The Journal. - Can the WNBA Cash in on the Caitlin Clark Effect?

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Caitlin Clark has lifted women’s college basketball to new heights, setting records on and off the court. Now the Iowa superstar is going pro and joining the WNBA. WSJ’s Rachel Bachman on what Caitlin Clark’s huge popularity might mean for the sometimes-struggling women’s league.  Further Reading: - Caitlin Clark Drew 18.7 Million Viewers to Women’s Basketball. Will It Last?  - Before Caitlin Clark Dominated Women’s Basketball, She Dominated These Boys  Further Listening: - The TikTok That Changed College Hoops  - The Kiss Rocking Women’s Soccer  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monday night will be a big night for women's basketball. Fans will head to Brooklyn to watch teams in the WNBA pick new players. And attention on this year's draft is huge because of one college star. Kaitlyn Clark from the logo! What can Kaitlyn Clark do? Here's Clark. Wide open. You bet!

31 for the maestro. Anybody watching her, male or female, young or old, no matter who you are, including NBA players, can see that what she does is incredibly difficult and impressive. That's our colleague Rachel Bachman, who's been following Kaitlyn Clark. She is now the all-time scoring leader in NCAA basketball, men or women. So you don't need to explain that to anybody. She's the top scorer in the sports history. Clark has taken her college team,

the Iowa Hawkeyes, to two national finals. And now she's going pro. But in women's basketball, going from college to pro is a bit of a downgrade. Not everybody knows all the teams. Not everybody knows the top players in the league.

And it's because in the history of sports, they're relatively new. It takes a long time. You know, it took decades for the NBA to really catch on in the American sports mainstream. How big a moment is this for the WNBA and for women's sports? I think for both of them, it's a very big moment. This moment, I think, will help push the WNBA further into the sports mainstream.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Linebaugh. It's Friday, April 12th. Coming up on the show, Caitlin Clark electrified college hoops. Can she do it again for the WNBA? Ready to kick off? Discover exciting games and events. Plus, find amazing hidden gems in cities full of adventures, delicious food, and diverse cultures. You'll love it so much you'll want to extend your stay beyond the matches. Get the ball rolling on your soccer getaway. Head to visittheusa.com. What was Caitlin Clark's journey to becoming this basketball sensation?

Well, she has been a great athlete her entire life. In fact, a colleague and I found some boys who had played against her in an all-boys league. She was the only girl in a suburb of Des Moines, which is where she grew up. And they said she was fantastic. She was the best player on her team from, you know, about kindergarten to third grade. And one of the best players in the league. And, you know, these teams would devise their defenses to stop her as a first and second grader. So she was really marked for greatness from the start. And she debated where to go to college.

She heavily considered Notre Dame, but just made the decision to stay at home and go to Iowa. And that really has elevated that program. It was already a strong program, but for instance, it had never been to the title game before she got there. Now it's been to back to back title games. Do you remember when Kaitlyn Clark first came onto your radar? Yes, it was a couple of years ago. You know, it was a little bit strange because she started her play in college during the pandemic. And last year was where she really burst into the mainstream sports fans consciousness. So she scored 41 points against South Carolina in the national semifinal.

He exits into Clark. Clark races away. And the mythical mastery of Kaitlyn Clark continues. And then, because of her, Iowa advances to the final against LSU. And that became, far and away, the most watched women's final in recent history. Almost 10 million people watched that final. And a lot of them were casual sports fans tuning in to say, who is this Kaitlyn Clark? Who is this person? of them were casual sports fans tuning in to say, who is this Caitlin Clark? Who is this person?

What makes Caitlin Clark so exceptional? A number of things, actually. The most obvious is her ability to sync what we call logo shots. So she's not just standing behind the three-point line. She's standing basically on the midcourt logo, that big thing in the middle with the Wildcat or the Hawkeye or whatever, and sinking a basket from there, which is difficult for NBA players to do. And she can do it with regularity. Kaitlyn Clark on a mission. The most Kaitlyn Clark way to get a bucket. I mean, we are talking well inside the middle of the Mediacom logo. But she's also an incredible passer.

