The problem is that there wasn’t a “rising tide” effect.
by usaf_irish (2024-04-17 12:39:53)

In reply to: Woods, Armstrong, Phelps, Jordan, Gretzky..probably Beckham.  posted by NDMike2001

Post Reply Return to McGraw's Bench

Woods was popular and raised the tv ratings for the tournaments he was in, but didn’t really raise the tour and golf’s popularity regressed after he left. Jordan was an event after he and Bulls won, but it didn’t significantly raise the NBA’s ratings as a whole.

When we look at Clark’s effect, streams and ratings went up across the board the last two years for all of women’s basketball. Indiana sold out for women’s basketball for the first time ever last season.

There are other examples as well. Now, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask if this trend will hold. I think it has a chance for a few reasons. The quality of college basketball is at an all time low. A lot of games are simply too bad to watch. And the NBA isn’t significantly better and most of current best players are foreign imports. If the quality of youth basketball in America doesn’t get better over the next decade, the NBA could begin to resemble the NHL.

Of course all of this is purely speculation. Clark could blow out her knee opening night and the WNBA could go back to being a niche league almost overnight.

Time will tell.

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