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 begin a livestream that generated 2 million views because only a few of the preseason games — and never 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 everybody who watched should give the user streaming the sport $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 12 months.
As an alternative, the Wings’ game against the Aces and the Sky’s game against the Brazil national team marked the primary two nationally televised preseason games in league history — starting a preseason that’ll feature 4 of them on either ION, NBA TV or ESPN.
“I do know I’ll be watching,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said Friday of the preseason games. “I’m interested, too. … We gotta keep constructing on the momentum we’ve built over these previous few years but particularly last 12 months, and it’s gonna keep improving and higher if we do the things right.”
Fourteen of the 15 games may be viewed totally free via WNBA League Pass within 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 — a part of the league’s effort to highlight its current stars at their college venues — and broadcast exclusively on ESPN.
The Fever’s game against the Mystics on Saturday will mark the opposite nationally televised game.
Making all of its preseason games available via streams or broadcasts for the primary time will allow the WNBA to proceed capitalizing on exponential rankings growth from 2024, because the WNBA Finals between the Liberty and Lynx served because the league’s most-watched championship series in 25 years and averaged 1.6 million viewers, in accordance with ESPN.
The Liberty, who host the Sun on May 9 and face the Japanese Basketball League’s Toyota Antelopes three days later on 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. Individuals are watching. Individuals are enthusiastic about it.”
The Liberty waived Kaitlyn Davis, their third-round pick within the 2024 WNBA Draft.
