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The boom in success for the WNBA this year has been so massive that ESPN is reportedly open to sharing the rights to the WNBA Finals with other networks.
During a recent interview on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast, Burke Magnus, the President of Content at ESPN, Magnus said that — unlike the NBA Finals — which he previously told Deitsch is a “must-have” — the network would be open to splitting the broadcast of the WNBA Finals with another network.
“Maybe somewhat unselfishly, we look at the growth of the WNBA on the number of various entities involved in it. We see an upside in other broadcasters also being involved. Of course we want the WNBA Finals, I’m sure that at some level that’s going to be a component of the deal,” Magnus said.
“But if we don’t have them every single year because it means it is on other networks in a similar fashion, I think that’s actually a good thing for the ultimate continued growth and development and interest in the league.”
The WNBA is, of course, seeing record-highs in popularity these days, as a recent matchup between Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever and Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky broke a league viewership record that stood since 2001.
Since Clark’s WNBA debut in May, three of the league’s most-watched games since 2001 have happened: two of the Fever’s matchups against the Sky and Clark’s first-ever game against the Connecticut Sun. The third of the Fever vs. Sky game was also ESPN’s most-watched WNBA telecast ever.
Despite that record-breaking audience and attendance, however, the WNBA is still expected to lose around $50 million this year, according to reports.
The WNBA’s postseason is set to begin in late September following the conclusion of the postseason. The defending champion Las Vegas Aces are currently favored to repeat with betting offs of +115, followed by the New York Liberty, who was also in the finals last year, at +175.
After the Liberty, there’s a precipitous dropoff to the rest of the league, as the third-likeliest betting favorite is the Connecticut Sun with odds of +700. Clark’s Fever have massive odds of +8000, while Reese’s Sky’s odds are +15000, tied for second-longest in the league with the lowly Washington Mystics.