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Saturday, April 26, 2025

The Meteoric Rise of Women’s Basketball in 2024

Women’s basketball at the college and pro levels shattered attendance records, sealed major media deals, and expanded its financial opportunities this year.

Indiana Fever forward Aliyah Boston (7) celebrates with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) altering recording a triple-double Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, during the game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Indiana Fever defeated the Los Angeles Sparks, 93-86.
Grace Hollars/Imagn Images

From the NCAA women’s championship outdrawing the men’s to the WNBA’s $2.2 billion media-rights deal, the number of people following women’s basketball has never been higher.

Building on years of momentum, the sport reached new heights this spring with an electric March Madness tournament. The excitement carried into the WNBA season over the summer, when players including Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, and Arike Ogunbowale delivered brilliant and record-breaking performances that swelled interest in the league like never before. At the Olympics, Team USA won its eighth consecutive gold medal in Paris. And now, as the college basketball season is hurtling toward new conference matchups this winter, the 3-on-3 league Unrivaled prepares to launch its inaugural season in Miami.

Here’s a look back at some of the major moments that drove the business growth of women’s basketball over the course of 2024.

January

February

  • Sabrina Ionescu competed against Stephen Curry in a three-point contest at NBA All-Star weekend. The two shot from the same line, and the Saturday Night audience—the NBA’s largest in four years—peaked with 5.4 million viewers during the New York Liberty guard’s one-shot loss.

March

April

May

June

  • The Indiana Fever surpassed their total 2023 home attendance in just five games. Ticket sales to see Clark also boomed on the road, with the Las Vegas Aces, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, and Los Angeles Sparks all moving games against the Fever to bigger arenas.

July

  • The WNBA agreed to an 11-year, $2.2 billion media-rights deal with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC to begin in the 2026 season. That brings the annual media cash flow from $60 million to $200 million, with the potential to go even higher. Big names, including the WNBPA and Cheryl Miller, said the agreement undervalued the league, but the media partners will reevaluate the deal after three years.
  • The WNBA All-Star Game between Team USA and Team WNBA drew 3.44 million viewers, which remains the league’s third-most-watched game of all time. It more than doubled the previous All-Star record.

August

September

  • The WNBA announced Portland as the 15th franchise. The team is set to begin play in 2026 alongside the Toronto Tempo. The Bhathals, who own the Portland Thorns and co-own the Sacramento Kings, reportedly paid $125 million for the team.

October

  • Unrivaled and TNT Sports unveiled a multiyear media deal for an undisclosed amount. The deal signaled a big stamp of approval for the upstart league, especially because TNT also simultaneously invested an undisclosed amount on top of the media partnership.
  • The WNBA Finals drew its best average attendance ever and largest single-game TV audience of the 2000s. During the postgame championship celebration, Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai talked about the importance of investing in women’s sports, including “facilities and performance and nutrition” and moving the team from a tiny suburban arena to the Barclays Center.
  • The Women’s National Basketball Players Association opted out of its collective bargaining agreement, an anticipated move that opens the door for players to get more money from the new media deal. The current agreement will now expire Oct. 31, 2025. One of the WNBPA’s major goals of negotiations is bringing practice and game facilities to a minimum standard across the league.

November

December

Next year is set to bring lots of newness—and growth—for women’s basketball. A 3-on-3 league, Bay Area team, CBA for the WNBPA, and two more WNBA expansion drafts for Toronto and Portland are all on the horizon. At the college level, the NCAA will vote in January on introducing March Madness units, the system of millions of dollars in prize money distributed to conferences that already exists on the men’s side.

If 2024 was the year that mainstream interest in women’s basketball skyrocketed, 2025 will be the year it’s cemented.

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