For the WNBA, 2024 has been the best year so far. The WNBA is starting to grow in popularity. The games are starting to get better and better and are going to hopefully continue to help everyone push things forward. New systems will hopefully change that have been holding back the WNBA for a long time such as new franchises, media coverage, and a monumental media deal.
The 11-year media rights deal includes partnerships with Disney, Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal and is valued at $2.2 billion. “Partnering with Disney, Amazon and NBCU marks a monumental chapter in WNBA history and clearly demonstrates the significant rise in value and the historic level of interest in women’s basketball,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement published by ESPN. “These agreements allow the league to continue to build a long-term and sustainable growth model for the future of women’s basketball and sports which will benefit WNBA players, teams and fans.”
Men’s sports were very easy to access and could be watched whenever and wherever, but women’s sports were so much harder to access. In previous years, women’s sports were only getting 4%/5% media coverage; a contributing factor as to why the women’s league never reached as much success as men’s leagues. Now, women’s sports are getting 15%/16% media coverage, which has helped them grow, but there is still much more catching up to do. More casual fans are becoming invested in women’s sports because it’s available to them, and they don’t have to search for it.
Sue Bird, retired American professional basketball player widely regarded as one of the greatest point guards in women’s basketball history, emphasized the value of game viewership. “And as we know, that’s not just the games themselves. We know that storytelling drives fandom, especially in women’s sports, and we’ve just never had the chance,” said Bird.
Now that the opportunity is there, youth athletes will have teams of all genders to look to for inspiration, thus paving the way for the sport to grow.
