It’s a slow sports season. The World Cup is underway, the U.S. has held its own, and we’re still 74 days away from the NFL regular season kickoff. For now, Major League Baseball dominates television, while diehards scrape together whatever they can from FIFA, Formula One, golf, and tennis. June and July are the summer lull.
That lull should be a gift for professional sports. This is the time to promote, capture attention, and make money. Sports is a business, plain and simple. A business survives by delivering something people want, keeping expenses under control, protecting cash flow, and making smart financial decisions.
One league that should be taking full advantage of this moment is the WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association and the NBA’s female counterpart. Founded in 1996, with play beginning in 1997, the league has spent most of its existence fighting for growth, relevance and profitability. Full disclosure: I’ve been a loyal fan since day one.
For 28 of its years, the league operated at a loss and relied on NBA support. But between 2024 and 2025, it surged, with most teams now generating between $10 million and $18 million annually. That kind of growth should have the league running with confidence. Instead, it looks like it does not know what to do with its own recent success. Why?
Games are easier to watch, the season expanded to 44 games, and more than 100 matchups are now on national TV. Viewership has expanded across multiple demographics, especially among fans under 35.
The clearest driver, though, is Caitlin Clark. The Indiana Fever drafted her first overall in 2024, and her arrival changed the league immediately. During her rookie season, Fever games averaged 1.18 million viewers — more than double the 394,000 average for all other league games.
The numbers are hard to ignore. Analysts estimated Clark alone accounted for 26.5% of all WNBA economic activity during her rookie year. Her total economic footprint — including ticket sales, tourism, merchandise, and media value — is projected to approach $1 billion. Road-game ticket prices jumped an average of 140% when she came to town. Opposing teams moved games into larger NBA-sized arenas just to handle the demand. Her jersey became a top seller, and the Fever’s estimated franchise value soared from about $90 million to nearly $340 million.
That is not just popularity. That is a profitable business.
And yet the WNBA seems determined to make the whole situation more complicated than it needs to be. For three seasons, one of the league’s biggest storylines has been the incredibly physical treatment Clark receives, the frequent missed foul calls, and the suspiciously short whistle when she reacts. This past week, she was handed a technical for “clapping” said the ref; she then absorbed a knee to the groin and a fist to the throat, both with zero foul call. The question is no longer whether people noticed.
Her coach called it “absolutely egregious and utterly disrespectful.” Commentator Colin Cowherd called it “incompetence or intentional, both are embarrassing.” Others have gone further and suggested Clark should leave the league altogether.
Maybe the inequity is not intentional. Maybe it’s just awful officiating.
But then came the 30th anniversary poster this week. The WNBA featured 20 players, past and present, but somehow left off Clark — the league’s biggest draw, most talked-about star, and biggest financial catalyst. That isn’t oversight; that’s a self-inflicted wound.
So what exactly is the WNBA doing? Is it simply bad at business, or is it actively sabotaging the one player who has expanded its audience, boosted its revenue, and made it more relevant than it has ever been before?
Note that after the sports world’s strong, negative response to the fist and no foul, the league retroactively assessed the player who struck Clark with a flagrant 2, a one-game suspension, and a $1,000 fine. The player — notably rough Alyssa Thomas — earns a base salary of $1.2 million. The punishment thus only raised more questions.
So again: what is the WNBA doing? Why does it keep acting like it does not want the spotlight Caitlin Clark brings?
Respectfully,
AR