Contained in the WNBA’s increase, from Dena Head to Caitlin Clark

DENA HEAD SAT on her sofa in sweats, gazing a boxy TV ready for the cellphone to ring. It was Feb. 27, 1997, and Head was in Mirande, France, ready for her title to be known as within the elite participant draft forward of the inaugural WNBA season.

Head was 26 years outdated and taking part in her second season in France. She lived in a home owned by the neighbors, tucked away close to a small physique of water. Mirande is a small neighborhood in southwest France, practically 500 miles from Paris, nestled between the Garonne River and Pyrenees mountains. The closest main metropolis is Toulouse.

Since graduating from Tennessee in 1992, Head’s solely viable skilled basketball alternative was abroad, and he or she had made earlier stops in Hungary and Italy. Alongside Daybreak Staley, Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie, she had represented Group USA on the 1994 world championship in Australia. Now, the launch of the WNBA meant the chance to come back residence for good. The 5-foot-11 guard might play in entrance of her household and mates — and see them and speak to them.

“You did not name residence each single day,” Head, now 53, stated earlier this month from her residence in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. “You could possibly, however it value an arm, a leg, and a few toes.”

This draft, the elite participant draft, was the primary of two drafts occurring forward of the inaugural WNBA season. A bunch of 16 gamers, which included Swoopes, Leslie, Cynthia Cooper and Rebecca Lobo, had been divided among the many eight groups in January. The elite participant draft, pulling from energetic gamers overseas not within the preliminary participant pool, allowed groups to decide on gamers for the primary time for his or her rosters. One other draft, the faculty draft, was slated for April.

The cellphone rang. Head’s wait did not find yourself being very lengthy in any respect. Head was drafted first general by the Utah Starzz.

“There was simply plenty of pleasure round bringing a girls’s league to the States,” stated Head, who averaged 13.7 factors, 5.2 rebounds and a couple of.0 steals per sport throughout her senior season at Tennessee in 1991-92. “Very long time coming.”

Since Head was drafted 27 years in the past, the method has modified. Most years, the one draft is the faculty draft — beginning with Tina Thompson going first in 1997. However there shall be an enlargement draft earlier than the 2025 season, and probably 2026. In 2024, a document common of two.45 million viewers tuned in to look at the 12 groups choose their latest gamers, beginning with Caitlin Clark, who was decked out in Prada on the orange carpet. With the surging recognition of girls’s basketball, led by the 2024 draft class, the WNBA is a league on the precipice. Exploding income, sellouts, skyrocketing scores and hot-selling merch — the WNBA hasn’t seen this a lot optimism since its first few seasons.

“It is thrilling,” Head stated. “We stated that then, and it was thrilling then. However I feel now persons are shopping for into it. Like, ‘Man, girls can actually play.’ They stated we might play then, however they’re saying that much more so now.”

HEAD REMEMBERED WHAT it was like taking part in in entrance of rowdy residence crowds. She performed at Tennessee and gained two championships whereas being coached by the late Pat Summitt. Tennessee led the nation in attendance her senior season.

Abroad, the sector measurement and variety of followers different. That have ready Head for the WNBA.

“Crossing over into the WNBA, I actually suppose it was about who you have been taking part in and the place you have been,” Head stated.

In keeping with WNBA stats web site Throughout the Timeline, the Phoenix Mercury and New York Liberty led the eight-team league in attendance throughout the inaugural season, each averaging greater than 13,000 followers per sport. Head’s Utah Starzz have been on the backside of the league at 7,543 followers per sport. However even that quantity exceeds the 2023 league common of 6,615.

Common attendance within the WNBA peaked in Yr 2, 1998, at 10,869 and declined steadily till turning towards an upward trajectory after COVID restrictions eased.

Attendance the previous two seasons has been on an upswing. In 2022, league attendance averaged 5,646, and in 2023, common attendance improved to six,615, beating attendance within the pre-COVID 2019 season. It was additionally the primary year-over-year enchancment within the metric since 2016 to 2017 (not counting COVID-impacted seasons).

