Sponsors swoop in to net new generation of WNBA fans

INDIANAPOLIS – An onslaught of brands has descended on Indianapolis to take advantage of the WNBA’s growing popularity, with new sponsors setting up shop for the 2025 All-Star weekend to meet a crush of fans.

TV viewership and attendance have soared across the Women’s National Basketball Association in recent years, buoyed by rising stars like the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark and the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese.

Fans waited more than two hours on July 18 for a meet-and-greet with the first overall draft pick Paige Bueckers at a booth by sponsor DoorDash at WNBA Live, an event where 25 brands hoped to capture fans’ attention and dollars.

“It’s about time, it’s amazing,” said Gabby Mendoza, 37, a fan since the league was launched in 1997. “Probably the backing of the brands coming through is probably what’s helping the exposure.”

The sprawling ticketed event at the Indiana Convention Centre was a far cry from the inaugural WNBA Live in 2022, when only a handful of vendors were to be found, according to fans who spoke to Reuters.

The WNBA has 13 teams, with plans to add two more in 2026 in Toronto and Portland. The league recently announced it would add three more expansion franchises by 2030. In this year’s All-Star Game, Team Caitlin Clark take on Team Napheesa Collier.

Marrian James, a 56-year-old Las Vegas Aces fan, has been attending All-Star Games since the showcase came to Orlando, Florida, in 2001.

For July 19’s All-Star Game in Indianapolis, she shelled out US$1,000 (S$1,280) for a ticket.

“Before, you’d have one or two vendors – we didn’t have a whole lot of support,” said James.

“So now, with all the vendors, you see where the fan base has changed. We have more young people, old people – it doesn’t matter, all walks of life are WNBA fans now.”

A crowd 9m deep waited by a State Farm pavilion for star player Clark to make an appearance, while fans browsed leather purse tags with team logos inside at fashion designer Coach, one of the league’s newly minted sponsors this year.

AT&T, a sponsor since 2019, offered a place for fans to shoot hoops and receive applications of custom WNBA-themed nail art with robotic technology.

“This is our biggest WNBA activation, footprint, that we’ve ever had,” said Andrea Wilson, director for sponsorships and experiential marketing at AT&T. “We go bigger and bigger every single year.”

The 2024 WNBA season attracted record viewership on ESPN platforms, up 170 per cent from 2023, and brands appear to have gotten the message across Indianapolis, where Coach, Nike and Gatorade took out massive advertisements around town.

Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who attended her first All-Star Game as an assistant in 2002, said the growth of the annual exhibition has created better opportunities for players.

“We’re finding amazing ways to monetise their brand,” said Reeve, who will coach Team Collier on July 19. “It is a great space that we’re in and it was very different than what it was even five years ago.”

But while things are positive in terms of sponsorship, labour negotiations between the WNBA and the players’ union hung over the All-Star weekend.

The WNBPA admonished the league after their latest meeting on July 17, saying the WNBA had failed to “address the priorities we’ve voiced from the day we opted out”.

Players in October voted to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement, once seen as a landmark deal for women’s sports but now viewed by many players as woefully inadequate amid the surge of popularity in the WNBA.

WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said she felt the meeting was a missed opportunity.

“Yes, we’re celebrating amazing growth, but I think it’s not lost on us that we’re living the growth as we’re negotiating our worth,” she said.

“The fans know what we’re worth. Now we need the league to know what we are worth.”

Ogwumike added there had been no direct conversation about a work stoppage but that union leadership cautioned players over the possible outcomes of a failed negotiation.

“What we want to do is negotiate a good deal,” she said.

“But we also wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t let players know, ‘Hey the league is in a different place. We’re in a different place. Just be prepared for anything that can happen’.” REUTERS