WNBA breaks new ground on preseason streaming to continue league growth

When the WNBA’s preseason slate began Friday night, the platform used to present the pair of games captured a stark difference from the streaming debacles that defined 2024.

This time, an X user didn’t need to start a livestream that generated 2 million views because only some of the preseason games — and not all of them — were available through the WNBA’s League Pass, which happened for a Sky-Lynx matchup and prompted Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve to say that everyone who watched should give the user streaming the game $3.

This time, an official YouTube stream didn’t run into copyright issues and shut down, which happened for a May preseason contest against the Liberty last year.

Instead, the Wings’ game against the Aces and the Sky’s game against the Brazil national team marked the first two nationally televised preseason games in league history — starting a preseason that’ll feature four of them on either ION, NBA TV or ESPN.

“I know I’ll be watching,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said Friday of the preseason games. “I’m interested, too. … We gotta keep building on the momentum we’ve built over these last few years but in particular last year, and it’s gonna keep getting better and better if we do the things right.”

Fourteen of the 15 games can be viewed for free via WNBA League Pass in the league’s app, with the lone exception a game Sunday between the Fever and the Brazil national team.

It’ll be hosted on the Iowa campus where Indiana’s Caitlin Clark once starred — part of the league’s effort to spotlight its current stars at their college venues — and broadcast exclusively on ESPN.

The Fever’s game against the Mystics on Saturday will mark the other nationally televised game.

Making all of its preseason games available via streams or broadcasts for the first time will allow the WNBA to continue capitalizing on exponential ratings growth from 2024, as the WNBA Finals between the Liberty and Lynx served as the league’s most-watched championship series in 25 years and averaged 1.6 million viewers, according to ESPN.

The Liberty, who host the Sun on May 9 and face the Japanese Basketball League’s Toyota Antelopes three days later at the University of Oregon, won’t have either of their exhibition games on a national channel, but that’ll change for 32 of their 44 regular-season games.

“The league is growing,” Jonquel Jones said Friday of the preseason change. “There’s eyes on the league. People are watching. People are excited about it.”

The Liberty waived Kaitlyn Davis, their third-round pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft.