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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFueled by its sensational rookie class of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink, the WNBA had a huge first week in terms of attendance, ratings and digital media.
The league saw a 14% increase in attendance from last year with both the Indiana Fever and New York Liberty leading the way with more than 17,000 fans at their home openers. The Fever have drawn sellout crowds in all four of their games—two at home, one in New York and one at Connecticut.
The Liberty became the first team in WNBA history to have more than $2 million in ticket revenue for a single game in it’s opener, when it played the Fever.
In all, there were 10 sellouts during the league’s opening week.
Ratings have been historic. ESPN’s broadcast of Clark’s opening night game when the Indiana Fever played the Connecticut Sun had the highest viewership for a WNBA game on the network. It drew an average of 2.1 million viewers.
A doubleheader on Saturday that was on ABC featuring Clark and the Fever against New York and Los Angeles Sparks against the Las Vegas Aces put up impressive numbers as well. An average of 1.71 million viewers watched the first game while 1.34 million saw the Sparks and Aces contest.
“We’re never satisfied as we want more tune in and more fans, but are really, really pleased,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “That’s viewership against really tough competition of the (New York) Knicks and the hockey and Game 7s, it’s not lost on me.”
Monday night’s game, which was a rematch of the Sun and Fever, drew 1.56 million viewers on ESPN.
“It’s not lost on me that on a Monday night to pull in that number, that’s a really good sign,” Engelbert said. “Historically a lot of sports leagues don’t do well that night except for Monday Night Football.”
In all, the five games on ESPN networks this year have averaged 1.43 million viewers, which is up 181% from the same number of games last season. It’s up 226% from last season’s average.
ESPN picked up the Chicago Sky-Indiana game on June 1 that will feature the first meeting between Reese and Clark.
Digitally, league pass purchases were up 182% from last year and app downloads were up 146%.
The rookies are also driving the sale of merchandise. Online sales at the WNBA store have already eclipsed the total for all of last season.
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Get some content and stop reporting on this mess! We don’t care! They can waste their Money and time on that junk but this should be able construction and building.
It’s called the Indianapolis BUSINESS Journal for a reason, Micah. And business incorporates much more than construction and building.
Micah, why do you hate women so much?