In 2024, the WNBA had a record-breaking season. Largely because of the new class of rookies, including Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, game views skyrocketed. The 2024 WNBA season racked up 54 million views across all streaming platforms, compared to 2023 when viewers averaged only 505,000. While this rise was much deserved, it’s not enough.
The NBA has consistently averaged well over a million viewers in the past decade. The WNBA just started growing. However, the league and its fans are unsure as to whether this is a fluke. In order for the WNBA to remain the force it has become in the past year, it needs consistent viewership. It not only needs the love it received last year, but it also needs the same accolades as the NBA.
With high viewership comes higher revenue
To put the WNBA’s current revenue into perspective, the league only makes about $200 million in revenue per season, while the NBA makes $10.58 billion. While their is many factors that contribute to this other than viewership like the amount of teams in the league, the overall revenue of the entire WNBA is less than two percent of the NBA’s revenue.
But if the league is doing better, why should you care?
The WNBA faces an absurd amount of misogyny. Whether many men realize it or not, it’s hard for many of them to watch women’s basketball simply because women are involved. They can’t watch an hour of women doing something that is typically dominated by men.
While women are not physically built the same as men, WNBA games have equal passion and intensity as the NBA. If you enjoy the high energy of a game of basketball, there is no reason that you wouldn’t like watching a women’s game. Turning on a women’s game should not threaten your masculinity, because at the end of the day, they are playing the same sport you love.
WNBA players are equally as qualified and deserving to play in the league; otherwise, they wouldn’t be there. This argument is an adult translation of “boys are stronger than girls,” which is an outdated, misogynistic rhetoric.
misogyny creates a stigma around women’s sports
According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, girls drop out of sports by age 14 at twice the rate of boys. This is typically because of social stigma. Many young female athletes report feeling misrepresented within their sport as well as having low self-esteem.
At all levels of basketball, misogyny, bullying and discrimination are extremely prevalent, potentially leading to girls losing interest in their passions. Their passions are simply playing a sport, and they deserve to do that without harassment. On the other hand, if women’s sports become more normalized, women and girls are way more likely to play. The more people who watch the WNBA, the more revenue it receives and the more normalized it becomes, making it seem like an achievable passion.
However, that is not all high viewership can do.
Marketing
Another reason people claim not to watch the WNBA is that their marketing isn’t good. The WNBA does have sponsorships, but not nearly as many as the NBA. Now that their numbers are rising, however, their sponsorship values are rising too. This, in turn, creates better advertising for the players. Players such as Breanna Stewart and Clark are slowly becoming household names.
Three years ago, only people within the WNBA sphere could name the 2022 and 2023 MVP, A’ja Wilson. Now, her face is plastered all over Google, AT&T and Nike. This is direct proof of what high viewership can do.
Along with better sponsorships, value comes from better facilities and more teams. The WNBA is on track to add four more teams by 2028, allowing women’s sports to spread to more cities and countries. This is extremely beneficial for the league because going to a women’s basketball game can be difficult. There are only twelve teams in the league, meaning if there isn’t one in your city, you would have to travel pretty far to attend a game. Within the next few years, it will be much easier to support them.
For The Love of the game
The fact is: if you claim to love basketball but choose not to watch women’s basketball, it’s likely you don’t view women as equals. Female basketball players work just as hard as men, and their games are equally as intense as male games. Not only do they work as hard, but they face harassment and misogyny while doing it.
The WNBA can become as powerful as the NBA; however, it needs more support. The league needs even more game attendance and viewership than last season. The young girls who dream of being professional basketball players deserve to see their sport uplifted. They deserve to play a sport without fear of harassment, and they deserve to know that when they get older, the sport they love will still be there for them.