Rising attendance throughout the league is sophisticated. The disparity in enviornment capability within the WNBA is important. Three groups — Atlanta, Dallas and Washington — play in arenas the place the utmost capability is lower than the 2023 league common. (Dallas has plans to maneuver to a bigger enviornment within the Dallas conference heart in 2026.) The Las Vegas Aces have extra season-ticket holders than the capability of these three arenas.

The 2024 season might mark a turning level. Interviews with representatives from 10 of the league’s 12 groups describe skyrocketing ticket demand throughout the WNBA and rising revenues. The Minnesota Lynx’s ticket gross sales are monitoring to be up 50% from final yr. Ticket income for the New York Liberty is monitoring to be up 70%. Connecticut’s common ticket value jumped 25% from 2023 to 2024. The Dallas Wings have seen their ticket income improve 178% from final season, which was already a record-setting season. LA Sparks season-ticket gross sales are up 30%. The Mercury have generated historic season-ticket gross sales income. Complete WNBA ticket gross sales on StubHub have elevated 93%.

“The WNBA enterprise has in all probability by no means been more healthy than it’s proper now,” WNBA Chief Development Officer Colie Edison stated. “We’re seeing this confluence of optimistic parts which might be feeding off of the success of final yr, which was our most watched season ever in 21 years. For all of our key metrics, we broke information final season. We’re anticipating breaking information for all these key metrics once more in our upcoming twenty eighth season.”

“[The WNBA is] actually at this hockey stick second, from a progress standpoint this season,” Washington Mystics Chief Enterprise Officer Alycen McAuley stated. “But it surely’s greater than only one particular person, one sport. It is actually throughout that total season.”

Till 2019, the Mystics performed their residence video games in Capital One Enviornment, the place attendance averaged properly underneath half the capability, however they moved to the a lot smaller 4,200-seat Leisure & Sports activities Enviornment to “reset the enterprise,” McAuley stated. The Mystics’ common ticket value has elevated greater than 50% the previous 5 years.

“When you could have smaller capability, you possibly can promote out,” McAuley stated. “We have been the primary WNBA market that really had a secondary market, which is a vital evolution in a enterprise. When you could have tons of tickets, you are inclined to artificially deflate the worth of it. When there is a shortage mannequin in place, you possibly can truly extra appropriately value what the worth of the product is.”

This season, the Mystics moved each their June 6 sport towards the Chicago Sky (and Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso) and their June 7 sport towards the Fever (and Clark) from Leisure & Sports activities Enviornment to Capital One Enviornment, which seats simply over 20,000 followers for basketball video games. Face worth for midcourt lower-bowl tickets for the Fever sport is $300-$400. Higher-bowl resale tickets are listed at over $120.

In Seattle, the surge got here in two totally different waves. The primary was within the first week of February when the Storm introduced that Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike had joined the staff in free company. The second wave started when Clark introduced she was declaring for the WNBA draft. The idea (and later affirmation) that she was heading to the Indiana Fever drove followers to these video games. The Storm will open the higher ranges of Local weather Pledge Enviornment and count on to promote out.

To capitalize on the Clark fervor, the Storm bought a multigame bundle that included each Fever video games, an Aces sport, a Liberty sport and an Atlanta sport. That bundle bought out. The one technique to see the Fever play at Local weather Pledge Enviornment this summer time is to buy one of many few remaining season tickets, a 10-game season-ticket bundle or a single-game ticket on the secondary market.

However the Storm are seeing curiosity piquing round extra than simply the Fever. Los Angeles, with rookies Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson, and Chicago have additionally sparked gross sales. The demand for these two groups within the Pacific Northwest outpaces demand for each the reigning champion Aces and the runner-up Liberty. In keeping with Chief Gross sales Officer Kyle Waters, the Storm bought extra tickets and made extra ticket income throughout the preseason than they did in the whole 2023 season.

The Storm aren’t the one staff seeing progress past the Indiana video games. “We’re up virtually in each income metric,” Wings president and CEO Greg Bibb stated. “Our common gate for each sport shall be greater than ever earlier than. And clearly, we do not play Caitlin Clark each sport.”

Dena Head’s Utah Starzz franchise has advanced to change into the Las Vegas Aces, who led the league in attendance in 2023. The Aces’ 8,600 season-ticket holders outnumber the common attendance for Starzz video games when Head performed.

