Women's basketball sees record high numbers during NCAA Tournament

UConn’s women’s basketball has seen a wave of legendary players - Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart and now Paige Bueckers have all made a name for themselves.

Nationally, stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and JuJu Watkins dominate headlines, gaining cult-like followings.

“Women’s sports in general has been perhaps the best kept secret,” said Associate Professor Ceyda Mumcu, who is the sport management chair at the University of New Haven.

Worldwide women’s sports viewership is up and Deloitte predicts women’s sports will generate over $1 billion in revenue in 2024. Last year’s NCAA tournament drew nearly 10 million viewers for the final women’s match-up between Iowa and LSU, which was up 103%, according to Nielsen.

“Women’s sports, were not given the attention that they deserved,” said Mumcu. “Now we actually have a lot of different outlets, we are beyond the legacy media.”

This year, ESPN said the women’s Elite Eight game match-ups were recording setting. The Iowa-LSU match-up once again drew high viewership with 12.3 million viewers, becoming ESPN’s most watched women’s college basketball game in history.

The UConn-USC match-up also pulled in high numbers, with 6.7 million viewers.

“Frankly, women’s sports received that chance and attention and invest dollars more recently,” Mumcu said. “If you look at the Las Vegas Aces, you will see that season tickets are sold out. So, there’s a great deal of interest.”

LSU star forward Angel Reese recently declared for the WNBA draft and Iowa star senior player Caitlin Clark is expected to do the same. Mumcu said this hype will follow them into their professional careers.

“There is a pathway between the two,” Mumcu said. “The attention and interest within collegiate space will transfer into the professional level to the WNBA this summer.”

Overall, ESPN said it has seen a 37% increase in year over year viewership for the women’s college basketball regular season.