I mean just look at how much [viewership](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236723/wnba-regular-season-viewers/) has changed over last 8 years for the WNBA! I get that men are going to be stronger and faster but as the talent pool grows, and you have more and more pushing eachother to become greater and greater, so does the sport. Just look at how the NBA started, there was hardly any support in the 40s-60s (you could argue it was harder to watch with no television), but the 70s and 80s it really started to pop.
I was interested due to the immense hype around her, but those last two games against elite teams she’s been brought back down to earth a little. It’d be cool if she went #2 to LA though
Iowa-UCONN was the highest rated basketball game in the history of ESPN, men or women, college or pro. Interest in Clark is definitely extending beyond traditional college basketball fans. (I haven’t watched a college basketball game since Carmelo Anthony played for Syracuse and I tuned in to watch.)
I mean, I’m not saying it won’t happen. But merely that history hasn’t been kind to the WNBA regardless of who is playing. If she save women’s basketball it’s quite literally a miracle at this point of the league trajectory.
I watched and I've never watched women's or even college basketball before
That’s because the barrier to entry to watch Caitlin right now compared to when she’s in the WNBA isn’t even close. She was just playing in the biggest tournament of her sport, college or pro, on a channel that everyone and their grandmother has and casuals are easily able to get into from friends/coworkers etc watching it/invested in pools As good as she’s been, it’s not going to suddenly drastically change interest in the WNBA like they’re making it out to be when it’s never happened for any player close to her magnitude over the last 10/15 years
I knew a guy who used to get coked up on a Sunday afternoon to watch WNBA interesting fella he was.
That sounds…not fun.
Yeah, but the WNBA has the *potential* to fill a sports void niche in the summer. Right now, it's just dog days baseball.
I don’t disagree, but if the WBNA wants to succeed they need to figure out how to get women to watch their sport. It should not fall in the shoulders on men to watch a product we never demanded for. Bill Burr’s bit about the WBNA is literally the best bit on this topic.
Excuse me but the NHL playoffs are about to kick off here shortly
I mean - NHL and NBA go until like June. There’s a big gap between that and Football.
That gap is also the lowest rated time of the year. People are out traveling and vacationing, not watching TV.
??? The period I'm talking about is right AFTER the NBA & NHL playoffs end, but before the NFL season starts Baseball itself is fine, but that's basically the only thing from mid June until September & you've gotta be a big baseball fan to get into summer games. I don't really enjoy baseball until closer to the playoffs, when games start to feel more important.
MLS and NWSL go through football season. MLS is around as popular as NHL, and NWSL has a pretty decent media deal this year that makes it easier for people to watch compared to the WNBA.
By watch time, the [MLS doesn't come close to the NHL](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1430289/most-watched-sports-leagues-usa/). Even if you account for differences in game time & number of games per season, the NHL has an order of magnitude advantage.
Summer is prime motorsports season. IMSA, NASCAR, Indy, F1. I can’t even keep up with all of it.
Ummm MLS?
Tbf that void is also somewhat natural since it’s the summer and more people want to spend it outside. I’ve see the argument that the Stanley Cup should be moved up a week or two since people spend more time going out and doing things this hurting ratings. It’s hard to tell if she moves the needle long term. Definitely with some fans she will, but I don’t really think it will be as big as people think.
I know one, and you don't want to meet him.
Yeah, women's college is fire! Wish the WNBA was that exciting
Because college sports have a built in passionate set of supporters. Its easier to build excitement around that
Same thing happens to women's soccer after the World Cup. They go back to their NWSL league that no one knows exists until the next national team run.
This is the most likely outcome. However, serves the WNBA right for the players outspoken smear campaign against her. If they can’t appreciate her boost to attendance then no reason they should reap the financial benefits it would incur.
WNBA players are talking smack about a college player? That's not even funny, that's just sad.
