By Karl Plume
(Reuters) – Soaring viewership, surging media attention and an electrifying rookie class featuring standouts Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese marked the strongest first half of the WNBA season since the league’s 1997 inception.
Talks to finalize an “historic” WNBA media deal that press reports suggest would be around $200 million a year, up from $60 million currently, reinforces the rising popularity of the league and women’s professional sports in general, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said on Saturday.
With Saturday’s WNBA All Star Game followed by a month-long Olympic break, players, league executives and media partners are hoping for the momentum carry through to the second half of the season.
“This weekend is the culmination of a historic first half of the season,” Engelbert told reporters on Saturday.
“We have seen our highest attendance in 26 years, repeatedly set viewership records. A lot of our teams are up triple digits in attendance.”
The television audience has topped records, with 16 games averaging more than 1 million viewers, breaking the full-season record just halfway through the current one, she said.
Fan voting for All Star game players jumped over 600% from last year while merchandise sales have hit historic highs.
Credit interest in the most stellar WNBA rookie class in recent memory, led by sharpshooting and passing wizard Caitlin Clark and scoring and rebound phenomenon Angel Reese, who carried over a heated college hoops rivalry that has only intensified.
The two will be teammates for the first time ever for Saturday’s All Star matchup, taking on a Team USA squad featuring WNBA MVP frontrunner A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart and others.
With the influx of young talent to challenge experienced veterans, hyper-competitive games have helped to attract new fans.
“The play on the floor has been exactly what we had hoped for with great matchups … We’ve seen the ratings play out in a big way, not only when Caitlin Clark is playing but when other teams are playing as well,” former WNBA star and current broadcast analyst Rebecca Lobo told reporters.
“The anticipation of this current season was similar to back when the league started and that has translated into ticket sales and people tuning into television.”
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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