For as amazing and successful, both competitively and business-wise, as the Paris Olympiad was the real litmus test to define its transcedent powers will be the degree of halo effect it has on the sports and athletes that received a degree of spotlight they would not otherwise see. The first, and perhaps most incrementally impactful, of such opportunities begins tonight with the recommencing of the already successful 2024 WNBA regular season.
The U.S. women’s basketball team treated us to a gripping and emotional Gold Medal game, one that earned them an Olympic record eighth consecutive title and a 61st consecutive victory just five days ago. It was a team that was controversially without the league’s two supernova rookies, the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark and the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese, instead showing the world, and in particular the newfound fans of the league, that there’s a lot more talent out there than just those two. And tonight the chance to prove that more people know that begins in earnest, with ESPN giving over a rare Thursday night window to a cross-country tilt between the Eastern Conference-leading New York Liberty, featuring Olympians Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart, and the disappointing Los Angeles Sparks, while Prime Video will showcase a showdown between two fourth-place teams–Reese’s Sky and a Phoenix Mercury team that features two more Olympians, the storied Brittney Griner and the record-breaking six-time Gold Medalist Diana Taurasi.
FRONT OFFICE SPORTS’ triumbverate of Colin Salao, David Rumsey, and Eric Fisher documented exactly how dependent the league’s dramatic ratings growth that was demonstrated in the first portion of the season was on the rookies, particularly Clark, that stayed back in the States in this morning’s newsletter:
The WNBA has seen a TV ratings explosion this season. Some of that is due to the continued growth of the league, which we’d seen in recent years. But it’s hard to argue against Caitlin Clark’s popularity and her effect on viewership. As you can see in the chart… 14 of the 16 highest-rated WNBA games this season featured Clark.
I’d also add that three of the top ten featured Reese as well, even apart from the All-Star game against that Olympics squad where they were teammates.
We’ll have to wait tomorrow night, when Clark takes on Taurasi, Griner et al on ION, to see her. Meanwhile, the opportunity for the league to take on even more similarity to its men’s counterpart, where multiple personalities drive audiences, has arguably never been stronger. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone more giddy about that than the inexplicably titled SVP for Growth of the fifth-place Atlanta Dream, Dan Gadd, to remind you of that fact. As he related to the triumverate:
“I’ve never seen a year-over-year change in sports like this, and how to handle that’s been one of the biggest questions. It’s been phenomenal,” Gadd says. “The women’s team won gold, the women’s 3×3 team with our Rhyne Howard won bronze. It’s not like we’ve just become irrelevant overnight.”
YAHOO SPORTS’ duet of Cassandra Negley and Eden Laase brought to light several more storylines of note:
The Las Vegas Aces are fifth in the standings and looking up at hosting playoff games (and at a civil rights lawsuit). The Minnesota Lynx lifted the Commissioner’s Cup, but slogged through July afterward. And Allisha Gray pocketed two-thirds of her base salary in one night by sweeping the All-Star Game competitions.
And specific to tonight, SPORTS ILLUSRATED’s Dustin Schutte (hey, a single byline at last!) underscored exactly how good the Liberty have been amidst all of this other noise:
The New York Liberty enjoyed the hottest start in franchise history, posting a 21-4 record before the Olympic break. They’ll enter the second half of the season 2.5 games ahead of the Sun in the standings. But can the Liberty sustain this pace?
Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart are both averaging more than 19 points per game thus far. The Liberty are also getting good production from Jonquel Jones.
As was pointed out in all of the above articles, the optimal timing to see more games top seven figures nationally is now. Once the baseball pennant races and pro and college football begin in earnest, not to mention the distancing from the heroics in Paris, the WNBA will be facing their usual stiff obstacles that a schedule that climaxes against them has always hit them with. Not a single game of the 2023 playoffs–not even the finals that featured the Liberty and last year’s record-breaking Las Vegas Aces–came close to the figures seen this year. And with the way the potential schedule lays out, if said finals were to go five games two would air head-to-head against Sunday NFL.
So now is the time for the league to strike while these irons are still red-hot. I know I’ll be watching. Will you?
Courage…