Before this year and the Caitlin Clark phenomenon, the WNBA was not very popular. Someone mentioned that the cheapest ticket to the Fever's first playoff game the other night cost more than buying tickets to every game of the finals last year combined. That playoff format is terrible and very unfair but I'm sure it's driven by the budget. Hopefully the momentum continues and the league's popularity grows so they can stop doing screwy stuff based on very limited budgets.
WNBA: The 2024 Regular Season and Playoffs
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Before this year and the Caitlin Clark phenomenon, the WNBA was not very popular. Someone mentioned that the cheapest ticket to the Fever's first playoff game the other night cost more than buying tickets to every game of the finals last year combined. That playoff format is terrible and very unfair but I'm sure it's driven by the budget. Hopefully the momentum continues and the league's popularity grows so they can stop doing screwy stuff based on very limited budgets.
Ggallagher
Member
There was a story about this - in The Athletic, I think - a couple of days ago. Since the teams were required to fly commercial in the past, it made it pretty challenging to set up the flights - without spending more money than they wanted to. There is recognition now that it would be beneficial to play games in both cities for each playoff series. And now that they're allowed to fly charter, it shouldn't be a big deal. Just have to wait until next year to see if they're willing to change.
SouthernDukie
Member
And so ends my WNBA viewing for the season.
CameronBornAndBred
Well-known member
Out of curiosity, will there be a WNBA playoff thread? The friend I'm asking for noted that the regular season has been over for a week. 
Phredd3
Member
I can't find the study at the moment, but this is a phenomenon that seems to be much more prevalent in women's sports than in men's: Fans tend to follow players, rather than teams. It's not clear why. There are theories that women's sports weren't popular overall until the internet era, so being local doesn't matter as much. There is some evidence that people are more interested in the off-field lives of players in women's sports, and don't care so much about that for men. There may be other reasons, too.Yep.
Without Caitlin in, I’m out
In any case, it's a thing that affects women's sports and how they should be marketed. I'd love to see more detailed research on this kind of stuff. But it's very rare to hear someone say about a men's sport, "Player X is out, so I'm out, too." It's almost always of the form, "My team is out, so I'm out, too."
That's a big reason why leaving Clark off the Olympic team was such a huge mistake.
PackMan97
Member
Not with Clark out. The WNBA will learn, don't let the golden goose lose.Out of curiosity, will there be a WNBA playoff thread? The friend I'm asking for noted that the regular season has been over for a week.
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
Member
No one said "Caitlin Clark isn't any good that's why she isn't on the team."
Feel free to scroll back and find anyone who said "Caitlin Clark shouldn't be on the team because she won't finish in the top five of MVP voting."
The women's team won the gold. If they had lost, you could absolutely dunk on people who didn't think it mattered if CC was on the team.
You could have tossed me onto the bench instead and they still would have won gold so I’m not sure I would have ever been able to dunk on people using that metric.
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
Member
Fair point!
killerleft
Member
Next year will be much better if she gets a bit of rest. Going from the NCAA Tournament into the firestorm of the WBA this year has to have been draining.
I'm hoping Chelsea Gray can get another title. But I have to admit to watching maybe five WNBA games this year.
I'm hoping Chelsea Gray can get another title. But I have to admit to watching maybe five WNBA games this year.
cato
Member
My guess is that Clark was left off the team because she “hadn’t paid her dues,” and the people making the selection didn’t want to leave off a long tenured player who no longer was good enough to earn a spot in favor of a media sensation rookie that many established players felt was getting too much attention.
I get it. Don’t ruffle the feathers of the women who have paid their dues. Certainly, plenty of people wanted to show Clark on the court that she would have to fight through cheap shots in order to remain on the court. Leaving her off the team was a front office equivalent.
In retrospect, it was the wrong decision as Clark proved herself to be a difference maker for her team — on the court, not just in ticket sales and eyeballs.
But I’m guessing that the Olympic snub will end up helping Clark in the long run. She probably used it as fuel to motivate her this year, and can likely keep using it as fuel for as long as she wants, since she will never get back that opportunity to win gold.
JasonEvans
Host, The Duke Basketball Roundup
I get the sense there were a whole lot of current and former pros who were like, "I toiled in relative anonymity for years making ridiculously mediocre money playing in front of dozens of fans. How dare this woman bring exponentially more eyeballs to the sport and elevate all of us!! I will not stand for this added attention and money!!"
Or something like that...
brevity
Member
Actually, I did scroll back about a week ago, and there was an open question as to whether Caitlin Clark was one of the 12 best players in the league when the Olympics roster was announced.
I also saw (and still see) the sentiment that it wouldn't have mattered because Team USA was going to destroy everybody. But that's not what happened in the gold medal game:
[I forgot. NBC won't let me embed Olympic coverage. Click over if you want. USA won 67-66.]
France was inches away from tying the game in regulation. That puts a small dent in the argument that "Team USA could put me on the bench and still win gold."
To be fair, fans follow the male players as well, but the main difference is that men's pro sports teams have established their own brand identity, while women's pro sports teams have not. There is a subset of media coverage that caters to, say, Detroit, so that the protagonist of Detroit NBA coverage is the Pistons. Similarly, there are Lions media, Tigers media, and
The women don't have that. The Las Vegas Aces are 2-time champions with the current MVP and some of the league's best players in their starting five, a head coach that might have ended up an NBA head coach, and a very popular city to call home. But what is the Aces' identity? Everything I know about them -- other than game results -- comes from the players. We see NBA stars react to Chelsea Gray's crazy assists. Kelsey Plum did a State Farm commercial with JJ Redick. Candace Parker is the rare divorcée of the Brotherhood and was a huge college star in her own right, so the end of her career merited attention. A'ja Wilson makes her teammates reluctantly wear South Carolina gear when the Gamecocks win a title. Women's sports coverage (including self-coverage by social media) gives you that one path.
Also keep in mind that aside from pro basketball and soccer, there aren't women's pro sports teams to cover anyway. Some of the biggest stars among female athletes get to stand out in individual competition: tennis, gymnastics, swimming. We follow their lives in a People Magazine kind of way, and so it's not that surprising that we do the same for the team players as well. For example, we are presented with a lot more information about Alex Morgan's personal life than her professional soccer career.
Yeah a very small dent considering there were some DNPs, I believe. I honestly had no clue the score was even that close. I didn’t catch a game and didn’t follow it. I don’t even remember there being much coverage on it, to be honest. Maybe team usa should pick the best 12 players next time and the only player that brings a billion eyes to the game!
I don't need the league to do Clark any favors but when the face of the league has her first 2 playoff games, maybe you remind your refs to call the game straight up. I know the Fever aren't the best team...that's the Liberty or Aces. Heck that Suns team is probably better. But in the first half of that game the Suns were flopping to the floor like a men's soccer team. It was ridiculous. No calls against Clark and calls against Boston altered the game greatly (killed the Fever momentum in the first period). The consistent no-calls against Clark are frustrating. In both games she couldn't buy a call.
I saw a graphic this morning that showed the millions of viewers for Fever games vs the 379k for non-Fever games. The lowest price of a Fever playoff ticket was more than buying tickets for every single game of last year's finals. Charles Barkley was right!
I saw a graphic this morning that showed the millions of viewers for Fever games vs the 379k for non-Fever games. The lowest price of a Fever playoff ticket was more than buying tickets for every single game of last year's finals. Charles Barkley was right!