The Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever became instant rivals after the 2024 WNBA Draft. It’s not because their fans got into a scuffle or the teams woke up with bad blood. Instead, it was because they drafted Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. In all fairness, the games are close and the scorelines usually don’t tell the whole story. However, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert posits that there is so much more to the league than just these two.Look, the WNBA was built over time and not overnight. A lot of players have come and gone to the association that Cathy Engelbert is now taking care of. Yes, Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark gave it a major boost in terms of revenue and concurrent viewers. However, to say that the Fever and Sky rookies are the only focal points of the association is disingenuous. The WNBA C0mmissioner outlined why this is the case in her latest statement, “Caitlin and Angel, everybody’s talking about that rivalry. We have a New York-Vegas rivalry coming after last year in the finals. The WNBA Commissioner’s Cup championship. There are so many things now, storylines. Why do people watch? They watch because there are household names they know, there are rivalries and there are games of consequence. This gam
However, the impact that Clark and Reese have on the WNBA cannot be understated. In the Fever and Sky’s latest clash, ESPN garnered an insane 2.3 million consistent viewership throughout the course of the game. Moreover, it also had a peak of 3.3 million viewers. This rivalry set the WNBA viewership record and it is even regarded as the highest-viewed game of the association in 23 years. There are other rivalries and things to watch out for but Clark and Reese are what the people are feeling as of the moment.
e matters and this is why they are watching,” Engelbert saidvia TODAY with Hoda and Jenna.