The WNBA is Experiencing a Surge in Popularity… but Does its Fanbase Want It?

It was the closing minutes of a hard-fought Sunday afternoon basketball game at the Barclays Center. The crowd of  more than 10,000 fans chanted their team’s name — “Lib-er-ty! Lib-er-ty! Liberty!” — as they waved teal-colored towels with the image of the team’s beloved mascot Ellie the Elephant. 

“They are rushing too much when they don’t have too,” a fan said, shaking his head after another Liberty turnover. 

With 1:31 left in the fourth quarter, Sabrina Ionescu, one of the team’s stars, drove to the basket and sank a floating jump shot over a taller opponent to give the Liberty a one-point lead over the Washington Mystics. The Liberty pulled away in the last minute. When the final buzzer goes off, the crowd let out a roar to celebrate their team’s 93-88 victory, its seventh in a row.

The WNBA, now in its 28th season, is surging in popularity thanks in part to its most famous rookie Caitlin Clark (more about her later), but also due to many years of patiently nurturing the most progressive and LGBTQ+-heavy fan base of any professional sports league in the United States. 

“There’s so many queer people here,” said Alysaa, a queer white woman in her early 30s. “It’s literally the biggest queer block party in Brooklyn.”

“This is my first year being a season ticket holder,” Alyssa added. “I’d been to a few games over the years with friends, but then obviously everything with the NCAA this year — it just exploded.”

For Rylee and her son Robby, it was their first WNBA game. She said they were inspired by the media coverage of this year’s NCAA women’s college basketball tournament in which Clark carried the Iowa Hawkeyes to the finals for a second year in a row only to come up one win short. 

“My son loves basketball, but I want him to love all of the sport — not just when he sees men playing it,” Rylee says. “He goes with his father to NBA games, so the WNBA is my territory.”

No one dunks in the WNBA or plays above the rim. To score points, the women have to constantly move around without the ball and set each other up with nimble passes. 

“It’s like male and female gymnastics in that way,” Rylee explained. “It’s the same sport, but we’re testing different skills.”

For Amiri and R.J., a pair of teenage basketball fans, affordable tickets are part of the draw. 

“I don’t have school anymore, and this is cheaper than the NBA,” Amiri said. “Shit, this is cheaper than cornbread.” 

“I think it’s really important to support our women,” R.J. chimed in. “We got mothers, sisters and they can play, you know?”

The New York Liberty was founded in 1997 as one of the WNBA’s eight original franchises. 

The team was owned by New York Knicks owner James Dolan, and it played at Madison Square Garden. Dolan eventually lost interest and banished the team to White Plains, New York, where the Knicks’ developmental league team plays. In 2019, Joseph Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA’s other New York City franchise, bought the Liberty and moved it to its current home at the Barclays Center.

Landing in the heart of Brooklyn allowed the team to rebuild its fanbase. In 2021, the team rolled out Ellie the Elephant, the team mascot who has 100,000 Instagram followers and whose latest dance moves inspire intense Reddit debates among fans about the identity of the person underneath the costume.  

“Obviously this is a huge queer space,” said Gabby. “It’s nice that you know like 40 people every game. All of your friends are here. You know you can be here and be yourself.”

“They don’t just tolerate us; they embrace us,” Gabby’s friend Merit said of the WNBA. 

Gabby, Merit and a third friend, Miller, have been season ticket holders since 2021. They described watching the team end a string of losing seasons that began during their exile years in Westchester County and then make it to the finals last year before falling to the Las Vegas Aces. They have also enjoyed watching the queer-friendly scene around the team grow. 

When Caitlin Clark’s name comes up, they roll their eyes. They acknowledge that Clark, with her long-distance shooting and razzle-dazzle passing, is talented and that she brought millions of new fans with her when she entered the league this year. But, they add, it’s impossible to ignore that Clark’s popularity is fueled in part by her being straight and white in a league where most of the players are Black and many are openly queer.

“There were so many great players before her.” Gabby pointed to A’ja Wilson, a two-time league MVP with the Las Vegas Aces who does not have any corporate endorsement deals. “That was definitely partly because she’s Black, queer and more masculine,” Gabby said. “Everyone is like, ‘[Clark] saved the league; she saved the league,’ when we don’t need saving!” Miller said.

The WNBA is experiencing its highest attendance in more than 20 years. Demands for the jerseys of Clark and her top college rival Angel Reese have contributed to a 236% increase in merchandise sales. And the league recently concluded a new 11-year, $2.2 billion television deal worth six times its prior contract. It remains to be seen if the league will go the way of a hip, low-rent neighborhood that becomes gentrified and loses the qualities that made it special.

After a month-long break for the Olympics, the Liberty’s regular season resumes from August 15 to September 19, followed by the league’s playoffs. The team starts the second half of the season with the best record in the league (21-4) and, its loyal fans believe, a good chance at winning its first-ever championship.

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