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MARCH 2024 EDITION: Does the WNBA Has a Marketing Problem? Yes, it does!

Annually, March signifies the transition from winter to spring, but it also signifies the beginning of what is affectionately known as March Madness, which is the Men’s & Women’s College Basketball Tournaments that have gained in popularity over the last 4 decades. Furthermore, the 2023 NCAA Women’s Tournament was the highest rated tournament from a television standpoint in the history of the women’s tournament, capped off with an exciting final between the University of Iowa Women’s College basketball team and LSU’s Women’s College basketball team - with LSU capturing the championship. Now thanks to NIL (i.e., Name, Image, and Likeness) the landscape of collegiate athletics has changed significantly. NIL allows college athletes to receive a percentage of the income generated using their name, image, and likeness.

Over thirty years ago, during the era of the Fab Five at the University of Michigan in the early 1990s, the members of the Fab Five (Chris Weber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, & Ray Jackson) received NO compensation from the University as jersey with their numbers were selling off the rack in the University of Michigan bookstore due to the hype they generated.? The era of NIL has changed all of that. It has also catapulted the popularity of star college athletes, particularly basketball and football players, and allowed them to also immediately cash in on their popularity.

The increasing popularity of Women’s College basketball is worth celebrating.? Nevertheless, what is perplexing is that the WNBA, where many of the top Women’s College Basketball players will end up playing, as well as overseas, is NOT very popular. This even though Women’s College Basketball is at an all-time high regarding viewership. How come the popularity of the WNBA does not rival the popularity of Women’s college basketball? Better still, how come the popularity of Women’s College Basketball does not translate into popularity of the WNBA.? Like the NBA in the late 1970’s, the WNBA needs to highlight a few stars and build a marketing plan around them. Like the NBA of the 1970’s, which was not more popular than the Men’s College game, today the WNBA is not more popular than the Women’s College game.

During the 1970’s, the NBA started to be dominated by African American basketball players, and frankly the game’s popularity started to wane. The league did not know how to market its African American stars because it had been used to only marketing its white stars. The NBA struck gold when the two stars of the 1979 NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship game Earvin Magic Johnson of Michigan State University, who is African American, and Larry Bird of Indiana State University, who is white, became major rivals in the NBA. The NBA Commissioner David Stern realized by the mid-1980’s that it made sense to build the league’s marketing strategy around the budding rivalry of those two young stars. With Magic Johnson becoming the star of the Los Angeles Lakers and Larry Bird becoming the star of the Boston Celtics – two of the NBA’s marquee franchises - these two elevated the popularity of the NBA at the national level, and then Michael Jordan took the popularity of the NBA global. The WNBA needs to follow suit and market the next influx of college star players. Obviously, there are differences in the challenges that the NBA faced in the late 1970’s, as opposed to the challenges that the WNBA faces today, the existence of social media today being one of the major differences. Social media gives the athletes control over how they are marketed. Regardless, the main point is that the WNBA must position itself to take advantage of the popularity of the college game.

Women’s College Basketball has a longer history than the WNBA, as well as a built in following due to fan allegiance to established programs. But something happens when star women college basketball players turn pro and join the WNBA. The first thing is that many of the top stars in the WNBA are also forced to play half of the year overseas. Moreover, many of the star players are not easily recognizable. If the game’s best players are not easily recognizable then the WNBA will not be able to grow.

Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and JuJu Watkins are the biggest stars in Women’s College Basketball today. ?Caitlin Clark recently became the all-time leading scorer in the history of NCAA basketball, Women or Men, by passing college basketball legend Pistol Pete Maravich. Angel Reese, aka the Bayou Barbie, was the best player on the 2023 LSU Women’s College Basketball Championship team earning Most Outstanding Player honors as her team defeated Clark’s Iowa team for the title.? Reese has been publicly questioning whether it makes sense financially for her to stay in college another year or declare herself for the WNBA. Judea Skies JuJu Watkins is the sensational freshmen guard for the USC Lady Trojan team who has exploded on the college basketball scene in the 2023-2024 season, highlighted by a 51-point game earlier in the season. She has had a name, image, and likeness deal with Nike since October 2022 and is viewed by both male and female fans as a true baller.

When these women get to the WNBA the league must build their marketing campaign around them and other young stars that are poppin’ right now! Also, the league MUST increase the salaries of the league’s top players, to keep these women from having to go overseas, which does not help build the popularity of the WNBA.

Anyway, with today being selection Sunday, the 2024 Women’s College Basketball tournament is slated to begin later this week. Take note WNBA, your future will be on display during the next few weeks. Pay close attention.

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Hashim Shomari, Government/Political Affairs Consultant

(Hashim Shomari is the Author/Publisher of From the Underground: Hip-Hop Culture as an Agent of Social Change.? He provides government affairs/political strategy consulting services in New Jersey and New York on behalf of his clients in the cannabis, affordable housing, healthcare, financial service, and economic development sectors.)

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