INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark won’t play in the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game.
Fans will miss her brilliant passing, deep shooting range and showmanship.
And now they’ll also have to deal with the sea monster of a question that swims beneath every WNBA conversation: Can the league draw viewers without Caitlin Clark?
Let’s look at the numbers.
Viewership is up 9% this season, according to Sports Business Journal. That’s on top of last year’s major bump, when Clark, Angel Reese and other high-profile rookies entered the league.
So how much of that growth is Clark?
This season, seven of the eight most-watched games featured the Fever.
But here’s the twist: In three of those seven, Clark didn’t even play. She’s been battling injuries and has missed nearly half the season so far.
And non-Fever games? They’re averaging about as many viewers as the NHL did last season.
Is that a yawn at the NHL comparison? Sure, it doesn’t stoke the same culture-war hysteria as NBA comparisons. But it’s actually useful. The NHL is a mature, stable league with more than $1 billion in media deals — five times what the WNBA gets. And it’s doing that on roughly the same viewership the WNBA is pulling in today.
That’s encouraging. Especially because there’s more to life than viewership.
Cultural relevance matters too. Who’s more likely to show up on your McDonald’s bag: Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, or Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers?
And the WNBA is still growing. It’s expanding into five new cities by the end of the decade. That it’s already on par with the NHL while only being in 13 markets — and doing it without its biggest name on the floor — says plenty.
Are we done with this uniquely WNBA exercise yet? Like seriously, is anybody slicing up NBA viewership numbers and asking how they look without the Warriors? What were the All-Star Game ratings the year Steph Curry pulled out? Nobody cares.
Because we all understand how sports work: Leagues are tied to their stars. When a big name doesn’t play, fewer people watch.
The WNBA is no exception. Last year’s All-Star Game drew 3.4 million viewers on ABC. Clark played and missed all her threes. Her teammate Arike Ogunbowale hit eight of them and lit up the Olympic team that left her off. It was great television.
This year’s game may draw fewer viewers without Clark, who led all players in fan votes. But even if viewership drops by half — unlikely for a Saturday night primetime slot on ABC — it would still outdraw the last NHL All-Star Game.
Clark’s absence is a loss. So is the absence of Dream star Rhyne Howard and Mercury star Satou Sabally, both out with injuries.
But the replacements — Brittney Sykes, Brionna Jones and Kayla McBride — are no slouches. And with no replacement named for Angel Reese, who has been managing a leg injury, she likely will play too.
And Clark will still be at the events in Indianapolis, just not in uniform. As Sabally put it, she’ll be at the most important event of the weekend: the CBA negotiations between players and the league.
