While many people are excited about a new WNBA season, few are excited about the bad-faith arguments that are about to dominate its discourse.
If you were glad to get a reprieve from the deluge of opinions from sports media pundits with no actual interest in women’s basketball on the state of the sport and the athletes who play it, that reprieve ends May 16. That’s when the 2025 WNBA season, and hot takes about it, begin.
Over the last several years, discussing Caitlin Clark’s impact has been hard without getting pigeonholed. Nuance dies on the internet (and sports debate shows), and offering your thoughts in any direction invites criticism that may or may not be warranted.
With all that in mind, let’s try to be adults and admit that, when you see how the media and money people look at this upcoming WNBA season, they seem hyper-focused on the idea that Caitlin Clark is the centerpiece of it all.
This isn’t an earth-shattering piece of information. It also isn’t intended to be a shot at those who would like to see other WNBA players be considered worthy of the same media attention. It’s simply the obvious truth when you look at it all from above.
For starters, the news that ESPN will reportedly televise an exhibition game (!!!) because Clark is playing in it. The game will take place at the University of Iowa, Clark’s alma mater, on May 4, featuring a matchup between the Indiana Fever and Brazil’s national team. The game could end up on ESPN2 if there’s a competing NBA Playoff Game 7, but otherwise, it will be on the flagship network.
This is in addition to the fact that 41 of 44 Fever games will be nationally broadcast or streamed in 2025. Clark’s squad will be featured five times on ABC, on ESPN, on ION, on Amazon Prime Video, and thrice on CBS, with the other 14 on CBS Sports Network and NBA TV.
And then there’s this nugget: Six WNBA teams will be playing in larger venues than their usual home arenas when Clark and the Fever come to town. Indiana is taking full advantage of these moves by promoting how every game, home or away, is like a home game for them.
every game is a home game.
we can’t wait to see you 😈 pic.twitter.com/sQ0r6fgI1r
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) April 12, 2025
None of this is to say that the WNBA isn’t full of other stars who deserve the spotlight. None of this is to say there isn’t a racial component to how this plays out. None of this is to say that Clark isn’t benefiting from certain biases and the hard work of those who came before her. None of this is to say that the success of the league is Clark’s alone.
But… it is what it is. And while the conversation around how the WNBA is perceived and promoted goes on, there’s simply no denying that when you follow the money, it leads you back to Caitlin Clark.
