Sunday was a pivotal day for women’s basketball, as multiple records were broken at the professional and collegiate level.
Iowa hosted DePaul at Kinnick Stadium — home of the Hawkeyes’ football team — for an exhibition game that set a women’s basketball attendance record with 55,646 fans.
In Brooklyn, the New York Liberty beat the Las Vegas Aces in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals at the Barclays Center — and the game delivered the highest gate receipt on record for the league. With an attendance of 17,143, no WNBA game has ever brought in more ticket revenue than Sunday’s matchup, according to the Liberty. The exact dollar figure was not available.
Ticket prices for this WNBA Finals had already been reaching record levels last week.
Meanwhile, early viewership figures for the WNBA Finals have been up, compared to previous seasons. The first two games of the series had 13% higher audiences than last season’s.
Rise of Women’s Sports
The record day is just the latest strong sign for the growing momentum of women’s sports.
In August, Nebraska’s women’s volleyball team attracted 92,003 fans to Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium for Volleyball Day — making it the highest-attended women’s sports event in history.
This summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup broke attendance records of its own in Australia and New Zealand.
The NWSL is also experiencing significant momentum around expansion and viewership.
