“Hopefully it stays a little cool in there,” Caitlin Clark had warned before her star-studded Indiana Fever Team visited the Carver-Hawkeye Arena. She knew it was gonna be a houseful for the Fever vs Brazil preseason game. Basketball was not typically played there in May, with no air conditioning in the arena. But fans didn’t care, they were there to watch CC in action once again, and did that break records!

With 14998 tickets sold at an average of $ 670, the amount exceeded $10 mil. That’s a massive figure for a preseason game. For the league, it had more eyeballs, too. As per data released by ESPN, the broadcaster of the game, there was a 1.3 M average viewership, which peaked at 1.6 M. This was a 13% rise from the WNBA regular season games.

If the data is further scrutinized, the most viewed WNBA regular season games on ESPN and on Ion were all featuring Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. That would further prompt the league to broadcast 41 Fever games on ESPN for the 2025 season. While all of it signals upwards for the league, we cannot forget that a coin has two sides.

Amid the improved attendance and surge in viewership, national analyst Rachel DeMita expressed the fear– it could tempt the league to slightly increase the ticket prices. This could actually make the game inaccessible to the fans, and instead of in-arena attendance, it will be more of a live streaming and broadcast.

“But if you think about $10 million being generated in just ticket sales for one preseason game,” Rachel said, “Think about the ticket sales and the price of tickets are going to go up. Hopefully, it doesn’t outpace the actual fans. Like it doesn’t get too crazy. It already is getting pretty crazy.”

She is not wrong. If we go by the ticket prices already confirmed, the numbers are jaw-dropping. For instance, the cheapest ticket listed on Ticketmaster for the Indiana Fever vs Dallas Wings game was $255. And if we move close to the court, some courtside seats top $5,000. In regular season games, WNBA ticket prices in 2025 jumped from $122 to $173 from a season ago. That is a whopping 43% leap compared to last year.

And it’s not just ticket sales that are going up. Merch sales are also skyrocketing. Sabrina Ionescu’s shoes are going off the shelf in an instant, and star athletes’ jerseys and franchise merchandise are also moving out at a fast pace. The effect of this? After 29 years, the league is moving into the green field – profit. Even though the 2024 season was a massive hit, 2025 could actually be the one handing some profit to the WNBA.

Make or break season for WNBA; Caitlin Clark trickle down effect predicted

No one wants to break what’s moving towards a profit, so the league has decided to ‘make’ it happen. So, the promotion activities are in motion, and the partnerships and sponsorship deals are pouring in. The league is looking to get the best from those opportunities. For starters, the WNBA has signed its mega contract with broadcasters worth $2.2 billion over 11 years. The rights will be shared across Disney (ESPN), NBCUniversal and Amazon. This deal put players and the league in a position for a better CBA deal. This will also, in turn, keep hold of their star players in the league and kill any WBB rivalry leagues (unrivalled?).

“I truly think that this is going to be the first year in WNBA history that this league is profitable. And if they can continue down this path, and we’ve seen so many promising things with the way that the league is marketing their players now,” Rachel also mentioned on her podcast. “The way they’re marketing their teams now, the way that they’re putting 41 out of 44 games on national television with the Indiana Fever, they’re not shying away from some of these things.”

This hints at the best phase for the WNBA. The 2024 season provided the ground to lay out the plans, witnessing $200 million growth in revenue.

Then why ‘break’? There are a few points to be considered. Firstly, the league has to ensure that the surge is not only for the 2024 season, which is unlikely as WNBA teams are leagues are working towards making 2025 another mega season. And secondly, the ticket prices, as warned by Rachel, should be within the pockets of basketball fans. And finally, the third one, players declaring to sit out of the CBA deal. Well, on this point, both the league and the players may have to find the middle ground.