The 2023 WNBA Finals tip off Sunday, when the Las Vegas Aces host the New York Liberty in Game 1 of a best-of-five series. As New York goes for its first title in its 27th WNBA season and Vegas tries to defend its 2022 crown, close to a million viewers could be tuning in for each game thanks to the league's recent growth in popularity. That growth has also been reflected in rising player salaries, and the 2023 WNBA Finals will include the league's highest-paid player in Vegas' Jackie Young, whose two-year, $504,900 contract makes her the WNBA's highest earner ever. The WNBA has already made substantial progress, but recent trends suggest even further advancement could be on the horizon.
The WNBA was founded in 1996 by NBA Commissioner David Stern as an eight-team league, the same year another women's basketball league called the American Basketball League was formed. Both leagues were hoping to ride the surging wave of popularity that the USA Basketball Women's National Team created with their gold medal run at the 1996 Olympics. The crest of that wave occurred in 1998, as the WNBA averaged 10,864 fans per game in its second season. That's still the highest point for in-person attendance, but the WNBA's recent progress in TV viewership has led to unprecedented milestones when it comes to player salaries, benefits and popularity in women's team sports.
Women's basketball fell on harder times in 1999. The American Basketball League folded, so all of the top talent consolidated into the WNBA, but an NBA lockout led to a decline in basketball viewership across the board. The WNBA learned its lesson from this debacle and decoupled from the NBA enough to keep operating when the NBA faced another lockout in 2011. After the 1999 NBA lockout led to a fallow period, the 2011 edition served as the means for a WNBA growth spurt. NBA TV televised over 70 WNBA games that year, and increased TV exposure led to fuller arenas, as nine of the 12 teams in the WNBA saw an increase in attendance that year.
The effects of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed in 2020 between the league and the WNBA players' union are still reverberating, as this deal will run through 2027. Player compensation increased by more than 50 percent, and the CBA featured additional perks meant to disincentivize stars from having to play overseas. These additions included making all league air travel to games premium economy class or better, full salary on maternity leave and other childcare provisions, as well as the ability for WNBA players to join NBA coaching staffs without any salary limits.
This era of improved WNBA working conditions was ushered in by a period of growth that has continued since the new CBA was signed. In 2022, an average of 379,000 viewers tuned in for WNBA games across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, representing a 14-year high-water mark for the league. That number jumped all the way up to 556,000 in 2023, and the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game averaged 850,000 viewers, with a peak of 955,000.
The WNBA has played an important role in the ascent of female athletes. Prior to the 1999 season, WNBA players and the league signed the first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in the history of professional sports. Then in 2000, the WNBA champion Houston Comets became the first women's sports team invited to the White House. Another women's sports milestone was reached in 2006, when the WNBA became the first team-oriented women's professional sports league to celebrate a consecutive decade of existence.
The WNBA has already accounted for many significant milestones and is currently on an upward trajectory after a turbulent period in the 2000s, but even more growth could be on the horizon. Women's basketball players still have a long way to go to reach the equal pay enjoyed by women's tennis players in America, as the 2023 US Open celebrated the 50th anniversary of gender pay equality in tennis, while Stephen Curry is set to make about 200 times Young's salary this year.
Marketable women's basketball stars such as Candace Parker (one million Instagram followers), Sabrina Ionescu (834,000 followers), and Brittney Griner (721,000 followers) are out there, but the WNBA lacks the star power and excitement of the NBA. Ionescu's a lights-out shooter who will have a chance to grow her brand under the bright lights of the WNBA Finals with the Liberty, but women's basketball lacks the highlight-reel dunks featured in the men's game, as Griner and Parker are the only players with multiple dunks in their WNBA careers. The idea of lowering the WNBA rims has been floated about by basketball personalities, including Shaquille O'Neal, but the logistics of such a move don't make much sense considering girls grow up playing on the same hoops as boys. A better solution would be the entry of more elite athletes like Parker and Griner who can dunk on 10-foot rims. With the WNBA having been around to inspire a generation of girls to chase their dreams of becoming professional basketball players, that infusion of talent could be coming sooner than most people realize to become the future faces of not only the WNBA, but female athletes everywhere.
