The women’s basketball league will start making an extra $140 million a year starting in 2025.

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever helped catapult the WNBA’s popularity in 2024.

The 2024 WNBA Finals matchup between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx concludes what has been a historic season for the women’s basketball league.

After welcoming an extraordinary 2024 rookie class that featured college superstars Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, the WNBA set numerous records this year — including some that are a bullish sign for the future of its business. Here’s how the financials of the league have changed.

Ticket sales

WNBA ticket demand surged leaguewide this season. According to ticketing giant StubHub, before the season even started, ticket sales were up 93% in 2024 compared to 2023.

 Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, saw a 1,300% increase in ticket sales compared with the previous season — before the former University of Iowa star had even played a game.

“Caitlin Clark’s impact is electrifying, sparking an unprecedented 15x increase in searches for the Indiana Fever after her WNBA draft announcement,” StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said earlier in the year.

The WNBA posted its highest attendance in 22 years, as a total of 2.3 million fans attended games in 2024, up 48% from last season. The league had 154 total sellouts, a 242% increase from the previous year, it said.

While the Indiana Fever had the largest total attendance this season — with 340,715 fans coming to its games — all 12 WNBA franchises posted at least double-digit percentage growth in attendance compared to the 2023 season.

Merchandise

WNBA merchandise sales for the 2024 season were up a massive 601% compared to 2023, the league said. Sales were calculated from the WNBA’s website as well as the NBA store in New York City.

League partner Dick’s Sporting Goods  DKS 1.68% reported that its WNBA merchandise saw a year-over-year sales increase of 233%.

Sports retail giant Fanatics said that sales of WNBA merchandise on its platforms were up even more — approximately 500%. The two most purchased WNBA jerseys on Fanatics as of the July All-Star break were those of Clark and the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese.

Angel Reese jokes about cost of rent compared to her rookie salary: 'The WNBA don't pay my bills at all' | CNN

The WNBA and its retail partners do not publicly disclose dollar figures for total merchandise sales.

Game viewership

The WNBA set viewership records in nearly every category this year.

WNBA games on ESPN averaged 1.2 million viewers per broadcast, a 170% increase from last season.

WNBA playoff ratings are up 142% compared to the 2023 playoff, with games averaging 970,000 viewers as of Oct. 14.

The jump in WNBA Finals viewership may be even more impressive than the numbers suggest, as some games have aired at the same time as hugely popular NFL games.

In addition, WNBA League Pass — a subscription service for fans to watch out-of-market games — saw a 366% increase in paid subscribers from 2023, the league said.

Total Revenue

Like most sports leagues, a large portion of the WNBA’s revenue comes from its broadcast TV deals (though the exact percentages are unknown). Because the WNBA’s TV deal from 2023 to 2024 remained unchanged, its total TV revenue was not drastically different.

But that will soon change, as the WNBA will make at least $200 million in revenue annually over the next 11 seasons from its new combined broadcast deal with the NBA, which begins after the 2025-26 season. That is a significant increase from the WNBA’s previous TV deal, which paid it $60 million per season.

Because the upcoming TV deal runs for 11 seasons, any major increases in revenue during that period would have to come from non-TV avenues. That could take the form of higher ticket demand or price increases, more merchandise sales or more commercial and licensing agreements.

Despite the WNBA’s growing revenue in recent seasons, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the women’s league has been losing around $10 million a season since its founding. The WNBA is expected to lose $50 million this season, according to the Washington Post, largely due to a new $25 million expense for charter flights this season.

Those sorts of persistent losses have raised some eyebrows, especially considering the league is now wrapping up its 28th season. “I don’t think you can really call it a startup now,” said Andrew Zimbalist, professor emeritus of economics at Smith College and a leading expert on the economics of sports.