“This neighborhood has actually embraced us,” Aces president Nikki Fargas stated. “You are going to completely get an awesome sport and be completely entertained whereas watching the WNBA and these gamers compete.”

A SUCCESSFUL SPORTS league isn’t just about accessibility to the sport itself, but in addition concerning the different doorways to turning into a fan. When Head performed for the Utah Starzz, WNBA gamers weren’t gracing the covers of NBA Jam. NBA 2K did not exist but. There was no WNBA fantasy sport. Sports activities betting was nonetheless unlawful throughout the nation.

With sports activities betting turning into authorized in additional states, the flexibility to wager on the WNBA is increasing. The official sportsbook of the WNBA is FanDuel, which says the variety of customers betting on the WNBA on its platform doubled final season from two seasons in the past. “And we count on comparable trajectory into this season,” FanDuel Sportsbook Normal Supervisor Karol Corcoran stated. “It is being fueled by among the actually sturdy participant narratives. That is a narrative we see play out in all sports activities. The superstars drive recognition and drive engagement to draw new folks to the game.”

In the course of the girls’s NCAA match, FanDuel dealt with extra bets on Iowa within the Elite Eight, Last 4 and nationwide championship video games than on some other occasion in some other sport on these days, Corcoran stated. FanDuel is including live-window betting and same-game parlays throughout WNBA video games this season, one thing that has been obtainable for males’s skilled sports activities.

ESPN BET launched in November 2023, so this WNBA season is the platform’s first. “We have already seen a major uptick in betting exercise across the WNBA draft and in futures wagers,” stated Patrick Jay, ESPN BET senior vp and head of sportsbook.

The curiosity isn’t just for Clark, who has garnered important consideration on the platform for each MVP and Rookie of the Yr. The Aces are dominating championship futures on ESPN BET with 58% of the cash wager and 30.3% of the overall bets made.

DraftKings began taking bets on the WNBA in 2021 and added reside betting and prepackaged same-game parlays to WNBA video games final season. Director of Race and Sport Operations Johnny Avello stated the sportsbook plans to develop WNBA betting choices to incorporate user-selected parlays and participant prop bets early within the 2024 season. From 2021 to 2022, DraftKings noticed 4 occasions more cash wager on WNBA video games and eight occasions the variety of bets positioned. From 2022 to 2023, these numbers rose one other 2.5 occasions and 4 occasions, respectively.

“We’re entering into some fairly important numbers now,” Avello stated. “As we develop in additional jurisdictions, our deal with additionally grows. One factor that’s form of fascinating about girls’s basketball is that the reside half — that is the in-game wagering half — that is a considerable a part of the cash that is wager. So folks love to look at the sport after which wager on it as the sport’s going down.”

“It is going to usher in a extra informal viewer and introduce them to the WNBA, which is nice,” Edison stated. “I simply wish to reiterate that for us, whereas it is a sturdy space of alternative, and — an avenue for deeper fan engagement — integrity of our sport is at first.”

WNBA groups are seeing different avenues of progress as properly, particularly in sponsorships and merchandise. The Indiana Fever introduced pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly as their jersey patch sponsor in Might. Barclays signed on to be the Liberty’s jersey patch sponsor. The Mercury have a brand new rotating patch partnership with Partake Meals and Cleveland Avenue. Ally Monetary signed on because the jersey patch sponsor for the Aces.

“We’re seeing these manufacturers deciding to say, ‘Look, we’ll take part on this combat,'” Fargas stated. “That is big. It may possibly’t simply be one sponsor or one accomplice. It is obtained to be a large number of people that see the importance in rising girls’s sports activities.”

Relating to merchandise, Head does not bear in mind seeing her jersey a lot. The marquee gamers like Leslie and Swoopes have been those whose jerseys have been marketed in these days. “If we take into consideration the distinction between at this time after which, I might say that issues are extra available,” Head stated.

Fanatics, the official e-commerce accomplice of the WNBA, says jersey gross sales are up 750% from this level final yr. Clark is driving a lot of that progress. Gross sales of her Fever jersey would put her fourth on a listing of top-selling NBA jerseys since Jan. 1.

