Over the past few years, the popularity of women’s basketball and the WNBA have exploded. Average television viewership for WNBA games jumped about 25% from 2022 to 2023, and with the arrivals of college basketball superstars Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Kamilla Cardoso, among others, the W may be about take off to another level completely if yesterday’s Chicago Sky vs. Minnesota Lynx preseason game is anything to go by.
While interest in women’s college basketball in some regards exceeded that of men’s college basketball this past season, interest in the WNBA has always lagged far behind the NBA’s. But thanks in large part due to the college game, which saw the rise of Clark at Iowa, Reese at LSU, Cardoso at South Carolina, and the likes of Paige Bueckers, JuJu Watkins, and Hailey Van Lith, people are clamoring for WNBA action. And that could be seen clearly for the Sky vs. Lynx matchup yesterday in Minnesota, which despite Reese and Cardoso debuting for Chicago, was not televised or streamed by one of the league’s broadcasters.
This angered fans who wanted to see the popular post players take the floor for the Sky, but thankfully, @heyheyitsalli, who describes herself as a “really big fan of the lynx and timberwolves” in her Twitter bio, was in attendance. Hearing from fans that the game was not available to watch anywhere on TV or online, Alli took it upon herself to stream the game on Twitter. And to say people watched would be an understatement.
After the conclusion of the nearly two-hour live stream, which has garnered more than 400,000 total views at the time of writing, Alli revealed the stats from her stream, which included 173,381 live viewers and more than 145 days of total time watched by all of the viewers combined.
Sue Bird, Cheryl Reeve react to viral Lynx vs. Sky live stream
The live stream caught the attention of not just fans of the WNBA but legends like Sue Bird, as well as Minnesota Lynx head coach and president Cheryl Reeve.
Bird quoted Alli’s live-stream tweet, saying “This is amazing 🤩😄. I hope you got that mophie!”
Reeve, in her post-game press conference, praised Alli and said the response to the live stream was just yet another promising sign for the WNBA and women’s sports.
“Well, one, heyheyalli, we should all send her three bucks,” Reeve said (via Jack Borman). “Anybody watched it should send three bucks to the person, I don’t even know who it is. I just learned (about it) walking here. … I think that what I would say is that the growth is happening so fast. It’s so accelerated. And I’ve been saying this in our own organization, that business as usual isn’t going to work anymore. You’re gonna get left behind and this is an example.”
Reeve also said that the WNBA has to capitalize on the “general excitement” in the league “to really ensure that this is a movement.”
While the hype around the WNBA is already humming, it will likely jump a few notches when the league tips off its regular season on Tuesday, May 14. Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever will face the Connecticut Sun at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 before the defending WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces face Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
