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Lev Akabas: The WNBA is averaging more than 11,000 fans per game this season for the first time in its history pic.x.com/wjnSocVn5n
WNBA viewership has continued to grow despite Caitlin Clark missing the majority of the season, but it’s still clear that she drives the most eyeballs to the sport. Clark admitted to WNBA legend Sue Bird that she feels a level of “responsibility” to play. Clark spoke to Bird on an episode of The Bird’s Eye View podcast released Friday. Bird asked the Indiana Fever star how she manages her patience, knowing that while viewership and attendance are up across the W, there is a noticeable dip when she is out. “I think that’s definitely been hard. I’m going to go to every road game no matter what, whether I’m playing or not. It’s hard because obviously I do feel this responsibility of being out there and playing,” Clark said.
Lance Stephenson on sex toy-throwing at WNBA games: I got kids, stop doing that stuff
Lance Stephenson is demanding an end to the sex toy-throwing chaos at WNBA games -- not just out of respect for the players, but also for the young fans in the crowd. The longtime NBA star made things crystal clear to TMZ Sports this week ... following a fourth incident where a dildo was launched onto the court during a W contest. "I got kids," Stephenson said. "For them to see that on the floor, man, I mean like, I'd be devastated." "Stop doing that stuff, man. A lot of kids be at the games. We're supporting the girls, we're trying to get the girls' games to keep leveling up, and it's going great right now. So, for them to keep doing stuff like that, it's making us not wanting to bring our kids to the game. So they need to stop that."
Gov. Ned Lamont is hoping to woo NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as Connecticut continues to make its case to keep its only major league team. The WNBA has still not yet approved a sale for the Connecticut Sun. The Mohegan Tribe repeated its statement that it’s pursuing investment opportunities and that it can’t comment on potential sales.
Cryptocurrency meme coin creators say they are responsible for the sex toys being thrown at multiple WNBA games, and they are planning more "pranks." From Atlanta to Los Angeles, no arena has been safe from neon green objects whizzing from the stands, through the air and onto WNBA courts. If there is an opportune window, a brightly colored entity will be thrown, causing intentional and symbolic chaos, according to a spokesman for the cryptocurrency group. The person, who uses the name @Daldo_Raine on social media, spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue.
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Why are sex toys being thrown on the court at WNBA games? Cryptocurrency meme coin creators say they are responsible for the sex toys being thrown at multiple WNBA games, and they are planning more "pranks." A group of crypto enthusiasts and traders launched Green Dildo Coin (DILDO), a meme coin intended to be lighthearted and perceived as a joke, in late July to protest what they describe as a "toxic" environment in the crypto world. According to the group's spokesman, who spoke exclusively to USA TODAY Sports, many smaller players in the space are struggling to keep up with the influx of influencers and scammers.
The Mohegan Tribe’s ambition to sell and relocate the Connecticut Sun to Boston for a record $325M has created tension within the league office, sources said, leading to a terse WNBA statement Saturday that the nine cities who lost recent expansion bids “currently have priority over Boston” and inferring that the Tribe could be forced to sell to one of those cities instead. Those sources said that the Sun, over recent months, has shunned other cities that have inquired about buying the team -- refusing to take meetings with bidders outside of Boston, for instance -- and “hasn’t been great in how they have handled” the prospective sale. “They just don’t feel like the league has any control over their process,” the source said. “It will get much worse before it gets better.”
Fan arrested for tossing sex toy onto court at WNBA game
The WNBA said Saturday that the individual who threw a sex toy on the court at an Atlanta Dream game earlier in the week was arrested and that any person throwing objects onto the court will be ejected from the arena and face a minimum one-year ban.
Gary Washburn: The WNBA released a statement to the Globe regarding the potential of a Connecticut #Sun relocation to Boston: “Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams. As part of our most recent expansion process, in which three new franchises were awarded to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia on June 30, 2025, nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and remain under active consideration. No groups from Boston applied for a team at that time and those other cities remain under consideration based on the extensive work they did as part of the expansion process and currently have priority over Boston. Celtics’ prospective owner Bill Chisholm has also reached out to the league office and asked that Boston receive strong consideration for a WNBA franchise at the appropriate time.”
Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca buys WNBA's Connecticut Sun, plans to relocate team to Boston
WNBA basketball could be in Boston permanently by 2027 as a Boston-based group led by Celtics minority governor Steve Pagliuca has reached a deal with the Mohegan Tribe to move the Connecticut Sun to TD Garden, according to multiple sources involved in the transaction.
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Last week, the Sun sent a letter to season ticket-holders assuring the club will play at Mohegan Sun Arena in the 2026 season. The Boston group is targeting a 2027 move and would potentially play early season games in Providence to avoid any conflict with Bruins and Celtics playoff games. The WNBA has yet to comment on the potential sale. According to an NBA source, the Celtics would have no issue with the Sun moving in. Several Celtics players have attended the Sun games at TD Garden and have expressed support for a team in Boston.
The WNBA is averaging 794,000 viewers through 56 games this year across all national networks, according to Nielsen data, a source told Front Office Sports. That number is 21% higher than the league’s 2024 full-season viewership average. The raw viewership number is being driven up by Fever games, which have drawn 1.26 million viewers through 19 games this year. However, that number is just 7% higher than the 32 Fever games that aired last year—likely due to the absence of Caitlin Clark in some high-profile contests.
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese both missed Sunday’s game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky due to injury—and the game still drew viewership numbers the league would’ve only dreamed of less than two years ago. Sunday’s game between the Fever and Sky drew 1.5 million viewers on ABC, the fourth-most-watched game on the network this year. The game tipped off at 3 p.m. ET. The numbers are down from the first two regular-season meetings this year between the two Midwest rivals. The Fever and Sky faced off in their respective season openers on May 17 in Indiana, and the game drew 2.7 million viewers on ABC—the most-watched WNBA game, regular-season or playoffs, since Clark and Reese were drafted.
A 55-year-old Texas man who told police he was in "an imaginary relationship" with WNBA star Caitlin Clark was sentenced to 2½ years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to stalking and harassing the Indiana Fever guard. Michael Lewis, of Denton, Texas, reached a deal with Marion County prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to one felony count of stalking and one misdemeanor count of harassment. He will get credit for time served at the Marion County Adult Detention Center since his arrest.
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