Gamers have lengthy expressed concern over an imbalance of racial variety in jersey and merchandise gross sales. In keeping with the WNBA, the top-selling WNBA jerseys in 2023 have been as follows: Sabrina Ionescu, A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Sue Hen, Arike Ogunbowale, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, Betnijah Laney, Breanna Stewart, Elena Delle Donne. In a league the place 78% of the gamers are folks of colour, 40% of the highest 10 jersey gross sales belonged to Black gamers.

And it is not simply jerseys. At first of this month, solely three energetic WNBA gamers had signature shoe offers: Stewart, Ionescu and (reportedly) Clark. Two-time MVP and back-to-back champion Wilson was not in that group. However that modified on Might 11, when she and Nike introduced a signature shoe that shall be launched in 2025. The deal made Wilson the primary Black WNBA participant to launch a signature sneaker since Candace Parker in 2011.

Past staff merch, gamers have questioned who’s marketed and why on the league stage. Earlier this week, the WNBA introduced an underwear marketing campaign with accomplice Skims, that includes a number of gamers. Black and LGBTQIA+ gamers have been included, however no gamers with extra masculine gender expression have been showcased regardless that Skims makes masculine underwear (and is a accomplice with the NBA).

“Not the papis of the league being forgotten once more,” Mercury guard Natasha Cloud posted on X concerning the marketing campaign.

Nonetheless, increasing the merchandise enterprise has been a spotlight of many groups. In Atlanta, when proprietor Larry Gottesdiener purchased the Dream in 2021, there was virtually no merchandise enterprise to talk of. The staff doubled its merchandise gross sales from 2022 to 2023. In 2024, Atlanta already has doubled its merchandise gross sales from final yr previous to taking part in the primary sport of the season on Might 15.

“We’re doing so many alternative Atlanta-based collabs and actually digging into form of the trending way of life area, particularly round Atlanta and the sneaker tradition round Atlanta,” Dream president Morgan Shaw Parker stated.

THERE’S MORE CHANGE on the horizon for the WNBA. In 2025, the league will add its thirteenth franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, increasing for the primary time since including the Atlanta Dream in 2008. In 2026, Toronto will reportedly change into the league’s 14th franchise. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has stated she desires the league to be at 16 groups by 2028. The WNBA had 16 groups in 2000, however that quantity dwindled to 12 by 2010.

The Valkyries are owned by the Warriors’ possession group and can start play subsequent season. The enlargement charge for the membership was reportedly a document $50 million. In keeping with staff president Jess Smith, Golden State has acquired greater than 7,500 season-ticket deposits.

“We nonetheless plan to get much more,” Smith stated. “Different groups I’ve labored for, we have been doing seven-figure gates, and I would be mendacity if I stated that is not a aim that we’re pondering of as properly.”

On the again of climbing revenues, groups have seen their values start to leap as properly. Seattle reportedly did a capital increase at a $151 million valuation, and Chicago raised cash round an $85 million valuation.

However with such intensive progress, typically provide hasn’t saved up with demand. Not all the WNBA preseason video games have been obtainable to look at. Within the 2022 season, not one of the preseason video games have been obtainable on WNBA League Move. In 2023, the variety of obtainable video games grew to 2. In 2024, 5 video games have been broadcast on League Move, together with each Fever preseason video games.

A fan streamed the Minnesota Lynx vs. Chicago Sky preseason sport, and that was considered on X greater than 500,000 occasions. The Connecticut Solar tried to stream their preseason sport towards the Liberty on YouTube, however it was blocked. There are extra followers than ever earlier than clamoring to look at video games, even ones that do not depend, however these video games will not be available. Not one of the WNBA’s nationwide tv companions broadcasts preseason video games, not even the Fever’s.

Moreover, on Might 7, Engelbert confirmed that the league was near offering personal journey for all groups and can be doing so this season. Constitution flights have been some extent of competition for the previous few years.

“I feel that is form of the massive elephant within the room today, is how far more cash goes to be invested,” Head stated. “If the lads can constitution, why on the earth should not the ladies be chartering?”

For the reason that WNBA’s inception, the majority of journey — all journey for a few years — occurred via business flights. That is how Head traveled, how Leslie traveled, how Maya Moore traveled.

