WNBA

AndyMarquisLive

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All of that for 76k per year.
Their TV deals run parallel with the NBA’s and expire next year. They’re probably going to at least double in TV revenue with the next contract.

And for sure, most of the top draft picks are already rolling in endorsement money from college NIL, and that won’t stop at the next level.
 
Appreciated/enjoyed watching her the past couple years in the NCAA Women's Tournament but it would take far more than Caitlin Clark for me to start watching the WNBA. I'll pass.
 
We could spend all day going down the WNBA salary rabbit hole, but I don't feel like doing it right now. All I'll say is that at least Caitlin's not losing any money by going to the WNBA a year early.


Name, image and likeness endorsements aren't tied to the NCAA or college programs.
 
Appreciated/enjoyed watching her the past couple years in the NCAA Women's Tournament but it would take far more than Caitlin Clark for me to start watching the WNBA. I'll pass.
It’s pretty much impossible to replicate the popularity of the college game, but I think a solid number of people who previously watched zero WNBA games will check out a non-zero number of games over the summer - when there’s ****all else on TV anyways.

The league will probably get an Olympic bump in the stretch run as well.
 
I followed the WNBA somewhat seriously in the early-mid 2000s, when I was religiously following the NBA. Becky Hammon and Sue Bird were my two favorites. (It's been cool to hear bits and pieces about Becky's coaching journey over the last several years, and I can't believe Sue only just recently retired, let alone that Diana Taurasi is still playing.) I gave it up when I stopped watching the NBA, after finally seeing my favorite NBA player, Kevin Garnett, win a championship with Boston. The Superteam Era was just beginning, and while I was happy to see KG get his ring, I wanted no part of that.

I almost signed up for WNBA League Pass a few years ago, when I got into one of the recent NBA 2K games and was getting to know the modern WNBA players. The price, whatever it was at the time, seemed fair - I don't remember it being that expensive. The only reason I didn't go for it is because I wasn't watching much TV at the time and therefore didn't think that I would actually use it.

I can't really hang with the NBA 2K games anymore because the gameplay feels too laggy/clunky, but sure, I'd consider signing up for WNBA League Pass again, or at least sitting down and watching some games on regular television - and not just for Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who I've actually never seen in action because I don't watch college sports.
 
I was a fan of Sue Bird when she was with U-Conn. However, I am really disappointed with her and Taurasi's criticism of Clark. IMHO they should be welcoming her to the WNBA and hoping the WNBA grows in stature due to the addition of Clark, Cardozo, and the other newcomers.
 
I was a fan of Sue Bird when she was with U-Conn. However, I am really disappointed with her and Taurasi's criticism of Clark. IMHO they should be welcoming her to the WNBA and hoping the WNBA grows in stature due to the addition of Clark, Cardozo, and the other newcomers.
They’re jealous asf.
 
It’s going to be a very tough roster to make, but it’s nice to see Kate Martin get drafted by Las Vegas. Nice moment with her teammates in attendance and a great opportunity with a big team.
 
I was a fan of Sue Bird when she was with U-Conn. However, I am really disappointed with her and Taurasi's criticism of Clark. IMHO they should be welcoming her to the WNBA and hoping the WNBA grows in stature due to the addition of Clark, Cardozo, and the other newcomers.
Dunno what Sue Bird's deal is since she's not playing anymore, but for Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, and any other active players who don't play for the Fever and aren't rolling out the red carpet for Caitlin, I think it's as simple as this:

street-fighter-gaming.gif


Competition, man. They see this new, young threat coming in with all this buzz but who hasn't done anything in their league yet and are getting ready to take it to her. It's easy for you and I as outside observers to feel that all of the other players should be publicly welcoming her with open arms, because a rising tide lifts all boats. However, as Lisa Leslie alludes to in this piece, Caitlin isn't a direct threat to our spots. As Elena Delle Donne said, she got the same competitive treatment from Diana specifically when she arrived on the scene. Like Elena, Caitlin's gonna have to stand up for herself and fight (metaphorically speaking) to earn Diana's and others' respect.

Caitlin obviously won't be the first professional sports super rookie to have gone through such an initiation, and she surely won't be the last.

 
I think you are close to the truth.

It's actually kind of sad.

Race is a big issue too. I've seen multiple articles from very mainstream media outlets decrying Caitlin Clark's popularity and talking about how Angel Reese and Juju Watkins should be the face of the sport because women's basketball should be a black sport. USA Today and MSNBC are both guilty of this.
 
It's actually kind of sad.

Race is a big issue too. I've seen multiple articles from very mainstream media outlets decrying Caitlin Clark's popularity and talking about how Angel Reese and Juju Watkins should be the face of the sport because women's basketball should be a black sport. USA Today and MSNBC are both guilty of this.
I had season tickets to the UVA Women's basketball for 13 seasons. I also shared season tickets to the UVA men's basketball for about 6 seasons. The women's game is a different style of basketball. I think it is more team oriented and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In 1996 UVA hosted the Regionals and played Tennessee in the Elite 8 (the eventual winner) and UVA was winning at halftime and they were playing awesome defensive against Tennessee and Holdsclaw. I believe that they held TN to 23 points at half. In the second half Jenny Boucek got in foul trouble and Debbie Ryan pulled her. That decision changed the game and TN came back to win by 4 points. I talked to Jenny Boucek a year later and told her UVA would have won if she had been kept in the game. She responded saying that she had 4 fouls. No question in my mind that Ryan should have kept Boucek in the game and risked her fouling out. if she had fouled out it would have been no different than her sitting on the bench with 4 fouls. Boucek was playing awesome defense against TN.

