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Caitlin Clark’s Economic Slam Dunk The rise in popularity of the WNBA has economic significance. By Foday Kamara and Lynn MacDonald
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he Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is having a record year. There’s been more interest in women’s basketball and that interest has brought in more money. After shattering records at the collegiate level, college basketball star Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut has propelled a broader fan base and has put more eyes on the game. This has helped raise awareness of the depth of talent and skill in women’s basketball. Women’s basketball players are becoming household names. Clark and A’ja Wilson are featured in commercials with Michael Jordan. Revenues, endorsements,
and media contracts have all increased. As of July 2024, the WNBA signed a $2.2 billion, 11-year media rights deal partnering with Disney, Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal. The prior media contract brought in $50 million to the WNBA annually. This new deal brings in $200 million per year and “marks a monumental chapter in WNBA history and clearly demonstrates the significant rise in value and the historic level of interest in women’s basketball,” according to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. College stars such as Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink,
Contributors ________ Foday Kamara is a master’s student in applied economics at St. Cloud State University. Lynn MacDonald, Ph.D., is associate professor of Economics, SCSU.
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Kate Martin, Alissa Pili, and Aaliyah Edwards all joined the WNBA this year. These rookies, along with other college players, drew 18.87 million viewers on ABC and ESPN for the women’s 2024 NCAA championship game. Notably, the women’s championship game attracted approximately four million more viewers than the men’s championship game. This was the first time the women’s NCAA finals viewership surpassed the viewership of the men’s games. This interest carried over to the WNBA draft: according to the NY Times, “More than 2.4 million people tuned in to the WNBA draft, beating the previous record by more than 300 percent.” As of July 5, 2024, halfway through the WNBA regular season, ESPN reported average game attendance of 9,311, the highest average attendance since the 1990s. Already, two games featuring Clark and the Indiana Fever boasted attendance over 20,000. That number had only been reached six times prior in the entire WNBA league history. “Viewership for WNBA on ESPN networks is up 183 percent compared to last season,” according to reports from women’s basketball data service Across the Timeline, as reported by ESPN. While women’s basketball and the WNBA haven’t previously been studied widely by economists, sports economics is not a new field of study,
and it has many parallels with labor economics. In sports, there is a lot of data connected to both revenues and player performance. In the future, economists will be able to use data to statistically test what factors contributed to wins, attendance, or even revenue generation. Economists have done this in the past related to men’s sports and the NBA. After this season (and hopefully after many more to come), economists will be able to determine how much Clark’s performance and presence have increased WNBA and franchise revenue. In the near future, we will likely see estimates of how much money having Clark on a team is worth to the WNBA. Given this surge in revenues, we should expect to see higher salaries for these players in years to come. A 2023 report by Wasserman looked to assess the full picture of media coverage for women’s sports across broadcasts, streaming, social media, and digital publications. They found that the share of coverage across these media had increased to 15 percent in 2022 which was significantly higher than previous years’ coverage of between 5-6 percent. A trend of rising media coverage toward women’s sports had begun prior to Clark’s entrance into the WNBA. Fans are clearly voting with their feet and their dollars. Time will tell how this boon in popularity will translate into profits.