The WNBA’s last season set a new attendance record and experts say the rise of star players, new teams and a wave of interest in women’s sports more broadly are fueling the league’s growing popularity.
Some 3.79 million fans attended WNBA games in 2026, according to a Sports Business Journal Analysis this week. That’s a 20 percent increase from the previous year, driven by the 25 games that were moved to larger arenas to meet greater demand.
The average capacity was at 90 percent or higher for eight of the league’s 15 teams last season, the analysis also showed. Overall, the league average was 83 percent.
“If you look at the numbers, nobody’s really surprised,” said Cheri Bradish, associate professor and director of the Future of Sport Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“We know the WNBA has [more than] 25 years behind, and so the league’s growth is very much following the hockey curve that people have come to expect.
2020 ‘Wubble’ season
Ann Pegoraro, the Lang Chair in Sports Management at the University of Guelph, says a “pivotal moment” in the league’s rise was the 2020 season, when the WNBA — like the NBA — played without people in a COVID-19 pandemic isolation zone called the “Wubble.”
“People were in their homes and had a chance to watch, and they saw how good the women’s game is,” Pegoraro told CBC News.
Around the same time, women’s college basketball rose in popularity, fueled by stars like Caitlin Clark, who brought a huge following with her to the WNBA.
That has translated to greater sponsorship income, expansion teams and now attendance records, Pegoraro said.
Larger arenas draw record numbers
The Toronto Tempo is one of these expansion teams, and this year became the first WNBA team in Canada.
While the Pacers finished 11-33 and missed the playoffs, the team drew 20,996 fans to the Bell Center in Montreal for a July game against the Dallas Wings – the largest crowd for a regular season game in WNBA history.
Pegoraro said there had been some hesitation in the past to play games in bigger venues, amid fears that empty seats would fuel detractors who argued that no one cared about women’s sports.
But “any time a team plays in a bigger venue, they dispel that myth pretty quickly,” she said, pointing to the tempo game in Montreal as a recent example.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) set attendance records in 2024 when Montreal hosted Toronto at the Bell Center.
According to Pegoraro, women’s leagues have to strike a “fine balance” between keeping up interest and ensuring fans have access to games.
“I think we’re starting to see them move to the bigger arenas more regularly,” she said of the WNBA.
Already, at least one WNBA team has announced plans to permanently move to a larger arena.
Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese draws a foul shot against the New York Liberty in Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals Wednesday. (Daniel Varnado/Associated Press)
The Atlanta Dream, looking to sweep their semifinal series against the New York Liberty on Thursday, said this week they will play all of their 2027 home games State Farm Arena, the 16,888-seat home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.
Dream said it has seen more than 400 percent growth in season ticket members over the past five years.
“State Farm Arena gives us the opportunity to welcome thousands of additional fans while creating an even bigger stage for women’s basketball in Atlanta,” Morgan Shaw Parker, team president, said in a written statement.
New commissioner
As the WNBA’s popularity has grown, it has also become a focus in heated debates about social issues, from women’s rights to racism and the inclusion of transgender women in sports.
This season, Indiana guard Sophie Cunningham’s comments about trans athlete protests drew widespread media attention. The WNBA, whose fanbase includes many members of the 2SLGTBQ+ community, has no openly transgender players.
Two ex-NBA players announced plans to enter the 2027 WNBA draft, which critics said was a “bad faith” stunt that denigrated the league.
Both Pegoraro and Bradish say negative attention won’t stop WNBA players from speaking out — and it won’t significantly distract the league “from the growth and development of the game,” Bradish told CBC News.
Basketball superstar Caitlin Clark brought more eyeballs to the WNBA than ever before, but the spotlight wasn’t always on the wins and losses. For The National, CBC’s Jamie Strashin breaks down how the league has been dragged into America’s culture war this season.
She noted that the WNBA will soon elect a commissioner to succeed Cathy Engelbert, who will step down at the end of the year.
“Then from there, how do they grow strategically?” Bradish said. She said playing in bigger venues and possibly adding new expansion teams will be part of that discussion.
Pegoraro said the league could also consider expanding its playoff model to give fans more games to watch. Currently, the WNBA playoffs feature four first-round best-of-three matchups, two best-of-five semifinals and one best-of-seven final.
“Two games in [teams] done, is not enough in the playoffs,” she said of the first round. “They have to give these women more games to play in the playoffs.”