The WNBA is riding the Caitlin Clark wave into 2025, with the Indiana Fever set to dominate national airwaves like never before.
According to The Athletic, 41 of the Fever’s 44 regular-season games will be nationally televised or streamed, the most of any team in the league.
Ten of those games will be on ABC/ESPN and another 8 on ION. This is a testament to Clark’s meteoric rise and the “Caitlin Clark Effect” that’s reshaping women’s basketball.
“The WNBA is coming off a 2024 season in which incredible basketball and countless memorable performances paved the way for the WNBA to deliver a record-breaking season,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
“Now, with so much excitement around the player movement that took place this winter through free agency and trades, the WNBA’s broadcast and streaming partners in 2025 will spotlight the league’s superstars, rising stars and must-see matchups like never before,” she continued.
41 of the Fever’s 44 games this season will be nationally televised
— Clark Report (@CClarkReport) March 20, 2025
Caitlin Clark is must-see TV pic.twitter.com/jX1X94pAQo
The W Looking To Ride Caitlin Clark To Record-Breaking Viewership
Fresh off a rookie season in which Fever games shattered viewership records across six networks, the WNBA is clearly capitalizing on Clark’s star power with this broadcast schedule.
With the Fever hosting the All-Star Game in Indianapolis and rivalries like Clark versus Angel Reese spotlighted, the league is betting big that her pull will keep fans glued to screens.
It’s setting the stage for a blockbuster year before a $2.2 billion media deal kicks in 2026. That is, if the players don’t cause a work stoppage and destroy any momentum the league may be building.
The WNBA notes that “fan favorites (will) dominate the spotlight” this season.
A 44-game schedule expansion also gives the league more opportunity to showcase its games. This means five more broadcasts than last year featuring Clark.
In addition to extending the regular season schedule and adding an expansion franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, the league Finals will be a full seven-game series, the first in league history.
Imagine if Clark and the Fever make it that far!
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Clark Lifts All Teams
Despite pushback from players envious of her success, Clark has clearly helped benefit the entire league. Engelbert hinted at that early last season.
“We’re obviously marketing around all of our players, but I think Caitlin’s lifting everybody,” Engelbert said. “Our arenas are packed, our viewership, I mean…”
There was never a chance in heck that this expanded schedule wasn’t an excuse to get Clark on television more. More viewers. More ticket sales. More merch.
None of it will matter, though, if the WNBA doesn’t start turning a profit. The league has never turned a profit—not even in Clark’s first season. Indeed, the WNBA is subsidized by the NBA just to stay afloat.
And while the $2.2 billion media deal could change fortunes, players like Reese are hinting strongly at a strike after the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) opted out of the league’s current collective bargaining agreement. It will become effective in October of 2025.
The league lost something on the order of $50 million last year and the players want more money. Get your finances back in the black first, ladies.
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