The WNBA is ready to thrive

The WNBA is ushering in its 23rd season, and, with it, huge changes. For years, the WNBA has been seen as struggling for self-preservation; just last season, the league lost a reported $12 million and was primarily broadcast only on NBA TV and ESPN2. But this season, the league is taking its success into its own hands by launching a new brand, complete with a new logo, new commissioner, and new television distribution and marketing partnerships with CBS and ESPN.

The WNBA already has a lot going for it. Most of the league’s season takes place after basketball and hockey playoffs have ended, but before the beginning of the NFL season — during what is otherwise a summer lull for many sports fans. The WNBA also has star players it can use to promote the brand. Just as the NBA takes advantage of the mere fact that viewers can see players’ faces — whereas NFL and NHL players’ faces are blocked by helmets during games — to promote certain players, so can the WNBA.

And now, thanks to its new deals for more screen time, the WNBA can finally capitalize on marketing these advantages. Last season, ESPN2 broadcast only 13 WNBA games, while 53 other matchups were available on NBA TV and the rest were streamed on Twitter via the WNBA. Their new multiyear deal with CBS Sports will lead to 40 WNBA games being televised, and their partnership with ESPN will result in the network broadcasting 16 games. CBS and ESPN’s commitments are significant, therefore, in that they can give the WNBA a viewership platform more similar to that which other major sports leagues, like the NBA and NFL, have enjoyed for years. This move already appears to be paying off: Viewership of this season’s opener was up 25 percent compared to last year’s regular-season opener.

This shift is made all the more remarkable given that for the bulk of its existence, the WNBA has spent much of its strategic time and energy justifying its very existence — namely because it’s a women’s sports league in a still sexist culture. As Elena Delle Donne of the Washington Mystics told Yahoo Sports, she doesn’t want to be labeled as a “female” basketball player, but just a player — and yet she still frequently is. And as Imani McGee Stafford of the Indiana Fever told The Undefeated in 2018, “I think one of the things that rubs people about the WNBA so much is the fact that we are predominantly women of color...The biggest narrative of women’s basketball, [is] that we’re all gay and butch and hate men. But it’s frustrating because that’s also a critique of women’s sports in general.”

This cultural animosity toward women’s sports, and the WNBA in particular, also affects individual players personally. In the same article, Mistie Bass of the Los Angeles Sparks stated she has faced comments “circling around my sexuality” and “constantly questioning whether I was a lesbian or not.” Devereaux Peters of the Phoenix Mercury summed up the overall issue with the WNBA: “A lot of people that talk crazy about the WNBA have never seen it. They’ve never watched a game, have never seen us play. They just make these assumptions based off what everybody else says.”

These realities meant that the WNBA was often put on the defensive, being forced to spend much of its resources responding to racist, homophobic, and misogynistic attacks, rather than being able to offensively promote the league’s talent and value. That changed in May of this year, however, when the WNBA partnered with the design consultancy Sylvain Labs to bolster and innovate its brand and growth strategies. It became clear that it was time for the WNBA to embrace its differences and lean into the marginalized voices that comprise their rosters.

“There’s no secret that it’s a moment where there’s a greater sensitivity to matters involving sex and gender, discrimination, harassment, and so on,” Alain Sylvain, the CEO of Sylvain Labs, said in a statement issued by the WNBA following their partnership agreement. “Looking back at what the W was, it didn’t necessarily align with that cultural moment. I think it’s time to be unapologetic about what the WNBA is, and embrace that bolder stance.”

Unfortunately, the WNBA may still face some challenges in breaking through to a bigger audience. Despite the league’s new television deals, the way fans watch sports is evolving. Highlights and clips need to be easily and expediently digestible on social media; there needs to be a 30-second video of a dunk on Twitter, 60 seconds after it happens. Therefore, a stronger Internet presence is integral for any sports league or franchise. As most women on the Internet know well, however, it’s not easy to be a woman online. As the league’s COO, Christin Hedgpeth, said about the Internet’s response to the unveiling of the league’s new logo, “We got the ‘Where’s the apron on the logo?’” She added, “But we’re not going after those people. We’re going after people who embrace progressive values around the role of women.”

Now that the WNBA has increased its distribution and embraced its position as a progressive league, it should focus on marketing its stars through progressive narratives with which fans can identify. In the past, the WNBA’s predominant engagement with its fans was to try to convince both casual and avid fans of women’s basketball that their league’s players were worth watching. The message boiled down to “Hey, trust us, we’re good.” Now the league no longer has to waste effort trying to convince people who only wish to sneer at female athletes because it has now proven its viability and value. With their newfound financial and promotional stability, hopefully they’ll keep moving toward a model in which, instead of defending themselves, they celebrate their talent.