WNBA League Pass experiences severe issues on preseason opening night
The WNBA League Pass streaming service experienced severe issues during opening night of the preseason.
There was a lot of hype going into this new season due to stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso entering the league. Clark’s debut with the Indiana Fever already spawned viral highlights.
But while Clark’s game with the Fever was regularly available, the rest of service had technical issues.
“Apologies!,” the WNBA’s tweet read. “Our App is incorrectly showing that every preseason game (including CHI vs MIN) is available on League Pass. But you *can* watch IND vs DAL tonight at 8pm ET in a FREE preview of WNBA League Pass on the WNBA App. Also streaming free on the app will be the Canada Game 9:30pm ET on Saturday and even more games next week.”
USA Today’s Lindsay Schnell pointed out the biggest problems with the app Friday night.
“Most anticipated WNBA season in years and 1) there’s no score or time on the live stream & 2) the stats on the official WNBA page aren’t working,” Schnell wrote on Twitter. “THIS LEAGUE DOES IT TO ITSELF.”
If the league wants to continue to grow, fixing this service should be paramount. Although the WNBA is hardly the first company to have issues with streaming such as glitches, unavailability and complaints from media and fans.
Either way, the WNBA should see a growth of interest with the latest crop of young stars.
Caitlin Clark calls WNBA preseason debut ‘a great atmosphere’
It wasn’t a perfect showing – it was the first preseason game, after all – but Clark noted how impressed she was with the energy in the arena.
“I thought we played really hard,” Clark said during her postgame interview. “Just a great atmosphere for women’s basketball. I think it’s a good kickoff to the WNBA season. I think the way we play, there’s some things we could have executed a little better. I thought we could have gotten our offense a little bit better. The pace was amazing.
“That’s fun basketball people like to watch. But overall, definitely what I expected.”
Just a month removed from her time at Iowa, Clark didn’t look like she missed a beat. In addition to her 21 points to lead a Kelsey Mitchell-less Fever team, she also added three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Aliyah Boston also had a big game, leading Indiana with eight rebounds to go with her eight points.
Nick Schultz contributed to this report