At that time, the New York Liberty, one of the league’s original franchises, had just been purchased after previous owner James Dolan of Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. abandoned the franchise, putting it up for sale without a buyer. And the league didn’t even have a top executive, as former president Lisa Borders stepped down from her role to lead the now-defunct advocacy organization Time’s Up.
A lot has changed in six years. For starters, the league hired a commissioner (Cathy Engelbert) for the first time. And the Liberty, that New York franchise that suffered from Dolan’s mismanagement, finally won its first WNBA championship in 2024.
Last season, the league’s 28th, represented a major inflection point. The WNBA had its most-watched regular season since 2001 and highest attendance since 2003.What caused the sudden breakthrough? Conventional wisdom says that catalyst was the arrival of two of women’s basketball’s most popular players in Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, a duo that took the WNBA by storm.
In Year 1, both Clark and Reese proved that their college hoops prowess could translate to the pro level. Clark led the league in assists per game (8.4), and Reese led the league in rebounds per game (13.1). Clark broke the WNBA rookie scoring record, averaging 19.2 points per game, and Reese set a record of her own for the most consecutive double-doubles in league history (15). The most-watched regular-season game of the 2024 season was between Clark’s Indiana Fever and Reese’s Chicago Sky on June 23. It averaged 2.35 million viewers and was the league’s most-watched regular-season game since 2001
