Everybody actually has been watching girls’s sports activities. The WNBA introduced Thursday that they’ve set a single-season attendance document, breaking the earlier document from 2002. Appears odd that that document had been held since 2002, proper? Effectively, again then, there have been 16 WNBA groups; this 12 months, there are 13 groups. This highlights the rising curiosity in girls’s basketball but additionally the dedication from franchises to ensure their venues have sufficient seating for everybody who desires to return watch the motion. Many video games this season have been moved to greater venues to accommodate. That, plus the increase in girls’s basketball fandom the league has seen, has resulted in historic attendance data.
Attendance is completely different from viewership, in fact. That is measuring individuals who confirmed up and never individuals who tuned in. With solely 13 WNBA markets, it may be onerous to get everybody who would like to see a WNBA recreation reside in individual out to 1. But, the league has already damaged the document with a number of weeks nonetheless left within the common season.
Up to now in 2025, 2,501,609 followers have attended a complete of 226 video games. When the document was set in 2002, it was throughout 256 whole video games, and once more with three extra groups within the combine.
These strikes to greater arenas have been for video games that includes the league’s subsequent technology of stars, together with Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and Angel Reese. Regardless of those that feared the league could be in hassle attendance-wise after Caitlin Clark was injured earlier within the season, folks have continued to point out up for these video games. Even when the league traveled to Canada for its first worldwide regular-season recreation between the Atlanta Dream and Seattle Storm, the sport was bought out, with over 15,000 followers in attendance.
The WNBA continues to be in progress mode as effectively. After welcoming their thirteenth group this season with the addition of the Golden State Valkyries (who’ve contributed to league attendance at their famed “Ballhalla” within the Bay), the WNBA will welcome two extra groups subsequent 12 months with the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fireplace. Three extra groups in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia will be part of by 2030. Surpassing that 16-team mark and heading as much as 18 whole WNBA groups will solely see these attendance data get damaged increasingly over the following 5 seasons.
The league is at a pivotal level of progress in the meanwhile, which is why coming to a take care of the Gamers’ Union and signing a brand new Collective Bargaining Settlement quickly is vital. If the league lets the present CBA expire on the finish of October and there may be any form of work stoppage, this progress may falter. The gamers are combating for higher income share, elevated salaries, and protections amongst many different areas as effectively. Whereas there have been a number of conferences and negotiations, it doesn’t appear to be the 2 sides are any nearer to signing a brand new contract.
It’s an vital time for the expansion of the league, and the proper time for gamers to make use of their leverage to get what they deserve.