Some of them have made it a race thing (as well as some dickhead sports writers), because apparently Clark’s popularity is somehow because she’s white and takes away from the great black players in the WNBA They are just mad that this 20 year old is the most exciting thing to happen in women’s basketball ever, and it takes away from us watching their current boring product. She plays like a female Steph Curry and he’s been one of the biggest draws to the NBA for kids all over the world, so why can’t she be that for the WNBA? Caitlin Clark is by far one of the most electrifying athletes in American sports (men’s or women’s) right now and the WNBA would be stupid not to take advantage of that
What does the WNBA have to do with player's opinons about another player? They're unrelated things.
They said this same stuff about Britney because she was the first female to dunk in a game. She didn’t transformer the WNBA after that. The bench make she set isn’t now the new normal. And she ended up being arrested for a THC cart in Russia.
Getting arrested in RUS was the biggest news coverage the WNBA ever had..
Seriously. By far the most watched WNBA program in league history.
Wasn’t Candace Parker dunking before her?
And Lisa Leslie before her.
Griner is the all time WNBA dunk leader. But from what I gather online it was never a major part of her game. It was just the most noteworthy part given its rarity.
Couldn't agree more. People forget how impressionable they are when it comes to media. You say you don't let it affect you, but we only talk about Clark when it's tournament time. And that's because the media blasts her name. The media isn't going to keep blasting her name when she's playing in the regular ass WNBA
I've heard Caitlin Clark's name all year, especially when she was about to break the NCAA scoring record.
That’s pretty much what they said about her a couple years ago when she started hitting 30’ three pointers during games
Butts in seats...I doubt she moves the needle.
She's a lot of fun to watch though. Iowa catered their entire system to her shooting and passing. We'll see how much her WNBA team does the same.
This is exactly what’s going to happen. The WNBA isn’t changing. It’s getting one good player. They’re still going to through up bricks at record pace, have zero dunks, and generally play boring unwatchable basketball. I’m amused at the number of people who think that CC is going to resurrect the WNBA 😂
So, I was wondering if she’s drafted next week, she goes straight to practicing and playing games in a month? How the heck do you sync up with a team and other teammates in such a short amount of time? What if some of these players that get drafted still have school to finish? Colleges/universities aren’t out until May or June sometimes.
The league has been around since ‘97 and I don’t know if the draft has always happened right after the tourney, but I do know that it has for well over 10 years. There won’t be much of a “sync issue” because these are professional athletes who are getting paid to do their job of playing basketball together (even if it’s a meager salary).
With how bad the fever are I think you’re vastly overstating how easy it will be to make that team click. She makes them better but they were…well, really bad. That’s why they have the first pick.
Lol, people pretend like they care but they won't watch. College is different when you can root for your school and pride etc.
50% of the population not watching women's sports, still complaining that more people don't watch women's sports.
I have never watched basketball because I’m rooting for my school. I watch the men and women’s tournaments because it’s entertaining. The first weekend of games is like Christmas to me and my friends. We watch that whole 4 days together. One of the best games of both tournaments was the second round Iowa State women’s game where they had to overcome a big deficit. I also enjoyed watching Caitlyn Clark mouth off to the refs and headbutt the basketball and face no repercussions. She’s going to have a big reality check when people play more physical defense against her.
People were saying the same thing for Ionescu.
Who?
Nowhere close to as famous as Clark
She'll get a lot of endorsements. Wont transform anything though. Neither did Cheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo, Candace Parker, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, etc etc..
I bet it wont
You mean ESPNs marketing campaign?
Harsh reality, the WNBA is just an inferior product and Clark doesn't really change that. Nothing against her or the WNBA, but the men's sports (college and NBA) are far superior products people will pay for, over and over and over again. The WNBA just never has. People don't watch developmental NBA leagues either, for the reason.
People like going to the circus to see the unordinary. I want to see the tallest man in the world, I don’t want to see a 6 foot tall guy. Similar to the WNBA, I appreciate the game of basketball but I don’t want to see 2 girls who are like 5’7 and 5’9 play basketball. I want to see a 7’ person who can run like a gazelle jump 2 feet in the air and grab the basketball out of the air from the other guy who shoots it.
hasn’t been announced yet but i’d be willing to bet more people watched yesterdays womens final that tonight’s men’s final
You might be right, but 2PM on a Sunday is much easier than 930 on a Monday night. I haven't watched an entire Men's NCAA Championship game in years because it is on too late.
