Chicago Sky eye WNBA growth with historic Toronto preseason game: ‘More viewers, more money, more expansion’
The Chicago Sky brought hope with them when they touched down in Toronto for Saturday’s exhibition game.
It already had spread through the city in the weeks and months before Canadian fans sold out Scotiabank Arena in less than an hour — hope for the growth of women’s sports, the future of the WNBA and the possibility of expansion.
Before the Sky beat the Minnesota Lynx 82-74 on Saturday, Toronto fans spent the weekend lobbying for their city to be the next face of women’s basketball. It was the first WNBA preseason game played in Canada.
But in reality, expansion has been slow moving for the WNBA, creating questions and confusion around the next steps as the league enters its 26th season.
The WNBA hasn’t added a franchise in 15 years. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told the Sports Business Journal this month that the league has narrowed a list of potential new cities to 20 but she expects expansion to take another two to four years.
For players fighting to make the Sky roster such as Feyonda Fitzgerald — a second-round 2022 draft pick who was waived after two games with the Connecticut Sun last season — the lack of opportunities in the league creates a sense of desperation.
“It’s been talked about for a long time, and we still haven’t done anything about it yet,” Fitzgerald said. “Each year we know when the draft comes, each year when we have a new WNBA season, it’s like — come on, let’s try to get together and come up with something so next year we can make this big. And now we have players who aren’t worthy of it sitting at home.”
The final week before opening weekend is harrowing for WNBA players as rookies fresh off national championships and veterans accustomed to starting in Europe are cut.
The Sky brought 18 players into training camp. That group will be thinned to 12 by Wednesday’s final roster deadline. The team made its first cut Wednesday, waiving Mississippi product Angel Baker less than a month after she signed a training-camp contract.
The WNBA has a maximum of 144 players, although that number could be lower if teams choose to carry 11 players to remain under the salary cap.
For international players such as Australian Alanna Smith, the lack of roster spots creates elite competition — but it also can make players wary to take the overseas jump to the WNBA.
“The W(NBA) is a really, really hard league to come into, especially as an international player,” Sky forward Alanna Smith said. “It’s really hard to keep a spot. You don’t have much stability. Certain teams really look for niche players, like, ‘Hey, I need a certain type of player and they look for that very specific need.’
“So if you don’t really meet that need, it’s really hard to get a spot in the W(NBA) because it’s so competitive and small.”
The growth of the college game has started to create a road map for the future of women’s basketball as the popularity of players’ individual brands create more rampant fandom around teams.
The three games of the women’s Final Four averaged 6.5 million viewers on ESPN — an 87% increase from 2022 — with the highly anticipated LSU-Iowa semifinal drawing 9.9 million viewers.
“I saw all these numbers about the college teams — and it was great, I was there, it was entertaining,” Sky coach James Wade said. “But it’s not the best basketball in the world. For women’s basketball, the WNBA is.”
The main issue for the WNBA is still visibility. Women’s March Madness dominated ESPN channels. But for years, the best way to catch WNBA games was the League Pass streaming service. Despite the affordable $25 price tag, service was limited because of local blackouts and semiregular technical issues. But the most critical detriment of a siloed streaming platform is its inability to reach new, casual viewers.
The league is taking steps away from that system this season, signing a multiyear deal with ION to broadcast 44 games on Fridays. After watching top matchups such as LSU-Iowa garner major TV audiences, guard Marina Mabrey feels the larger deals will unlock the next step for the league.
“You need to have fans in seats, you need to sell tickets,” Mabrey said. “It’s mainly about drawing attention. The new TV deal means new viewers, more viewers, more money, more expansion.”
More than 200 games will be available on various broadcast and streaming platforms this season, including those 44 games on ION; 40 on CBS, Paramount+ or CBS Sports Network; 43 on NBA TV; 21 on Amazon Prime; 20 on Meta and 21 on Twitter.
Every playoff game will be on ESPN platforms. And League Pass also will be available as an add-on to YouTubeTV this month, providing the same price and product with more mainstream access.
“If you put it on TV, they’re going to watch it,” Wade said. “Not only because it’s the greatest level of basketball but because … everybody loves sports and everybody loves a good story. And there’s no better story than the stories that these women have. We just have to get those slots where they’re showing us on TV at prime times. Being consistent with being on TV, people are going to watch us.”
So which comes first — expansion? TV deals? Or something else?
Players and coaches across the league remain split on the solutions. But the goal is clear: eventual expansion to create a larger platform and broader opportunities for the top talent in the sport.
“We just need to be present,” Mabrey said. “It’s only Year 26. Things take time to expand. If you look at the NBA back in their 26th season, they had some expanding to do too.
“We need to focus as players on bringing a great product and getting fans in seats. And then things start coming from there — salaries, expansion. If we can get more money flowing in the league, then we can get more expansion teams.”
