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The WNBA’s record-breaking 2024 campaign continued Friday as the league revealed attendance was up 48 percent during the regular season.
Games averaged 9,807 fans in 2024, a hefty increase from last season’s 6,615 per night.
The WNBA said 2,353,735 fans attended WNBA games, the most in 22 years. Teams combined for 154 sellouts this season after having just 45 in 2023.
Three games drew more than 20,000 fans, including a record 20,711 when the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever visited the Washington Mystics on September 19. The other two also involved the Fever — 20,366 against the Las Vegas Aces on July 2 and 20,333 versus the Mystics on June 7.
Clark’s impact was a big reason for the increased interest in the league. The Fever set a single-season home attendance record of 340,715 fans.
Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark is pictured alongside Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese
Clark, a rookie, also set WNBA records for assists in a season (337) and a single game (19).
Las Vegas star A’ja Wilson set single-season records for scoring average (26.9 points per game), total points (1,021) and total rebounds (451). She won her third MVP award in unanimous fashion.
Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese set a single-season record by averaging 13.1 rebounds per game.
Also, the league said a record 22 regular-season telecasts averaged at least 1 million viewers.
Despite the WNBA’s success in 2024, the season has been far from perfect. Many players have blasted the league’s growing fan base over racist abused aimed at its black stars.
Jason Whitlock says Caitlin Clark is a ‘slave’ who black WNBA players are ‘exploiting’
Jason Whitlock added fuel to the simmering racial tensions in the WNBA by equating Clark, a white superstar, to an African-American slave.
‘Caitlin Clark is ”Kunta Clark,”’ the sports podcaster said, likening the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year to the enslaved protagonist of Alex Haley’s 1976 bestseller, Roots. ‘She’s the actual slave that everybody else is exploiting for their benefit.’
Whitlock’s comparison followed a series of attacks on African-American players, whom he painted as ‘angry Black feminists.’
He specifically called out Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese and Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas, both of whom have been vocal about the racist comments directed at players by fans.
‘Angel Reese is included at the top of that list, and now Alyssa Thomas is like ”let me get my piece,”’ Whitlock said.
Whitlock also accused the Sun’s Dijonai Carrington of intentionally poking Clark in the eye during a recent game – something the Indiana Fever guard has rejected.
‘Caitlin Clark got poked in the eye and injured, black eye, you can still see the black eye,’ Whitlock said Friday, as quoted by Fox Sports Radio 790.
Following the most successful regular season in league history, the ongoing WNBA postseason is at risk of being overshadowed by controversy. While many Clark supporters have accused the league of conspiring against its biggest star, a number of players have voiced frustrations about racist fan abuse, much of which appears to come from Clark supporters.
‘I think that in my 11-year career I never experienced the racial comments like from the Indiana Fever fan base,’ Thomas said Thursday.
Alyssa Thomas spoke out on the ‘unacceptable’ racist abuse from Indiana Fever fans
Clark addressed the racist remarks directed at her black colleagues with reporters on Friday following the Fever’s first-round playoff defeat at the hands of the Sun.
‘It’s definitely upsetting,’ Clark said Friday morning. ‘Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats. Those aren’t fans. Those are trolls and it’s a real disservice to the people in our league, the organization, the WNBA.’
Things were bad enough for the WNBA to address the issue in a statement this week.
‘The WNBA is a competitive league with some of the most elite athletes in the world,’ read the league statement. ‘While we welcome a growing fan base, the WNBA will not tolerate racist, derogatory, or threatening comments made about players, teams and anyone affiliated with the league.’
Meanwhile, FOX Sports analyst Nick Wright is insisting that racists used Clark’s popularity to spread hate towards black WNBA players.
‘You’ve got this boatload of new fans because Caitlin Clark is box office,’ the FS1 host said on his What’s Wright program. ‘But unfortunately, an inevitably, and the league should have seen this train coming down the tracks, on that bandwagon were folks that weren’t fans of basketball, that weren’t even actual fans of Caitlin Clark.’
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