Women’s basketball has an opportunity that they’ve never had before: getting viewers.

This year, many more sports headlines have been about the women’s basketball tournament than usual, especially Iowa Hawkeyes star point guard Caitlin Clark. Clark broke several major records during her college career, including “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring record. 

For the first time, the women’s NCAA tournament received more viewers than the men’s tournament, receiving 18.9 million views according to AP News.

For the first time I can remember, people are invested in the rivalry between female players. Players like Clark and Louisiana State University forward Angel Reese, and University of Connecticut point guard Paige Bueckers and guard JuJu Watkins of the University of Southern California  have gathered attention for their rivalries over the past year, and it’s easy to see hope for women’s basketball.

The problem with women’s basketball is its professional level, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). While fans talk with a degree of respect about the college level of women’s basketball, that respect is missing for the WNBA. 

The league is the butt of countless jokes. According to a comparison done by the World Sports Network it brings in $60 million in annual revenue compared to the National Basketball Association’s $10 billion. 

There are few stars in the league, among which are Sabrina Ionescu, a prolific three-point shooter, and Brittney Griner, who might be more well-known for her arrest by the Russian government for marijuana possession than her basketball skills.

The league has started to make a turn for the better. According to the WNBA, league viewership hit its highest mark in 21 years in 2023, and attendance is up 16%. The WNBA needs to keep this momentum at all costs. The first thing they need to do is keep up the rivalry between Reese and Clark.

The Clark-Reese rivalry mirrors another rivalry that defined the National Basketball Association.

 In 1979, the men’s national championship game between the Michigan State Spartans, led by point guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson and the Indiana State Sycamores forward Larry Bird, became (and still is, according to Sports Media Watch) the most-watched men’s college basketball game of all time. 

The game established a rivalry between the two men, and the NBA took advantage of this by making sure to market their rivalry immediately, and the league took a huge leap in popularity because of it.

Since Clark, drafted first overall by the Indiana Fever, and Reese, drafted seventh overall by the Chicago Sky, will both be entering the WNBA at the same time: they will easily be able to continue their rivalry into the WNBA. 

This means the WNBA can market the rivalry. 

The WNBA needs to be sure to market every game that Reese and Clark play against each other in the WNBA. 

These two teams are a mere 3-hour drive from each other. If the WNBA wants people to watch the games, they’ll make sure a Fever-Sky game is on primetime television, and they’ll make sure that fans of the two teams despise each other.

This is what builds a rivalry.

The WNBA may not need to do much with their social media marketing of the new group of rookies. TikTok has already latched on to players like Clark, Bueckers, and most of the LSU squad. Like the NBA in the ‘80s, players with distinct (marketable) personalities are coming into the league, and fans are following these players because of it. 

Reese and Clark, while friends, can use their professional rivalry to build a rivalry between their respective teams and fanbases, and thus build a real following for the WNBA.

Categories: Sports