How Clark & Reese's Stellar NCAA Championship Clash Helped The WNBA Hit New Heights

The results bode well for WNBA’s media rights negotiations over the next two years.

ESPN  (DIS) - Get Free Report announced a 19-year high in ratings for the 2023 WNBA Draft which aired on Monday, April 10.

The WNBA Draft recorded an average viewership of 572,000, a 42% increase vs last year, and the second highest in the history of the draft, according to ESPN. The league has already seen positive momentum in recent years, including a 22% year-on-year increase in viewership for the 2022 postseason.

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The ratings spike of the WNBA Draft comes on the heels of the success of the NCAA Women’s National Championship game which set a record of 9.9 million average viewers. Social media was also set ablaze during the game due to the rivalry between LSU star Angel Reese and Iowa star Caitlin Clark.

Neither were eligible for the 2023 WNBA Draft which saw Aliyah Boston of the University of South Carolina selected with the first overall pick.

The success of the tournament saw huge increases in the NIL earnings potential for women's basketball athletes. According to On3 NIL’s valuation metric, Reese leapfrogged the Cavinder Twins for the highest valuation estimate at $1.3 million. Given the Cavinder’s recent announcement to leave the University of Miami, Clark slots in at second among women’s basketball players at an estimated $830,000.

NIL will still be a potential earning opportunity for these athletes in the WNBA on top of their WNBA salary and any other salary playing professional basketball in and outside the US. WNBA salary currently maxes out at around $250,000, but could see an increase by the league’s next media rights deal.

The WNBA’s current media rights deal runs until 2025. It currently pays around $27 million a year to air the WNBA, but the league is aiming to increase to $100 million per year for broadcasting rights.

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