The WNBA’s growing fan-base
- The San Juan Daily Star
- Sep 24
- 3 min read
By HEATHER KNIGHT
The WNBA is in the heat of the postseason, and arenas are packed with passionate fans. Many of them are women and girls, of course. But most of them are male. And among boys, that fandom is quickly growing.
I first noticed this not as a reporter, but as a mom. My 12-year-old son is obsessed with the Golden State Warriors. It seems as if half his wardrobe has Stephen Curry’s face on it. He wanted to paint his entire bedroom Warriors blue (I convinced him that one accent wall would be a more soothing choice).
When the WNBA introduced a new team in San Francisco this year — the Golden State Valkyries, which I recently profiled — I bought us tickets for the first game. I hoped he would become a casual fan.
Before long, though, he developed full-on Valkyries fever. Suddenly, he was sporting a violet cap and a Tiffany Hayes jersey, studying the roster and memorizing statistics. The real eye-opener for me came one Saturday morning when I saw that he was playing his NBA 2K video game not as the Warriors, but as the Valkyries.
It turns out my son is in very good company. Boys and young men are helping to fuel the surge in interest in women’s basketball.
This season, the WNBA’s fan base was 57% male and 43% female, according to statistics provided by the league. Men have actually made up more than half of viewership for years, but they were mostly middle-aged before. Now they’re skewing younger. The number of boys under 18 who watch WNBA games has grown by 130% over the past four years.
I spoke with league officials, Valkyries executives and fans to understand the reasons behind the explosion in popularity.
Bigger stars
Seemingly every boy in America knows about Steph Curry and LeBron James. Now they know about Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, too. (I got these names from my son, who proclaimed them “generational talents.”)
Clark in particular has drawn new fans to the league. During her first year as a professional player last season, with the Indiana Fever, the WNBA saw a groundswell of interest in its televised games.
More than a dozen games topped 1 million viewers — a number the league had not reached in the previous 16 years. Clark’s debut also coincided with a 34% increase in boys watching the games, the league said.
Better play
It’s no coincidence that a crop of superstars has recently entered the league. Over the years, there have been more opportunities for young girls to play basketball, and that investment is paying off.
“The quality of the players has definitely gotten better,” said Joe Lacob, the billionaire who owns the Valkyries and the Warriors. He said 55% of ticketholders at the women’s games in San Francisco were male.
The women are gritty and fierce, playing fast and sinking more 3-pointers than ever.
Lacob sits courtside for most Valkyries games, and his guy friends are constantly asking him for tickets, he said. At one recent game, I spotted several heavily tattooed football players for the San Francisco 49ers sitting beside him.
“People are not dumb,” Lacob said. “They see that it’s better. It just clicked.”
Cooler vibes
The Valkyries managed to become the first WNBA team to sell out all their home games, helping to propel the league to record attendance numbers. When you’re in their arena, the Chase Center, it feels like one big party.
Several male fans told me that Warriors games had started to feel like overpriced networking opportunities, while the Valkyries games were more affordable and more fun.
Nathaniel Berhanu, 10, has season tickets with his mom, Marina Cervantes, and persuaded her to buy him a Valkyries hat after a recent game.
“Anytime I’m here I’m overjoyed!” he said. “I’m hyped.”
It’s hard not to be when there are flames shooting up behind the backboards, DJs blasting music and entertainers like rapper E-40 performing.
My son has started putting the full-court press on me for season tickets next year. Not for the men’s games — for the women’s.
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