Anyhow, i believe that Clark will be a great player in the WNBA. She will have me watching. She is an awesome player, her passing just amazes me.
 
Caitlin Clark Effect:


The most watched WNBA Draft ever, and by a lot, peaking at 3.09 million viewers.

For context, last year's NBA Draft was the most watched in history and came in at 3.7 million viewers, peaking at 4.9 on ABC and ESPN combined.

Very likely the WNBA Draft would've beat that if it was on ABC Primetime at 8:00pm instead of ESPN at 7:30pm.
 
Caitlin Clark Effect:


The most watched WNBA Draft ever, and by a lot, peaking at 3.09 million viewers.

For context, last year's NBA Draft was the most watched in history and came in at 3.7 million viewers, peaking at 4.9 on ABC and ESPN combined.

Very likely the WNBA Draft would've beat that if it was on ABC Primetime at 8:00pm instead of ESPN at 7:30pm.
Great numbers - massive, really - and indicates to me that people are sticking around for more than CC now as well, since the peak was probably within the first fifteen minutes of the broadcast. I think ESPN has some real thinking to do about whether they swap NHL playoff games to ESPN2 for her debut night.

Also, she just signed an eight-figure shoe deal with Nike so I think we can safely drop this notion that she’s only about as well off as me with my accounting degree after college.
 
Great numbers - massive, really - and indicates to me that people are sticking around for more than CC now as well, since the peak was probably within the first fifteen minutes of the broadcast. I think ESPN has some real thinking to do about whether they swap NHL playoff games to ESPN2 for her debut night.

Also, she just signed an eight-figure shoe deal with Nike so I think we can safely drop this notion that she’s only about as well off as me with my accounting degree after college.

Some of her games are already being moved to larger arenas.

I'm seriously considering signing up for WNBA League Pass purely on principle. $34.99/yr.? Are you kidding me? They're practically giving it away!

Not bad at all, but it's one more app I'd have to download. It's available through YouTube TV but it's a monthly charge and I'd rather just pay it once and get it over with at $35.

Most of CC🐐's games are on ION, ESPN, ABC and CBS though.
 
Some of her games are already being moved to larger arenas.



Not bad at all, but it's one more app I'd have to download. It's available through YouTube TV but it's a monthly charge and I'd rather just pay it once and get it over with at $35.

Most of CC🐐's games are on ION, ESPN, ABC and CBS though.
Saw that about WNBA League Pass on YouTube TV, which I just signed up for (I'm ditching Hulu + Live TV and their buggy DVR). I'm just gonna sign up for League Pass on the WNBA's site.

I can't get the WNBA app on my previous gen Kindle Fire (probably time to upgrade that, too) or my PS5, but you can just go to leaguepass.wnba.com, sign in there, and watch every game that isn't subject to blackouts, like with every other sports league pass. I have no problem doing that for the time being.
 
NEW YORK — Breanna Stewart has no animosity toward Caitlin Clark.

The reigning WNBA MVP called Clark a “great player” and praised the interest she’s brought to the women’s game.

“I think it’s amazing. The momentum behind women’s basketball, March Madness, obviously Caitlin and what she's been able to do and all the records she's breaking, and that carryover to draft night someone said this to me earlier and I think they said it perfectly: We're not talking about momentum anymore. We're talking about like sustaining. And that’s really what it should be,” Stewart said Wednesday at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic media summit.
 
Saw that about WNBA League Pass on YouTube TV, which I just signed up for (I'm ditching Hulu + Live TV and their buggy DVR). I'm just gonna sign up for League Pass on the WNBA's site.

I can't get the WNBA app on my previous gen Kindle Fire (probably time to upgrade that, too) or my PS5, but you can just go to leaguepass.wnba.com, sign in there, and watch every game that isn't subject to blackouts, like with every other sports league pass. I have no problem doing that for the time being.

$34.99 is a good price otherwise I'd just say "well, Caitlin's games are on ION."

Besides, I think the Chicago games are gonna be a lot of fun to watch too. Cardoso and Reese, nobody's getting a rebound against them.
 
Tell us more about the game. I can't view it.

I only watched a little bit while I was eating dinner.

It's a preseason game so I don't look at the score. It was tied up though. Clark was phenomenal, as always, but she's gonna have to make adjustments in the W. These girls are bigger, stronger, and faster than college ball for sure. But she'll be great and a lot of "WNBA legends" better start searching for some good Crow recipes.
 
I turned the Fever/Wings game on for a minute or two and saw a replay of Caitlin hitting a 3. She had already scored 14 points in the first half by that point. I ultimately decided not to bother watching the rest since it's just the preseason. I was too busy playing MotoGP 24, which just came out on Thursday.

It's gonna be a real challenge to keep up with the WNBA and 7 hours of WWE every week, but I'll give it the ol' college try. Something will likely have to give.
 
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