The WNBA was given quite a gift this season with Caitlin Clark joining the league, leading to unprecedented television viewership and in-person attendance. But even despite the massive surge in attention, it sounds like the league still lost a lot of money.
Caitlin Clark helped the league shatter attendance and television viewership records throughout the season.
She drew a record 503,921 fans to the Indiana Fever’s 31 home and away games this season for an average of more than 16,000 fans a game. She also helped break the league’s attendance record with 20,711 fans attending one of her games this season.
On television, Clark’s games set WNBA viewership records on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, CBS and Ion as her games have averaged 1.178 million viewers on TV, which is nearly three times higher than the average for other WNBA games.
Needless to say, she brought in a lot of fan attention. But it seems that the league made a mistake and did not manage to fully capitalize on that attention.
According to a report from Josh Kosman and Brian Lewis of the New York Post, the WNBA is not expected to lose about $40 million this season, even despite the surge in popularity.
“This season the WNBA will lose $40 million, a bit better than the $50 million forecast and reported by several media outlets months ago but still a loss, sources said,” the New York Post reported.
It’s certainly not good news for the league that it still lost $40 million despite the best season in history.
The good news is, the league is set to get an influx of cash in the coming years due to a new media rights deal.
We’ll have to see if the league can capitalize on her popularity in the coming years.
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