Since taking over as WNBA commissioner in 2019, Cathy Engelbert has overseen the largest growth the league has seen in its nearly three-decade history. This season, data show the audience is flocking to the league in greater numbers than ever before.
In a new interview with John Ourand of Puck News, Engelbert detailed the reasons she sees WNBA viewership soaring — including but not limited to No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark.
Engelberted highlighted the “super team” clashes throughout the 2023 season as well as the popularity of Clark and Angel Reese when they entered the league in April. The commissioner also attributed audience growth to getting more games on national television, in better broadcast windows.
“When we’re on broadcast networks, we draw really well,” Engelbert told Puck.
ESPN and ABC will air 25 regular season games this summer as well as the entirety of the WNBA postseason in the fall. CBS joined the mix too, airing eight games on its broadcast network as opposed to its cable channel, CBS Sports Network, which has broadcast WNBA games for years.
The WNBA announced this week that viewership across Disney networks and CBS was nearly triple 2023 over the first several weeks of the season. Much of that was driven by Clark’s Indiana Fever, but a clash between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx on CBS and a matchup between the Liberty and Connecticut Sun on ABC brought in relatively strong numbers without Clark.
Engelbert noted the league is a big draw for what she called “lifestyle viewers” who aren’t “sitting around watching sports all day.”
In a world in which NCAA athletes come into the pros with big business and a clear brand around them as rookies, athletes may be celebrities separate from sports to some fans. The WNBA bringing in a nontraditional sports audience could make it an even more powerful business over time, particularly with a new broadcast rights package coming together this year.