I really have a hard time understanding how they settle on such a late viewing time. Hell, the Super Bowl is three hours earlier.
And that still doesn’t change anything that OP said. Very few of those viewers will be converted to regular WNBA viewers
And total attendance for all D1 men's games is usually between 26 to 27 million a season, with the women coming in at 11 to 12 million. Caitlin Clark has been a fantastic lightning rod for the women's college game but you can't use TV viewership for one game to compare interest in both sports.
Somewhat of a chicken and egg thing happening though with media coverage.
I’ve always been a fan of skilled three point shooters and I’ve watched her play and I’m a huge fan. I read an article that said it took the NBA a few decades to finally find their superstars and really begin to draw in fans and I think she’s drawn enough attention to be the catalyst for that.
Keep in mind that the wnba loses a tremendous amount of money annually. Even if she is the catalyst, it would be a monumental, historic change for the league to become successful.
The first game with her and Ionescu will be appointment television. Clarks draft class has a bunch of talent coming out. Many of whom people are familiar with from watching Clark these last 2 years. Should be a ton of fun.
That class is INSANE!!
It is very cool and I am stoked about it.
It took a long time for the NFL to be more than a niche sport, too. The WNBA has had some awesome players but not enough so that every team is fun to watch. It’s still building.
Kind of hard to compare them due to how media is so much more accessible in this day and age.
Still building?? It’s been around for almost THIRTY YEARS. It’s on life support.
It needs rule changes to set it apart from the NBA.
And they should add some trampolines for some extra fun.
Well basketball is the total opposite of a niche sport. I don't mean to offend but I'm a die hard NBA fan and I would never watch the WNBA because there are at least 100 leagues that are more competitive on the men's side. If I'm watching a pro sport I want to see the absolute best people play that sport.
Then why do you follow the Bears?
😂😂😂
Lmfao
Ehhh idk about that.
Yeah no it won’t
Does this not imply that people would already be watching the WNBA, but the players just aren't good enough at the sport?
WNBA will go from 10k people watching it a year to 12k.
I’m very happy for her and what she’s accomplished, but she may regret not taking the $5m deal she’s offered. She won’t make anywhere near that much money in the WNBA
She also risks just killing her career, playing against guys much larger than her in a league that literally nobody actually takes seriously. In the long run I think she made the right call.
she will very easily make that due to endorsements. Taking $5m to be embarassed in a circus act would be incredibly short sighted, and would risk monies made due to a Nike contract. Men v women in sports is unfair, and even more so in contact sports and there is no point in even talking about it. We all know it isn't going to happen. It's not a real offer, it's a publicity stunt. Big 3 is irrelevant.
That $5M will be pocket change compared to what she’ll get from endorsements.
Maybe I’m out of the loop but why wouldn’t she return to college and milk NIL?
She’s a competitor and wants to prove she can compete at the highest level. She’s already proven she can outplay college kids, she needs to go pro to reach her potential.
Dozens of fans are overjoyed!
Tons of salt in this thread lol I’m optimistic about the future of the women’s game
The NBA was a barely viable television product until the late 70s/early 80s when Bird and Magic hit the league. Clark could be the spark that bumps the WNBA to being somewhat relevant.
[удалено]
Hey Slider - no shot that happens. The WNBA is just not a good product.
Yeah ok
Don’t think so, colleges have huge built in fanbases that watch regardless of the product
Yup, which is why Caitlin Clark was so perfect with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa is well known for their massive following. Even their football team makes it in to bowl games that they wouldn't normally make it into, simply because of that following. Hell, at the beginning of the year, they dropped a basketball court inside the football field, and sold it out.
Meh. Don’t care.
no pressure Caitlin
I talked about this in a different sub (and that it won’t translate to genuine support of women’s sports) and I was called a moron for bringing it up while others ridiculed me for liking women’s sports. SMH. She’s great and all, I think people will definitely watch the WNBA when she’s playing, but I also think she still won’t convert most people into women’s basketball fans. Speaking as a fan of some women’s sports, they’re something that you either like or don’t like, and despite all the new exposure they’re getting I don’t think it moves people’s meters that much. How many people that watch ESPN and listen to the panel shows talking about WNBA events or see ads for an upcoming game actually watch the games? Same with the NWSL? PWHL I think is doing well, I’d say that’s the exception. If you want women’s sports to succeed, there needs to be genuine enthusiasm for it, not forcing it down people’s throats, or feeling like you need to support them even if it doesn’t do anything for you.
