Today we are covering…

• The transition from college to WNBA

• The drifting fandom

• The Solution

Why should fans watch the WNBA if their favorite players get cut?

Every season for college basketball, the fandoms of each region rise. Together and a part, we grab our cell phones, login to Twitter, and let the trash talking and equality conversations begin. We keep the tweets and reposts coming in week after week as we embrace for March to roll around to make sure that all of the previous trash talking we have just done, gets backed up. Then, it’s just a matter of time before the kids we spent months following and obsessing over declare for the WNBA draft, go overseas, or does god-knows-what as a career.

The WNBA fan base, players, and alumni year after year have the same frustrations about the sport. They don’t have enough fan participation, there are not enough roster spots, and there is unfair treatment.

With these complaints, why would a super star college athlete aspire to reach the “highest” level of basketball? If someone just watched their first women’s basketball game during March Madness and wants to keep following a player into the WNBA, but that player gets cut after being drafted, the league just lost a fan. And probably thousands more.

Just Womens Sports has a live tracker here.

The Drifting Fandom

Iowa, for the first time in God knows how long, because I’m not doing the research, reached the NCAA Championship game and they had superstar player, Monika Czinao leading from the front. Or behind. Since she’s a post.

Czinao’s popularity grew game after game during March Madness. Many people watching women’s basketball for the first time discovered that she does not know how to dribble the ball. She just pivots. And leads her team in scoring behind Caitlin Clark. How many posts do you know can lead their team in points without dribbling? None - zero - zilch.

When we talk about the growth of the game, and how the sport continues to grow year over year, it still has a halt of a movement from the college to WNBA transition. People are wondering why the WNBA isn’t filling seats or getting prime-time broadcasting slots, well, maybe don’t cut that player that we all just watched shine for the past 2 months.

Sure, it can come down to roster spots and skill level, but at the end of the day, politics belongs in every industry. And if we want to see the fandom rise larger and larger, screw it. Keep the players in who just took over our living rooms and bars and see what happens to the game.

The Solution

…We have our solution.

The top 7 players who gathered the biggest fandom during March Madness should have a permanent spot on the team they are drafted on for a minimum of 2 years. This way, their recently acquired fans will have a guaranteed 2 year watch period, merch sales will increase, ticket sales will increase, and we will have more people being a part of women’s basketball twitter.

The ROI is astronomical on this. I’ve already run the numbers. If you want to see the forecast, shoot me an email.