How Women's Basketball Can (And Is) Get(ing) Better

Tyler Stearns |

Women's sports are gaining more viewers and improving the quality of play at a drastic rate. We saw the NCAAW National Championship involving the Iowa Hawkeyes and the South Carolina Gamecocks have more live watchers than the men's national championship. Caitlin Clark became the most-bought rookie jersey ever (until Caleb Williams recently overtook her sales).

Caitlin Clark, Via CNN

The NBA funds the WNBA which includes contracts, facilities, and travel. The WNBA runs on a deficit each year and the profit made by the NBA is keeping the league afloat. The WNBA has failed to this point because of its lack of teams, parallels to the NBA, and scarcity of big stars.

The WNBA only has twelve teams. This leads to less competition and a bland product. If the WNBA were to try and succeed, they would need to lose money by adding teams now so that in the future they can build their band. The league is also too similar to the NBA. Though you can not change the entire format of a sport, the female league will continue to fail if they have the same format as their male counterpart.

Having the same structure as the NBA in a league with only twelve teams makes it difficult to thrive. If the WNBA were to diversify their product and try new styles of playoff format or regular season tournaments, it could only benefit them. This could include creating a losers bracket of the teams that don't go to the playoffs. The league could also implement more competitions with the NBA like we saw with Curry versus Ionescu. Making drastic changes to the league will be important for its future.

Finally, new stars needed to be implemented into the sport. The college basketball world is starting to put out some amazing female talents. In the last five years, we have seen stars like Sabrina Ionescu, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and JuJu Watkins step into the spotlight. Clark is the biggest of those five. Her playstyle is reminiscent of Stephen Curry and her dominance at the collegiate level is nothing short of remarkable. She is arguably the most successful basketball player to ever play in a non-professional league. She will make her impact felt immediately on the league and likely raise viewership levels. Ionescu, Bueckers, and Reese will be great as well, but they will be in the shadows of Clark. JuJu Watkins is the next star up, though. She averaged over 25 points a game as a freshman at USC and led the Trojans to the Elite Eight.

What this can't be for the WNBA is a golden generation. Though the birth of these stars is amazing, it has to continue if the league wants to progress. Players like Clark and Watkins need to be seen at least once out of every three draft cycles. This will keep interest at a high level and make fans continue to watch women's sports.

The WNBA has all the tools to grow and succeed as a league. Prioritizing the growth of stars in college as well as changing the format of the season will inevitably make the product much more attractive to the broader basketball-loving audience.