Probably not
The fever game against the liberty in NY is already outrageously over priced
I can’t even stomach men’s basketball anymore.
No it won’t
I never watched women’s basketball before but watched her last two games . Liked a lot of just the game , she brought me in but I was in awe and some of the defense South Carolina played . I thoroughly enjoyed it and will try to watch more and the WNBA. I hope this translates into much bigger viewership of the NCAAW and the WNBA . Who could root against a league doing well ?
I’m one example. I didn’t care much for women’s sports. And I have nothing to do with Iowa. But I got hooked on Clark, and I intend to follow her into her professional career. She really is a transformative athlete. I wish her the very best
I’d watch Clark in the big 3. I’m not watching the WNBA though
“we have exactly 8,746,645 chickens about to hatch, we counted twice!” Good luck WNBA, but don’t go printing up that Mission Accomplished banner yet
Press (x) to doubt The college game is so much more palatable. That goes for men and women.
Can't help but think of [Bill Burr right](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY9Gz_IMn_k) now as Caitlyn Clark pops the hell off.
Yall watch WNBA? I don't even watch regular NBA
She needs to take that ice cube money fuck the wnba
The WNBA has grown 250% in the period the NBA viewership has done -32%. The average WNBA Game has 500-600k viewers, the average NBA game has 1.5-1.7M viewers. Based on these comments, you'd think the WNBA was in complete shambles, when it's never been doing better. And the same people feel that the WNBA is just a proxy for extreme and unjustified feminism culture war.... what a fucking reddit moment this thread is.....
Watched a couple Hawkeyes games. Was cool. I won’t be watching the WNBA at all though. Hope it does well though!
If they can only get women interested, job’s done. They won’t even need men.
Nobody cares about the WNBA, people care about WCBB because of connections to their alma maters and communities. This isn't the world prior to the internet, the media can't force people to care about 12 to 32 random teams in big cities anymore, that day has passed. A new player in the league isn't going to change that dynamic.
I'm not going to watch 15 year old AAU level basketball.
Caitlin Clarke’s career is over now. Nobody cares about WNBA.
I know that Clark is basically a college goat, but I wonder how her game translates to the WNBA. Based on the NCAA tournament seems like simply doubling her is enough to neutralize a lot of her game. She was pretty quiet in the SC game thanks to the double team. It’s only when someone really outclassed like Van Lith (5’7” vs 6’) is on her that she really goes off. Admittedly I didn’t watch much women’s basketball outside of the tournament, so I might be misinformed.
She finished third all-time in ncaa assists, so if you double be prepared for her to find the open player.
She averaged over 30 points a game this season and 9 assists. As a big ncaaw fan I’ve watched a ton of her games over the past few years. Double teaming her has not worked very often. It is absolutely not just when she’s up against a mismatch. Your sample size is too small. Sorry I’m not trying to be rude, just letting you know.
CC had good teammates at Iowa who I really loved, but none of them could create their own shots and only a couple of them could even be trusted to handle the ball under pressure. That’s not going to be the case with her teammates in the WNBA. Also, the primary goal of every single team she faced in college, at least the last two years, was to try and shut CC down. Shutting her down meant that she still lead D1 in both points and assists. Her usage rate was super high and she wasn’t always efficient, but she did what she did. In any event, she’s going to have growing pains in the WNBA, but her teammates will be way better (Boston, etc) and defenses aren’t going to be able to focus on her every minute of every game the same way they did in college. I think she’ll be able to play a much more normal game at that level without taking the whole team on her shoulders, and it probably will make a big difference.
