On Friday, May 3 fans took to social media criticizing the WNBA’s decision-making prioritizing the preseason Indiana Fever vs. Dallas Wings game as the only available game on League Pass that night. What fueled the fire was a fan at the untelevised Sky/Lynx preseason game streamed on X live that had over 200,000 fans tune in including South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley. The fan saw her stream’s viewership reach two million since Friday night’s game.
On Saturday, May 4 League Pass showed its Canadian game where the Seattle Storm and LA Sparks competed in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The game sold out with 16,655 fans in attendance. However, the preseason game between the Washington Mystics and Atlanta Dream being held the same day was not available to stream.
It seems this pressure from fans worked as the Chicago Sky’s preseason game last night against the New York Liberty that was not scheduled to be televised was available on the WNBA League Pass app. In addition, the Atlanta Dream vs. Indiana Fever preseason game on May 9 and LA Sparks vs. Phoenix Mercury preseason game on May 10 will also be aired on the app.
But games are still being left off the app that fans want to tune into, for example, Thursday, May 9, the matchup between the New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun is unavailable, despite this being an anticipated rematch from the 2023 Semifinals. The Las Vegas Aces are playing the Puerto Rican National team on Saturday, May 11.
Lynx Head Coach Cheryl Reeves points out the larger issue, “the growth [of the league] is happening so fast, it’s so accelerated that it’s not business as usual anymore: It’s time for the league, franchises and women’s sports to be innovative.”
Nika Muhl will make her WNBA debut tonight.
Sadly it will not be televised on the League Pass.
Good luck Nika ⚡️🌩️ pic.twitter.com/TQUBGeKiJy
— Women’s Hoops Network (@WomensHoops_USA) May 8, 2024
Where’s Diana?! Why isn’t the Phoenix vs Seattle game on the @WNBA app?? We want ALL THE GAMES. We went from NCAA to WNBA. We want continuity? Blackout games? After paying the premium for WNBA League Pass? NBA would never. The @NBA is the parent company? GET IT TOGETHER! pic.twitter.com/swaCdGZF6l
— Danii deiViito 🍉🇯🇲 (@Dani_Knope) May 8, 2024
However the availability of games on the app are not the only issues. Fans of the WNBA and women’s basketball in general are starting to get a small taste of the problems that remain and need to be addressed on the app, despite its accessibility in price.
First, the app has had issues with glitches where it freezes in the games that are streamed and fans encounter delays in play-by-play updates for games that are not streamed. Furthermore, in the first preseason game featuring the Fever vs. Wings, the score was not on the screen consistently throughout the game.
Next, there is the ever-present problem of a lack of produced content to engage the fans further about the excitement and storytelling of the league. The app lacks any pregame show or highlights but leaves fans with an orange box stating, “the game has not started.”
Lastly, there is a lack of ads and commercials on the app. Why has the league not sold sponsorship and ad spots during timeouts and breaks in the game on the app to increase revenue for the league? Instead, fans will see previous WNBA content related to the 2024 draft class or community partnerships between the home team and local businesses. These partnerships should be centered and shown as they generate buzz and money for these local businesses and show the corporate social advocacy tie that the WNBA is known for, but it feels like a miss not to sell these time blocks to either regional or national companies to increase consistent revenue for the league.
In growing the game and catering to old and new fans alike of the WNBA, the league must continue to improve its streaming options and product. The fans are hungry to digest the content but need a platform that performs consistently to do so; this means investing in the infrastructure of the app itself.
About Allison Smith
Dr. Allison Smith is a former Division I and II softball student athlete who is now an assistant professor of sport administration who studies and writes about the current state of women in sport. Outside of writing about women in sport, Allison has taught sport management and marketing courses for over ten years at various undergraduate and graduate programs. Follow Allison on Twitter @allisonbsmith15.