The WNBA has an opportunity to capitalize on a shift in momentum in women’s basketball thanks to an interesting and record-breaking draft class that includes Kaitlyn Clark, Camila Cardoso, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink.
Liberty is excited to be part of this new frenzy as the season begins while holding the league in check.
On Friday night, no preseason games were available on WNBA League Pass, so returning fans and new fans were unable to watch Reese and Cardoso make their professional debuts.
That was until fans inside the stadium took out their phones and started a live stream on X to help other fans watch the game, amassing more than 800,000 views in nearly two hours.
The WNBA, which has struggled to market players from college to the pros, incorrectly displayed all preseason games as available on its League Pass app.
The league later apologized for the post on “X,” but received only criticism from fans.
“I mean, it sucks,” Sabrina Ionescu said at Liberty’s Media Day on Saturday. On this day, a public practice was held with approximately 2,000 fans in attendance. “I think it’s important to represent all the teams. … I hope the league can fix that because I think they dropped the ball in that area. Why wasn’t it shown on TV?” I hope I can explain it well, but hats off to the person who came up with it.”
Bahamian Jonquel Jones is no stranger to these issues.
The Liberty’s star center has mentioned several times her family’s struggles with streaming games from home while paying for League Pass.
Because it is so close to Florida, it is still considered a blackout area for East Coast games, even though it is not in the United States.
“You can’t build consistency if you don’t have a consistent schedule, right? The WNBA is the only professional league among the larger professional leagues where fans go to this much effort just to watch the games,” Jones said. he explained. “You know you’re going to watch ‘Monday Night Football.’ You know when the football games start. You know when the NBA games start. This is the playoff game. 9 out of 10 NBA games will be played on TNT.
Meanwhile, upon seeing the numbers on the livestream, Brianna Stewart exclaimed, “What?!”
“It just means people want to watch it,” said the former MVP, who was recently promoted in a commercial by the league. “We’ll make sure you can watch as many of these games as possible.”
Head coach Sandy Brondello expects these new stars and the rivalry stories that carry over from their college days and already exist within the league (such as the Liberty team vs. the Aces) to draw even more attention. I believe there is.
She had hoped to watch Cardoso and Reese play Friday night, but tuned in for Clark’s debut. Clark “got on right away” and “was just wearing a really different jersey.”
“It’s exciting for the league,” Brondello said. “We have an opportunity to continue to grow this league. It’s the best basketball players in the world and the visibility we’re getting among them is an opportunity for us to go to the next level.”
