It is a great time in the WNBA. TV viewership, game attendance, and merchandise are all exploding.
In 2024, WNBA games on CBS were up 170%, ION went up 133%, and ABC’s All-Star game was up 305%. That means lots of money in the next TV contract, which means better salaries, better practice facilities, and continued charter flights.
In 2024 attendance went up 48%. The highest average attendance for a team was 9,207 back in 2012. This year 9 of the 13 teams average over 10,000 fans, with Indiana 16k, Golden State 15k, and New York 13k. That means lots of money in the next TV contract, which means better salaries, better practice facilities, and continued charter flights.
Last year merchandise sales jumped up 601% and WNBA merchandise at Dick’s went up 233%. That means lots of money in the next TV contract, which means better salaries, better practice facilities, and continued charter flights.
The WNBA is in the middle of a real explosion in popularity. This week it announced that it is expanding with 5 more teams over the next few years to reach 18 total teams. The reason the WNBA can expand is that financial the league is exploding with interest in attendance, TV, and merchandise.
Caitlin Clark came out of Iowa and led this explosion. Iowa has probably the richest history of girls basketball in America, so she got prep attention. By choosing the University of Iowa, she went to a place famous for supporting women’s basketball. It all grew and grew. Clark was a very good player and was in the right place at the right time to create an unparalleled marketing package. The WNBA changed in reaction to the fan interest in Clark. The storm of interest for Clark was greater than the attention that the great UConn teams had every received, and UConn alums and their coach let the world know their displeasure with Clark.
Clark did not disappoint in 2024. She set WNBA records for assists in the season and assists in a game. Note not rookie records, records for any player. She set rookie records for total points in the season and threes in a season. She was not selected to the U.S. Olympic team but she lead the WNBA All-Stars to a win over the Olympians. She became the focus over every opponent to either stop Clark or embarrass Clark.
In particular, Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are at the lead of the explosion. Clark’s new Nike shoes sold up in a matter of minutes last week. When Clark was injured with a quad injury, her impact showed up with TV audiences. During her injury, Fever national TV games had viewership go down 53%, and the entire WNBA had their viewership go down 55%. Yahoo Sports looked at the numbers and concluded,”Clark’s presence, or the lack there of at the moment, is worth half of the value of the league and her her franchise in terms of the television ratings.”
Caitlin Clark and the WNBA are in a great spot! It is obvious why five more cities want to get a piece of the WNBA financial pie.
It seems that the only thing that can stop this explosion are the WNBA players. Just when the WNBA seems full of feel good stories, the WNBA players seem determined to produce negative stories that turn off the fans.
The WNBA did like most pro leagues, they used a combination of fans, media, and players to pick an All-Star team.
On the fan side, Caitlin Clark was the number one vote getter. This year she received 1.29 million votes. This was an all-time record in WNBA voting, breaking her record of last year which was 700,735. To show the boom in popularity of the WNBA and Clark, in 2025 her 1.29 million votes is greater than the top 30 vote getters in the WNBA in 2023 (year before she arrived) when they got 1.17 million votes.
The WNBA has votes for “guards” in one category and “forwards” in another category. In the guard category, the fans ranked the guards: 1-Clark, 2- Paige Bueckers (Dal), 3- Mitchell (Ind), 5- Ionescu (NY), 6- Plum (LA), 7- Gray (Atl), 9- Diggins (Seat), 10- Young (LV), 12- Sykes (Wash), 14- Cloud (NY).
The media ranked the guards as follows: 1- Gray (Atl), 2- Ionescu (NY), Clark (Ind), Diggins (Sea), 5- Bueckers (Dal), 6- Plum, Sykes, 8- Cloud (NY), 9- Young, 11- Mitchell (Ind).
The controversy came with the players ranking: 1- Gray (Atl), 2- Ionescu (NY), 3- Diggins (Sea), 4- Bueckers, Cloud, 6- Mitchell (Ind), 7- Sykes (Wash), 9- Clark, 16- Plum (LA).
To understand the players voting, my understanding was the they just ranked their top 4 players. So then either players got 1 point for being on a player’s ballot as top four, or they got 4 for first, 3 for second, etc. So no player actually put on a paper that Clark was #9 or that Plum was #16. But indicates that Clark and Plum had to be left off of most of the ballots completely.
