Caitlin Clark, rookie class changing WNBA, but foundation for growth was already laid

Caitlin Clark — fueled in part by her rivalry with Angel Reese — along with a historic WNBA rookie class are unquestionably lifting the W to new heights of popularity.

A record number of fans are showing up at the gate and even more tuning in on television — the league has had 15 games with at least a million viewers, already tying the WNBA record for a season (and the playoffs don’t start for a month).

Far more fans are tuning in for events like the WNBA All-Star Game, which takes place Saturday in Phoenix. There, Clark and Reese will be teammates as the WNBA All-Stars face off against Team USA before it heads to the Paris Olympics.

But you couldn’t build this skyscraper without a rock-solid foundation.

“Yes This new class of generational talent will forever change the W, but we wouldn’t be here if not for the legends who did the hard work of establishing the WNBA as the premier professional women’s sports league in the U.S.,” Colie Edison, the WNBA’s Chief Growth Officer, told NBC Sports.

There is no Clark without Diana Taurasi, Cynthia Cooper, Maya Moore, Lisa Leslie, and the Indiana Fever’s own Tamika Catchings, just to name a few WNBA legends. For approaching three decades, those players and hundreds of others built the W into the highest level of women’s basketball in the world — they laid an unprecedented foundation on the court.

The WNBA’s foundation to be ready for this moment went beyond the court.

“If you recall, back in 2022, we did an outside capital raise of $75 million,” Edison said. “And what that allowed us to do is really invest in the infrastructure needed to support our epic growth trajectory. That was about investing in human capital. We Also saw our digital transformation with our new app and our dot.com, and really giving us the tools from a marketing perspective that we needed to meet this moment.”

The WNBA invested that money raised into a five-year transformational plan, which allowed them to hire a digital team, a marketing team, and other positions that had them ready when Clark and Reese showed up and interest skyrocketed. As one example, the digital team put together a new WNBA app which is seeing 236% growth year over year, Edison said.

“I’m the first-ever Chief Growth Officer,” Edison added. “We hired Phil Cook from Nike, who was our first-ever Chief Marketing Officer. And really, under the leadership of Kathy Engelbert, who’s the first ever Commissioner, it allowed us the autonomy to build out an organization that can establish a long-term financially stable business model to support the growth of the league.”

The other foundational piece for the WNBA’s growth was in place long before Clark was ever born — Title IX, which has driven growth in women’s sports at all levels, and beyond basketball.

“I think the WNBA is leading this surge and a rising tide will continue to uplift everyone that’s in the waters with us,” Edison said. “But I think ultimately it’s driven by living in a post Title IX environment where girls have access to elite training at a very young age that we’ve just never seen before. And so what that access provides at a young age is continued investment in their athletic careers.

“So you’re seeing, starting very young through AAU, through high school, through college, and now bridging that gap between college fandom and WNBA fandom, and for all these college sports and their professional counterparts, has been the challenge.”

Part of the WNBA’s challenge is staying true to its roots as an activist league unafraid of political stands as it tries to grow its fan base in a polarized country. For example, the WNBA has a partnership with Opill, the first daily over-the-counter birth control pill in the United States.

“I think at the very core, this league has been built to empower women, both on the court and off court,” Edison said. “That’s true both in our front offices at the team level and then in the back offices of the league level…

“We are a player led organization, who has a social justice council. I can’t really, recall many other leagues that do that, who actually have the ability, through their powerful, authentic voices to make change.”

For some fans, that powerful messaging is at the core of their love for the WNBA. However, with Clark and Reese bringing in more fans — more general sports fans — the league’s fan base is diversifying, and the league recognizes that.

“So I think we kind of look at our fan base in three different sectors,” Edison said. “You have your diehard W fans who have known about the talent and who have followed their teams forever. And then you have our culturally driven fans, who are purpose driven and see themselves in the work that the WNBA does off the court and really a purpose driven type of fan.

“And then lastly... it’s the fan of general sport. So when you think about what makes up professional sports now, it’s having rivalries... [The] Aces versus Liberty that gives an easy storyline for general sports fans to follow. And then you talk about household names Well, we’ve seen that coming out of the NCAA in the Angel’s and the Caitlin and the Camillas and the Camerons.

“Then lastly it’s about having games of consequence So, you know our season is only 40 games long so every game is really important.”

The coming Olympics can be another springboard for the league.

“I know based on the numbers we have from past Olympic years, the attention and spotlight has never been greater than it is those weeks following the return of our Olympians, back to the U.S., and so we definitely look to capitalize off of that,” Edison said.

It’s a lot to offer fans.

Fans are voting with their dollars — they want to see those must-watch young stars playing in games that matter. That’s what will grow this league to new heights (and with that raise WNBA salaries as the revenue goes up in the league, starting its new television deal).

While that WNBA skyscraper is being built higher and higher, don’t forget about the foundation that was already in place.