Why Everyone Started Paying Attention to the WNBA

Engagement Party

CNN

Arts, Entertainment News, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 979 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The WNBA just wrapped its most-watched season in history, with soaring team valuations and unprecedented public interest. But the league is preparing for possible labor tension as players push for greater revenue sharing and ask who really benefits from its success. Audie turns to CNN contributor and host of Naked Sports, Cari Champion, to talk about what the next era of the WNBA could look like: the economics of the game and how a new competitor could redefine ownership, competition, and opportunity for female athletes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Audie Cornish, and this is the assignment.
0:04.9	The WNBA launched in 1996 when I was captain of my high school basketball team,
0:10.0	and don't get excited because we were terrible, but we were stoked.
0:13.5	So Team USA had Olympic stars like Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Swoops,
0:17.6	and yes, I rock the original Nike Swoops with pride.
0:30.6	But the arrival of Gen Z college stars and Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark have fueled an explosion in attention in recent years. That has been good.
0:31.6	We are going to go see Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever against the ACs.
0:36.6	No way! Thank you guys!
0:39.5	Bad.
0:40.5	Look out, Caitlin Clark pushes Angel Reese and Angel Reese, gets right up into
0:45.7	Kainlin Clark.
0:46.7	Afterwards has something to say as Clark walks away.
0:51.7	And ugly.
0:53.2	There's been now another incident of a disturbing new trend tonight.
0:57.0	A sex toy thrown onto the court of a WNBA game between the Atlanta Dream and the Chicago Sky.
1:03.0	This is the fourth time that a sex toy has been made it on to the court in the last few weeks.
1:08.0	But as the league hits the off season, there's only been more drama.
1:13.0	Union negotiations have been ugly.
1:15.0	And not one, but two potential new women's pro ball startups are threatening to poach
1:20.4	from the league's roster of long underpaid free agents.
1:25.4	So as it said, more money, more problems.
1:31.1	And what does the WNBA boom tell us about what's next for women's pro sports? Stay with us.
	...

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