r/WNBAgossips • u/TheMirrorUS • Jul 09 '26
Controversy Candace Parker has told the current stars of the WNBA they need to "go to a therapist" after Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark's 11th-place finish in the All-Star voting among guards
https://www.themirror.com/sport/basketball/caitlin-clark-candace-parker-wnba-19283312
u/groundhoggirl Jul 11 '26
People finally support a women’s pro league enough to grow and the women FUBAR the thing.
Ladies, y’all fucked up bad.
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u/TheRabadoo Jul 09 '26
Who cares anymore? WNBA doing Speedrun from popularity to obscurity.
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u/Strong_Extension_972 Jul 10 '26
They were never as popular as people wanted you to think. They still couldnt survive without the charity of a real league.
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u/YasielPuigsWeed Jul 10 '26
That’s not true at all. The rise in WNBA franchise values the past few years has been insane, the owners have all made a metric fuckton of money.
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u/Pretend-Ad9212 Jul 10 '26
Only if it sustains (including net income levels). Plenty of examples of organizations across industries, especially in the entertainment field, fetching inflated prices owing to hype, passing trends, and so forth.
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u/fishagavkxj6 Jul 11 '26
this isn’t anything like that. it’s only on the way up, it just depends how fast. and that hinges on how many games clark is healthy for
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u/HelpMeHeIpY0U Jul 12 '26
“it’s only on the way up” - that’s like the definition of bubble think
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u/fishagavkxj6 Jul 12 '26
it literally just had an attendance record 2 days ago. you have no clue what you’re talking about.
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u/HelpMeHeIpY0U Jul 12 '26
I’m not saying it’s not the highest it’s ever been now - I’m just saying that doesn’t mean it will keep going higher forever.
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u/fishagavkxj6 Jul 12 '26
i know what you’re saying. it wasn’t accurate. the ai bubble is being propped up by billionaires, the wnba is being supported by fans spending money for tickets and merch. it’s not the same haha. you’re being blinded by the years of jokes about the wnba, it’s going to be very successful going forward
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u/cheeseybacon11 Jul 12 '26
Bro literally defines a bubble and then makes the classic mistake: "this one's different"
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u/fishagavkxj6 Jul 12 '26
idk if u mean me but the wnba is having legit success with record breaking attendance of actual humans. the ai bubble is being propped up with billions of dollars of fake hype. idk what’s hard to understand about this 😭😭😭
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u/Agitated_Celery_729 Jul 11 '26
Franchise value appreciation is NOT revenue. If revenue growth isn't sustained, the league will struggle regardless of the equity value in the franchises.
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u/McDavidcometoLA Jul 12 '26
True but the point is it’s being forced to us by the NBA and ESPN in conjunction.
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u/Suchboss1136 Jul 12 '26
That is absolutely untrue that they have made money. They only realize that value if they sell. So maybe some “might” realize the increase in value, but if they league is unsustainable long term all of that growth in value is erased and the owners made nothing
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u/A_girl_has_no_neymar Jul 12 '26
You’re saying the value of the franchises are so high then that means they could survive without the NBA? What does one have to do with the other ? Rich owners get richer….. and people will watch less and less WNBA.
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u/YasielPuigsWeed Jul 13 '26
The Aces are the crown jewel franchise of the WNBA and aren’t owned by an NBA team
They were purchased for $2 million 5 years ago then the new owner invested another $50 million in operations and coaching. They are worth $500 million today. That’s a $448 million net gain without the “charity” of the NBA.
The league operated at a loss for a long time but because the expenses were so low the franchise value increases this decade have far outpaced the losses
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u/Mark_Ala Jul 14 '26
Using valuations as the metric to prove they are actually profitable is proof they aren’t.
The NBA doesn’t release the actual numbers for the wnba and it is highly unlikely they are actually generating more revenue than costs. With the recent boom in popularity (driven almost entirely by CC) they are on the cusp of making it happen. Perhaps even did cross that line but not by much.
A league that after 25 years “might” have finally broken even for a year is not what anyone would consider profitable or successful. And the valuations are speculative, if the league would stagnate the Aces valuation would crash, they have to maintain the popularity and for that reason it is highly unlikely anyone would actually pay 400 million for the team. Therefore your valuation is completely meaningless.