So Clark ranked #1 in fans, #3 with media, and #9 with players. Presently Clark is averaging 18.2ppg, 8.9apg, 5.0rpg, while shooting 39% FG and 30% on threes. Critics who claim the #9 ranking is justified look at that she has missed 7 of 16 games. Paige Bueckers missed 5 of 18 games but the players ranked her #4. Others have said she in not even ranked in assists or scoring. This is true because they don’t list her because of the games missed. When she qualifies, she will be #2 in assists and #8 in scoring. The big thing the critics point out is that she is averaging 5.9 turnovers/game.
Supporters of Clark are puzzled that if she is the #9 guard in the league, why do other teams spend so much energy figuring out strategies designed and focused on Caitlin Clark.
Here is what some people have to say:
Dick Vitale- “It’s absurd the way that a number of players in the WNBA have treated Caitlin Clark. So sad but I bet they love the charter flights, increase in salaries, the crowds, and the TV ratings since she arrived from Iowa. No doubt she is the best thing that happened to the WNBA.”
Sign at Commissioner Cup’s Championship- “9th in your rankings, first in your nightmares.”
Jerry Pratt- “What a funny league filled with petty and jealous women.”
Robert Griffin III- “It’s certainly a choice to rank a guard who averages less points, less assists, less rebounds, less blocks, and lower 3 point shooting percentage higher. That’s the clearest sign of hate for Caitlin Clark there could be.”
“Kelsie Plum is averaging the most points of any guard in the WNBA and the players voted her 16th best guard.”
“Not all WNBA players are to blame and not all of them hate or are jealous of Caitlin Clark. But the players that voted her low got it wrong in this case, and some WNBA players are letting their jealousy of Caitlin Clark get in the way of the greatness for the entire WNBA.”
Why This Disconnect Between The Fans and The Players?
Years ago I was not close to Caitlin Clark in ability, but I was a good sophomore on a bad small school varsity basketball team. I seldom got into games except during mop up time. In the middle of the season against the best team in the conference, the coach put me into the game late in the first quarter, and didn’t take me out. It was a night when I could not miss. I scored 28 points in the game and although we still lost, we were competitive against one of the best teams in the area.
I was excited and assumed everyone else would be excited. The next week in the locker room after practice, a senior got me alone in a corner and said, “You think you’re a hot shot now. If you start ahead of me, I am going to beat the crap out of you.” I probably weighed 140 pounds and he certainly could have “beaten the crap out of me.”
Whether I made our team better was not really important to him. In his mind, it was his turn- he had earned it and I had not. I had gotten a headline and a picture in the local paper and he had not. For some time it made for a very uncomfortable situation. While I was getting to do what I had dreamed of, any joy was taken away. The hostility that teammate had for me had to be evident to my coach and some of my teammates, but none of them helped me deal with it or ever addressed it.
The WNBA players are like my disgruntled teammate. Just as I felt alone, the WNBA league is not appearing to do anything to deal with the situation.
The WNBA players at some point need to realize that the huge gap between the fans feelings and the players feelings is not healthy for the league. Moving the fans feelings and basically telling them to be less passionate about Clark certainly makes no sense for the success of the league. Competing and trying to beat Clark makes sense for a healthy league- but trying to put her down, literally beat her up, and devalue her contribution will only weaken the league going forward.
My conclusion- the voting of the WNBA players on Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Plum are not reality checks for Clark or Plum, they are an embarrassment for the WNBA players and for the entire league. Usually players votes for all-star teams are more accurate than either the media or the fans, but in this case the WNBA players have shown they lack the ability to evaluate in a rationale and objective fashion.
Christine Brennan is the author of a book on Caitlin Clark that is coming out next week. Her perspective is spot on, and also with an added twist.
Christine Brennan- “Caitlin Clark finishing first in the All-Star game fan voting and 9th in the player voting reveals an obvious and crucial disconnect tht the WNBA leadership would be wise to address. They should have done it last year before her rookie season as I report in “On Her Game.” Here we are again.”
“Nike loves her. She’s got Wilson, obviously. She’s got Gatorade. And if Nike said,’We’re going to make the Nike-Clark league,’ it would obviously take a few years to get arenas and whatever. But you know the TV contract. I mean, it’s Caitlin.”
My question- Do you think a Des Moines fanchise in the Nike-Clark league could sell out Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines?
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