The small print of the constitution journey plan are scarce, although it should reportedly value $25 million per yr. Engelbert stated to reporters that this system will launch “as quickly as we will get planes in locations.” The Aces flew business to the White Home to rejoice their 2023 championship and have been delayed en path to their preseason sport in Columbia, South Carolina. The WNBA’s announcement of this system stated that constitution journey can be “phased in” this season.

The phasing in has been uneven. Each the Fever and the Lynx flew constitution to their season-opening video games in Connecticut and Seattle, respectively. However Breanna Stewart posted on X that the Liberty can be touring by bus to their sport towards the Mystics.

“2 out of 5 WNBA groups touring at this time are on WNBA charters – and that is a win,” Stewart posted on X. “It may very well be an even bigger one if the W allowed groups who weren’t supplied League charters to safe their very own till a full 12 staff answer is prepared.”

Traditionally, two causes have been given for the dearth of constitution journey: value and aggressive steadiness. If some groups might pay for charters whereas others couldn’t, then the groups with deep pockets would have a bonus on the court docket. The uneven rollout calls the dedication to aggressive steadiness into query.

“It appeared as, in the event that they have been involved a couple of aggressive benefit, that they might have rolled it out otherwise,” WNBPA government director Terri Jackson stated to ESPN.

Groups are additionally grappling with upgrading follow amenities and/or constructing new ones. When Head performed within the league, all the groups have been owned by NBA possession teams and had entry to the NBA staff follow amenities. “We weren’t at Joe Schmo faculty taking part in or some neighborhood heart,” Head stated. “We have been proper there with the blokes.”

As possession teams have modified, follow situations have as properly. These situations will not be equal throughout the league. Groups have began to handle the disparity. The Storm simply opened a brand new facility. The Aces opened theirs final season. The Mercury plan to open theirs in July, and the Liberty have a facility they share with the Brooklyn Nets. The Minnesota Lynx additionally share a facility with their NBA counterparts. When the Dallas Wings transfer to downtown Dallas in 2026, the group may also have entry to a delegated follow facility.

“[The practice facility] was very important,” Bibb stated. “When town of Dallas reached out to us the higher a part of two years in the past, we have been beginning to have a look at choices round follow amenities, as a result of it’s turning into an important a part of the enterprise for WNBA groups.”

EARLIER THIS SPRING, for the primary time since getting her proper knee changed, Head returned to the health club. She went to a neighborhood recreation heart close to her residence to place up some pictures. After present process two knee replacements, she could not soar like she used to, or run, however the ball nonetheless felt good in her palms.

Head dribbled out to the highest of the important thing, the well-worn Spalding bouncing towards the hardwood. She picked up the ball, bent her knees, and shot it towards the ring.

“It bonked off the entrance of the rim,” she stated. “However I made the second, although.”

Head performed three seasons within the WNBA. She final performed in 2000, for the Mercury, retiring at 29. Now she works in human sources at Amazon after spending eight years in operations. When her colleagues found her basketball historical past, they discovered one in all her outdated buying and selling playing cards on-line and introduced it in for her to signal.

“It was a giant outdated shock, and that is fairly significant,” Head stated. “For thus many individuals, what we accomplish, or the place we have been, and the experiences that we’ve got, that is fascinating for the lots.”

Head has a wall in her residence that paperwork her basketball journey. Hanging in frames are her Tennessee, Utah and Phoenix jerseys. She has two WNBA basketballs in clear bins, and her personal copy of her buying and selling card. Plus a e book filled with colour images from the primary WNBA season.

Head nonetheless watches girls’s basketball however hasn’t been to a sport in years. There is not a WNBA staff in Michigan anymore. The Aces, the successor to the franchise that drafted her, attain out yearly, however she hasn’t made it to a sport. This season that may change. She’s pondering of going to the All-Star Sport in Phoenix, partly for work and partly due to the chance to reconnect with the WNBA and among the proudest moments of her life.

“For all of us that have been afforded that chance to be part of that inaugural season, I might undoubtedly say that all of us had a task in [the WNBA’s growth],” Head stated. “The Lynette Woodards of the world, the Teresa Edwards of the world, they’ve all set the tone for the place we’re at this time — and by no means to be forgotten.”