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On Tuesday night, the Connecticut Sun and the Los Angeles Sparks faced off in the first WNBA game ever played in the city of Boston, and DiJonai Carrington made it very clear she wasn’t thrilled with how the league handled a contest she thought deserved much more promotion than it received.
WNBA teams have historically faced an uphill battle in their quest to attract a devoted legion of fans, and while the tides are firmly changing thanks to the arrival of young talents like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, franchises that lack a household name still need all the help they can get.
That’s especially true when you’re talking about the Connecticut Sun, who (unlike every other team in the league) don’t have the luxury of playing in a major metropolitan area due to the fact that their arena is inside a casino that’s a 45-minute drive away from Hartford, the closest city of note.
However, that was not the case on Tuesday when the Sun hosted the Los Angeles Sparks at TD Garden in front of the 19,125 people who attended the first WNBA game to ever unfold in Boston—a sold-out crowd that Connecticut guard DiJonai Carrington asserted was lured to the venue in spite of the lackluster promotion she felt the contest received.
Carrington got the chance to elaborate on the tweet she sent out on Tuesday morning after recording a game-high 19 points in her team’s 69-61 victory and was not shy about airing her grievances with the WNBA during her postgame press conference.
DiJonai Carrington was asked about calling out the WNBA for not sufficiently promoting this game:
“The game should have been on the national television broadcast. You should’t have to pay for any type of subscription to see a game that’s this historic, in my opinion.” https://t.co/iff6dMBKna pic.twitter.com/gA9A4zRTuI
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) August 21, 2024
Here’s what she had to say:
“I’m gonna keep it real all the time. I feel like Connecticut as a franchise is historically disrespected…
I think that there could’ve been a lot more publicity or promo from the top. Connecticut announced that we were having this game almost a year ago, so there was ample time to do what needed to be done—but it didn’t matter anyway, because they showed up and it was sold out…
The game should’ve been on a national television broadcast. You shouldn’t have to pay for any type of subscription to see a game that’s this historic, in my opinion.”
The WNBA is currently in a prime position to capitalize on the excitement its rising stars have managed to drum up, so it’s hard to blame Carrington for calling them out for not doing more to take advantage of the moment.