EP 993 The WNBA Has Growing Pains, but People are Watching

 The thirty-year history of the WNBA has been a raucous roller-coaster and controversy continues to swirl around the league, as it welcomes new teams, new revenue streams, greater audience interest and yet retains ongoing socio-political challenges based on sex, sexual orientation and color. It is fair to say that the league could not have achieved the status of the longest-running professional women’s sports league in US history without a certain cache that has been growing over the years.  The league is trying to grow into the fact that players are key and that how you compensate them and build fan attachment to them is central to the growth of the sport.  In tandem with the growing success of college women’s basketball, much of the mythmaking, say around Caitlin Clark, for example, was established before she came into the WNBA.  There’s much concern that while she’s the driver of added appeal for many, it’s been difficult to fully capitalize on her popularity.  We discuss the history of the league and those matters that have been in the news recently with Tamryn Spruill, a longtime writer about the sports and author of “The W: A History of the WNBA” on today’s podcast.

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