Overall ratings are down 55%. Fever games are down 53%.
Has any pro league ever been so dependent on a single player?
Has any pro league ever been so dependent on a single player?
WNBA ratings down 50% since Clark injury
- Thread starter 18IsTheMan
- Start date
WNBA ratings have plummeted over 50 percent since Caitlin Clark’s injury
The WNBA’s ratings have gone in the tank without Caitlin Clark.
nypost.com
I would modify the question to read: "Has any pro league ever been so dependent on a white player?"
I'd say any player. Tiger's absence is probably second, the drop in viewership was around 25% when he didn't play.
The highest concentration of women's sports fans has to be fans of the University of South Carolina. I can't think of any other group that cares as much (much at all really) about women's sports. I wonder how loyal the USC fans would be if Dawn left and the women's basketball team reverted to an average team?
The angry black woman schtick doesn't work when there isn't a privileged white girl to be angry at.
Yep, we are just the new kids on the block. I would put Tennessee in that group too. Their fanbase is just frustrated that we have sort of pushed them to the side.
Um, there are a good deal of white girls in the WNBA. Several of them are star players and are on better teams than Caitlin (Ionescu, Stewart, Plum {until she was traded from the Aces}). So, I really don't get all the drama surrounding Clark especially when she has a career record of 22-22 in the games she has played. Wonderful player, but it is starting to sort of get Tebow-esque and exhausting for those of us that are just into the basketball.
You'll get no defense from me. I don't follow it at all, other than the occasional headline that pops up on my news feed. For whatever reason, Clark IS the WNBA. I'm sure there are other whites in the WNBA, but none of them have been set up by the media and WNBA to have a rivalry with Reese. And it's very apparent to all that the Clark/Reese "rivalry" has been hyped up (if not engineered entirely). Again, I plead mostly ignorance, but as a non-follower, I only hear of Clark/Reese. Never hear about Reese vs another player. I don't know, but I don't gather from your comments that Clark is the best player in the WNBA, but she's far and away the most popular. It's just a hunch, but my guess is if any those other players you mentioned went out with injury, that it would not reflect in the ratings. But having your ratings cut by over HALF by one player being out is astounding. What makes it astounding is that ratings are down 55% across the WNBA, not just for Clark's team. The latter would make total sense. It makes no sense for the ratings of other games to be down. But they are.
What I see is that you have a lot of non-basketball fans following Caitlin. They don't follow the WNBA. They don't even follow the NBA or any kind of basketball period. They just want Caitlin to own the angry black girls so bad and the sad thing is that the Black girls already in the WNBA have done nothing to Caitlin. They have just been lumped into some foil that Caitlin has to conquer. When Caitlin's team loses it's her teammates fault, it's her coaches' fault, the other team is playing too rough, it's the referees fault. It has gotten to the point where I know other teams and players dread seeing that Fever game on the schedule and it's not because they are going to be playing such a difficult opponent.
Last edited:
Well I've watched a little and they play her pretty tough, a lot of trash talking and bumping trying to get in her head or affect her game. They know if they can do that there is a good chance they win the game. I don't know if you would call it bullying, but it's pretty close!
That's basketball. Players are going to compete and try to win. Otherwise, you have a basketball version of WWE with a scripted winner.
Skill vs skill is much better sports than personality vs personality!!!
If you want the personality match, put them on Oprah, The View, etc.
If you want the personality match, put them on Oprah, The View, etc.
I love the game. Played it a bunch all the way through high school and then recreationally. Went to McGuire’s basketball clinics back in the day. If Caitlin Clark is on, I will watch at least some of every game I come across because she plays like the Pistol back when at lsu; skillfully and artfully. She’s fun to watch. If Caitlin Clark is not on, I don’t even consider watching; no reason to.
is this another thread for those who dislike womens sports
but who feel impelled to comment on said sports incessantly?
It is not super surprising that people don't care about WBB all that much but will tune in when Clark is playing. The fascinating aspect is that the ratings have dropped in games league-wide. It's easy enough to explain why ratings cratered for Clark's team once she went out with injury. It's harder to explain why viewership also cratered for games not involving Clark's team.
I think your OP summed it up. The entire league depends on Clark. She is the Tiger Woods of women's basketball.
No. Bueckers is a great player, but there are LGBTQ rumors swirling around her. So, most of the same fans that wildly support Clark would never support Bueckers in the same way. Unfortunate, but that's the reality. The difference between Woods and Clark is that Woods didn't disrupt the sport. Woods supporters didn't come onto the golf course and proclaim all you other golfers suck and you better "move around" if you want to make some money. The Clark phenomenon creates an opportunity for the WNBA, but it will be short-lived if both sides of the argument don't realize they need each other. Clark brings the ratings, but there is no game without the other players.
Woods absolutely did disrupt the PGA tour. The entire tour became about Tiger and what he was doing and the PGA and the tv networks embraced it wholeheartedly. I recall many times when the tv coverage would cut away from the leaders in a tournament to show Tiger putting for par when he was 10 strokes behind the leaders and out of contention. I don't know if you ever went to a tournament where Tiger was playing but the crowd that followed Tiger was sometimes half of the total attendance.
The fact that the networks still cling to Woods' highlights in their promos and still cut away from live action to show replays and recaps of his past wins shows the impact he had on the tour.
In terms of performance, yeah. I'm that guy who watches WNBA. I watch it way more than NBA. The reason I even got into it was because of the Lady Gamecocks. My daughter got hooked on them, watching with me. There are so many in the league now, it was a natural progression. So she wants to watch and I oblige when we find them on TV. My daughter's sorority has a WNBA fantasy league.
Last edited:
Some good highlights last night from the fever/suns game! A good bit of non-basketball play bumping going on after an eye poke! Totally unrelated to any basketball play, but thats just playing hard basketball! And yes Caitlan is right in the middle of it, and of course Sophie Cunningham comes in as the enforcer, nice!
www.espn.com
Clark, Fever to vie for Cup after scuffles mar win
Caitlin Clark and the Fever advanced to the Commissioner's Cup championship game after defeating the Sun in a physical game that included a pair of scuffles and three late ejections.
www.espn.com
Some good highlights last night from the fever/suns game! A good bit of non-basketball play bumping going on after an eye poke! Totally unrelated to any basketball play, but thats just playing hard basketball! And yes Caitlan is right in the middle of it, and of course Sophie Cunningham comes in as the enforcer, nice!
Clark, Fever to vie for Cup after scuffles mar win
Caitlin Clark and the Fever advanced to the Commissioner's Cup championship game after defeating the Sun in a physical game that included a pair of scuffles and three late ejections.
I am with you on this. My Dad and my sister got me into it. Also, the number of Lady Gamecocks got me interested. 2 Years in. I am not really into baseball. So, it gives me something to watch in the summer. The WNBA is probably one of the harder leagues to break into in spite of how much it is maligned. If you are one of the top 156 in the world in anything, you are pretty good.
Do you remember Sophie's college days? Our ladies had some run-ins with her. She likes to mix it up. I don't think she ever beat us though. She's one of my favorite players now.Some good highlights last night from the fever/suns game! A good bit of non-basketball play bumping going on after an eye poke! Totally unrelated to any basketball play, but thats just playing hard basketball! And yes Caitlan is right in the middle of it, and of course Sophie Cunningham comes in as the enforcer, nice!
Clark, Fever to vie for Cup after scuffles mar win
Caitlin Clark and the Fever advanced to the Commissioner's Cup championship game after defeating the Sun in a physical game that included a pair of scuffles and three late ejections.
Oh yeah, we couldn’t stand playing against her! But You love it when she’s on your team!