So she's also incredibly skilled at getting the ball to the right people at the right time so they can score. What is she like? She's extremely competitive, can be very feisty on the court, can complain about calls, things like that. That sounds like that. That sounds like basketball. Yes, absolutely. So she's very much like any other basketball player in that way. But I think extremely poised in interview rooms, even after a loss,

she has been very composed and gracious. Here's Clark speaking after Iowa lost to Louisiana State University in the NCAA finals last year. Yeah, you got to give a lot of credit to LSU. They played an outstanding, outstanding game. And, you know, they made some tough, some tough threes, some tough jumpers off of, you know, ball screens, you know, and sometimes you have to live with them with some of that. So as a college basketball player, Clark hasn't been paid a salary. But one year into her time at Iowa, the NCAA changed the rules and allowed athletes to sign sponsorship deals. So not only does that allow her to make money,

but it also allows her to build a brand, right? She doesn't just have her Instagram account, but she has brands like Nike and Gatorade. If I can sign with Gatorade, you can too. And State Farm, who are now putting her in national TV commercials. Oh, you don't need us. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. This kind of exposure has helped to make

Clark instantly recognizable. A recent poll showed that she is America's best-known college basketball player, male or female. Going into this year's March Madness tournament, all eyes were on Clark. She was a senior, and it was her last chance to win a championship. But ultimately, that dream didn't come true. Perfection with a touch of sweet redemption. Undefeated South Carolina has won its third national championship. third national championship. But Kaitlyn Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes lost in the finals. Does that tarnish her college career?

I don't think so. Because if you look at college athletes, they only have generally four years in which to win a title. There's 360 teams in Division I. So you just look at the odds. The odds are incredibly long that you're going to win a college title. Clark's team may have lost the championship, but the game against South Carolina made history. On Sunday, when Iowa played South Carolina, 18.9 million people watched that final. So in two years, the audience for the women's final nearly quadrupled.

Wow. Now, Kate, this just does not happen for major sporting events. I mean, this is, I literally cannot think of a parallel of an audience nearly quadrupling in two years. And a lot of it is her, is interest in Kaitlyn Clark. What will Kaitlyn Clark's legacy be in women's college basketball? Well, part of that will be determined what happens next, right? So it depends on how many of these fans stick around and watch women's college basketball next year.

But I don't think there's any question that she'll be seen as the superstar who helped women's basketball, particularly the tournament, break through to the American mainstream and draw in fans who don't even watch college basketball, who might not even watch sports. Coming up, why the WNBA has struggled

and how Clark could help turn it around. Your teen requested a ride, but this time, not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account. It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your teen to your Uber account today. Seth and Riley's Garage Hard Lemonade, a delicious classic with a vibrant taste of fresh lemons. The perfect balance of sweet and sour with a crisp, zesty edge. Welcome to The Garage, the place of refreshing hard lemonade. Available at the LCBO. Must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.

So there's something you should know about me. And it's that last year I got really into the WNBA. So, Rachel, I just want to show you. I went to several New York Liberty games. I have not one free towel that you wave. Yeah. Two, three. Nice.

Four or five. It's just like, I went crazy for the Liberty. I'm wearing my Liberty shirt. I've got another t-shirt. shirt? That's awesome. People really do fall in love with the atmosphere once they try it. And fans who go there really get hooked on it because it tends to be much less expensive than the NBA and kind of a younger crowd in some cases. Number of kids there because families can often afford to go. And you get better seats. You're so close. Yes. Yes. I mean, obviously I'm a convert. As a league, the WNBA is pretty young. It started in 1997. By way of comparison, the NBA was founded in the 40s, and many college teams go back a century. The WNBA TV ratings are generally much lower than the ratings for like a prominent women's college basketball game.

And I think that's because, again, it's newer. They're not attached to these very well-known brands like in college. And also, you know, it plays in the summer. And so if people want to be outside or traveling or on vacation, they might not be at WNBA games. Right. So it's not as popular as the NCAA or as the men's league. What does that mean for WNBA players? One thing it means is the salaries are much lower than NBA salaries, for instance. So as a rookie, just from salary, Kaitlyn Clark will make less than $80,000 a year. Not much.

