According to recent reports, the WNBA is still struggling to break even despite its recent success since star rookie Caitlan Clark entered the league. The professional women’s league is projected to lose roughly $50 million this year.
Reportedly, attendance at Indiana Fever games, the team Clark plays for, has shot up 105 percent since the standout rookie began playing. Furthermore, when one of Clark’s games is televised, there is also a significant spike in TV viewership. In June, games in which Clark played averaged nearly 1.1 million viewers, whereas games without her averaged just over 400,000.
Since it was founded in 1997, the WNBA has never been profitable in the nearly three decades it has been around. An anonymous source told the Washington Post that the league could not exist without being subsidized by the highly profitable NBA.
Furthermore, NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated in 2018 that the WNBA sustains exorbitant losses in the tens of millions every year, where it is estimated the league has lost over a quarter of a billion dollars since 1997.
Even the WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert admitted that her league could not exist without the financial support of the NBA. “The truth is, this league would be hard-pressed to exist without the NBA,” she said.
The forecasted $50 million loss in 2024 is unusually large and set to outpace prior years. However, a new broadcast deal is reportedly being negotiated between the NBA and WNBA that could bring in nearly $200 million in revenue from fees each year, vastly improving the league’s financial situation.
The American Tribune reported on disappointing news for Caitlin Clark when she didn’t make the roster for the Team USA Olympic basketball roster. Sports commentator Michele Tafoya pointed out this was a missed opportunity for the women’s Olympic team during a recent Fox News appearance.
Tafoya said, “Every woman on that team is deserving. And there are also other women out there who didn’t get picked who are deserving, and I think Caitlin Clark is one of them.” She continued, “People are discovering women’s basketball for the first time – for many, many people because of Caitlin Clark. She would have been a boon for this Olympic team. This would have meant so much for the ratings of the women’s Olympic basketball stuff. All of it.”
Clark addressed the news, emphasizing that there were no hard feelings and she looks forward to competing on the team in the future. “Honestly, no disappointment,” she said. “I think it just gives you something, something to work for. That’s a dream. Hopefully, one day I can be there, and I think it’s just a little more motivation. You remember that, and hopefully in four years, when four years comes back around, I can be there.”
Nonetheless, Tafoya stressed that Clark’s presence on the team would only benefit the Olympic basketball team with no downside. “You can sit her on the pine, you can have her the 12th person on your roster. People will still tune in to see if she gets on that floor, to see if she gets to play. These women on the U.S. team are so dominant that you can win with almost any 12 that they decided to pick,” she said. “You do not lose anything by putting her on this roster. The women’s game needs this woman.”
Featured image credit: By John Mac – https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmac612/53558910406/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=145963861
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