Women's sports are booming. Why now?
CBC
In July 2020, about five months into the global pandemic, 144 WNBA players gathered in Bradenton, Fla., to play a 22-game condensed season in empty arenas.
Inside the "Wubble," a campus-style isolation zone at IMG Academy created as a work-around to social distancing guidelines, athletes took daily COVID tests, shared villas with teammates, and traded in family time for nearly three months of elite basketball.
On the court, Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings led the league in scoring with 22.8 points per game, Las Vegas Ace centre A'ja Wilson was named MVP, and the Seattle Storm swept the Aces 3-0 in the championship series.
However, what happened off the court proved just as significant in the league's emergence.
When the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement surged following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, WNBA players were among the first professional athletes to make a public stand, filling social media platforms with their messages of support for Floyd.
And when Atlanta Dream owner Kelly Loeffler, a Republican senator, objected to their message, the players pushed back, publicly supporting her opponent in the November election, which she ultimately lost. A few months later, she sold her stake in the franchise.
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The WNBA players were suddenly front and centre, and with major program gaps brought on by the pandemic, WNBA games and social justice initiatives were broadcast on major sports broadcast channels such as ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, CBS Sports Network, and even platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
With both the NBA and WNBA playing in empty arenas, where the echo of squeaking sneakers bounced off the walls, there seemed a more fair comparison to be made between the two leagues.
"We were looking at a court with no fans around it, the game was central to it," Ann Pegoraro, chair of Sport Management at the University of Guelph said. "They saw them [the NBA and WNBA] as equal, and I think that put them on some equal footing."
The equation had changed, and not just for women's basketball. The rise across all women's sports has been steadily gaining momentum in recent years. From soccer, to hockey, to volleyball, women's sports are experiencing a record-shattering surge like never before.
Since then, two new pro leagues have launched in Canada, emerging superstars like Caitlin Clark have captured global audiences, and money has flowed. Lots of money. The lifeblood of any professional sport, male or female, and until now, something the women's pro leagues have struggled to attract.
"No moment in history has been what it is now with women's basketball, women's soccer, women's hockey, women's cricket, and there's the data now around the world, it has just never been there before," said Diana Matheson, founder of the Northern Super League (NSL).
Three years after the Wubble summer, WNBA viewership grew by 170 per cent, indicative that the times really are changing.