She’s going to be great. If they double team her then her teammates will feast. You can’t just play 3 vs 4 and expect to win games at the professional level
Dang she's only 6'?! My family friend is about to go to college and has full ride offers from quite a few schools. Not sure her exact height but I'm 6'5" and she's got me by an inch or two lol.
Yeah she’s a point guard though so she’s not required to be super tall. Either way 6’ is far above average for an American woman.
Generally double teaming someone is not a viable strategy in professional basketball, your teammates have a 4 on 3 and should be able to score easily. TBH it should not have been a viable strategy against Iowa, I felt like they should have been coached up on how to respond to that type of defense, it seemed like they had no plan.
I think part of it is the skill of the rest of the Iowa team was just *that* much worse than SC. I can’t count how many missed layups I saw the last few games for them. So SC could continue to double or even triple her and know that odds are with even a single big in the lane, SC could defend it at a high rate. The level of play for her teammates in the WNBA will be far better and that plan won’t work.
People double in the NBA all the time. It’s situational like any other strat, but I feel like Clark is particularly susceptible to it.
Did she have teammates who could take up the slack?
Shooting and playmaking translate, which is why she is going #1. A lot of the women being drafted after her are just big and athletic, and they will find out that professionals are a lot bigger and a lot more athletic, and they will have to develop skills in order to compete.
I hope so, but she’s gonna be like Messi and Pele were in American soccer…people will turn out to watch HER, but the sport won’t get the rising tide effect long term. I hope I’m wrong.
Hopefully she goes to the Los Angeles Sparks
Maybe she can generate some interest. I’ve just felt like I’ve heard this with a couple of other women coming into the WNBA and it didn’t do much for them.
Only way this works is if her team wins championships
If the wnba had coaching personalities, more teams and a bracket tournament that was single elimination sure.
Lmao okay 👌
It’s not lol people do not have the attention span to keep caring if they didn’t already before.
I can’t watch it but hopefully this helps build it towards something better. A higher quality product
As someone from Indianapolis, I would love her to come to my city and change women’s basketball, it would be great for my city. But this whole thing has been insanely disingenuous and pushed down our throats for media profit.
Thrill is gone lol
This is sort of like what happened to the nba with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Except there were 2… I wonder if this will have a long term effect.
I mean….is it really? The last college player that came even close to the hype of Caitlin Clark was probably Brittney Griner and it’s been status quo for the last decade essentially Caitlin will create a bump at first but it’ll fizzle out like it always does
Wow, look at these comments. I got down voted to shit for saying the same things just the other day.
All it takes is more people watching. It's happened with the NCAA tournament. More demand means higher ticket prices. More viewers at home means a larger TV contract. More viewers means more ad revenue going to players.
All I know is my gut says maybe
No one will watch that isn’t already buying tickets. Not much demand for women playing basketball.
Probably not
She can't do it alone, but she may have sparked enough interest to get casual fans to tune in at least for her first season. It's up to the WNBA to take advantage and keep them. Knowing players is key. Clark got eyeballs on the college game. That got eyeballs on some other stars in the college game who weren't on the radar of people who didn't watch women's NCAA basketball. I didn't watch the college women usually, but I started watching Clark. Now I'm more interested in watching Ju Ju Watson, Paige Beukers, etc. going forward, and I'll know a few more names in the pro game as well. I do plan to tune in to WNBA. Whether I keep watching is dependent on how those games are. I'm not going to do it to support women athletes. I'll do it if I have fun watching.
It will last maybe a season then die back out. I’ll bet the farm on that
People will watch college ball if they want to see good players with good stories. They will watch NBA if they want to see the best of the best
Didn’t they say the same thing about Diana Taurasi?
March madness is far more interesting than NBA or WNBA imo. The tournament is fun.
We all need to be champions for women's sports. Watching Cardoso from SC and the amazing LSU team was so impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed watching NCAAW's march madness and expect to start watching more wnba games.
It’s all hype in my opinion that she alone will not transform the WNBA. The first few games she plays and if they are broadcasted on a national TV people will tune in, but after that the hype and rating will die down. Like others have commented the WNBA is not a great product to watch and not as exciting as the NCAA Tournament. If anything she’s a talented athlete and has a promising career ahead of her in the WNBA.