Not much. Most NBA players make millions a year, right? So that's the biggest difference. That's a huge difference. A huge difference, yes. And that's partly because it's hard to generate significant revenue as a new sports league because you have to get broadcasters to pay you a lot of money. You have to get fans to show up and buy tickets, buy season tickets and so on.

And, you know, starting that up from nothing is very, very difficult. A lot of leagues fail, by the way. Previous professional women's basketball leagues have failed. Previous men's basketball leagues have failed. So it is a really tough endeavor, and many leagues, most leagues, lose money when they start out. What has the WNBA done to try to remedy this, to break through? to try to remedy this, to break through? What they did in the last couple of years was they did a capital fundraise. So they got investors to throw in,

I think it was $75 million, to help fund things like league marketing, to spread the word about these great players that, you know, almost all of them played in college, to spread the word that people can keep watching them in the pros. On Monday, 15 of this year's top college players will attend the WNBA draft. Stars like Angel Reese, Camila Cardoso,

and, of course, Kaitlyn Clark, who's expected to sign with the Indiana Fever. Do you think that Kaitlyn Clark will be able to kind of make the WNBA more like the NBA? Well, that's a long way to go. The NBA has had a huge head start, right? But could she move the needle? Absolutely. And the way we know that is because she's already doing it.

The prices of resold tickets are surging for Indiana Fever games. And there's already more talk about the schedule, which games are on national television, you know, just about the league itself. And it already had its followers and it already had a lot of games on television and so on. But the presence of Caitlin Clark, who so demonstrably raised TV viewership in college, is going to accelerate that. Could that benefit other WNBA players? Yes, I think it could. And here's how. players? Yes, I think it could. And here's how. The WNBA players are under a labor agreement now that has a couple more years on it, but they could opt out of it by the end of this year and say, you know what? We think we can do better than this. We think we can get higher salaries now,

so we're going to reopen this and renegotiate. If Caitlin Clark can increase ratings in the WNBA or help increase ratings, then the players can make an argument, hey, we're making you more money. We deserve to be paid more. Has that happened before where one player can help lift all boats? Something similar happened when Tiger Woods joined the PGA Tour. So even though Tiger was winning a lot, because more people were watching pro golf, the prize purses increased. And so even if you were finishing second or third or fourth or fifth behind Tiger, you were making a lot more money than you were before he joined the league

because the entire league itself was more popular. Do you think we'll still be talking about Caitlin Clark in a year's time? Yes, but that will depend a lot on how she plays. This league is the best in the world. The defenses are much tougher. The players are bigger. They're faster. And they're experienced. So she has a challenge on her hands.

And it's not a foregone conclusion that she's going to score as much as she did in college. Would you say this is a story about the success of one female athlete or a story about changing perceptions to women's sports? I think it's both. You know, the WNBA was already growing and it was already gaining popularity. What she could be is water on that fertile ground, right? So she could be what causes a growth spurt. And would you say that this is like a moment for women's sports? Or will it be something more lasting? Absolutely. This is not a moment. This is a movement.

a movement. That's all for today, Friday, April 12th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Jared Diamond. The show's made by Annie Baxter, Katherine Brewer, Maria Byrne, Victoria Dominguez, Pia Godkari, Rachel Humphries, Ryan Knudsen, Matt Kwong, Jessica Mendoza, Annie Minoff, Laura Morris, Enrique Perez de la Rosa, Sarah Platt, Alan Rodriguez-Espinosa, Heather Rogers, Pierce Singey, Lei Ying Tang, Jeevika Verma, Lisa Wang, Catherine Whalen, Tatiana Zamis, and me, Kate Leinbaugh. Our engineers are Griffin Tanner, Nathan Singapak,

and Peter Leonard. Our theme music is by So Wiley. Additional music this week from Catherine Anderson, Peter Leonard, Bobby Lord, Griffin Tanner, Nathan Singapak, and Blue Dot Sessions. Fact-checking by Mary Mathis. Thanks for listening. See you Monday.