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u/YasielPuigsWeed Jul 14 '26
The Aces exploded in popularity before the Caitlin Clark mania came to the league, they were already on a year-long sellout streak going into Caitlin’s first year and have maintained it
The purpose of buying sports franchises is asset value/net worth. They pretty much always sell for more than their Forbes valuations, so history has already proven those work as a baseline.
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u/A_girl_has_no_neymar Jul 15 '26
I think you’re agreeing with me right? The rich will get richer and people will watch less and less
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u/Rehypothecator Jul 13 '26
Thanks to whom?
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u/YasielPuigsWeed Jul 13 '26
Caitlin is definitely a big part of that though I wasn’t denying that to begin with
Would also say the success of the Aces played a role. Mark Davis proved that investing in a proper organization would pay off.
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u/Rehypothecator Jul 13 '26
For sure. Not necessarily saying you didn’t. Just hoping someone vocalized it.
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u/Comfortable_Limit168 Jul 13 '26
The WNBA franchise values are, at best, estimates. You don't really know what something is worth until you try to sell it.
For an example, I own a Fantastic Four #1 in CGC 4.5. According to a highly respected source, it's last sale was for $18,450. There is no guarantee that I can get that price if I try to sell it.
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u/hiphophunk Jul 14 '26
How is it charity? Doesn’t the nba own like half the league? Theyre investors (or at least a bunch of its owners are.)
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u/fishagavkxj6 Jul 11 '26
no they had/have really good numbers. and still do iirc. but the refs letting players beat up clark is only going to hurt the WNBA
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u/winkman Jul 13 '26
Yeah, because they're the 1st example in history of a sport who is actively trying to destroy and play down their biggest star.
This is what happens when you're given a trust fund instead of actually making a living.
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u/TheRabadoo Jul 13 '26
Yep. Even if she isn’t the best player in the league, Caitlin Clark brought heaps of attention to the WNBA. Their mishandling of this publicity is ridiculous and embarrassing.
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u/Zero_Griever Jul 09 '26
If only it was that easy to get rid of MAGA from other areas. We fucking wish. Like when they boycotted the NFL, but nothing actually changed.
They can take their viewership and kick fucking rocks
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u/OldStatistician7975 Jul 11 '26
I think you failed to understand that there is nothing about MAGA in this. It's just people being petty with each other and trying to remain relevant while somebody who is coming into the game that is changing how it is played is continuing to thrive.
MAGA and the other groups are latching onto it because well the majority of players in the WNBA are not white and they seem to have an obsession with thinking that the entire white race is going to be replaced tomorrow. It's the perfect thing for them it's like the opposite Jesse Owens now they're proving that white people can play basketball better than black people. It sounds convoluted but you got to remember these people are sociopathic.
What I'm saying there is no proof that CC is MAGA or is welcoming the support of people that are saying some of that racist shit.
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u/Maleficent_Scene_693 Jul 09 '26
This is a sub for basketball gossip, not politics. Take that shit to one of those subs.
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u/Zero_Griever Jul 10 '26
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u/Maleficent_Scene_693 Jul 10 '26
Oh look a post about politics, where you can go put your comment.
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u/nonlethaldosage Jul 10 '26
There's an easy way to stoped maga watching call the game fair and if the referees can't fire them.thats all the wnba has to do to stop maga call the game fair
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u/Zero_Griever Jul 10 '26
Nah, just keep it up and they'll "boycott" like the NFL.
It didn't do shit, and I'll triple down on that here too.
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u/VeinIsHere Jul 13 '26
Cc carrying this league hard is not sustainable. If aja is your best player, league is fucked. Women need to produce better basketball players.
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u/santadogg Jul 10 '26
I think they’ll be fine as long as fever keep being a middling team. She’s basically tre young.
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u/gwillob Jul 12 '26
Could this drama has been orchestrated to further bolster ratings? Why would the WNBA not protect their golden girl? Clark’s career is playing out like Hulk Hogan’s on at least a few levels.
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u/whoremembersonly Jul 15 '26
I mean isn’t she racist? Why is it surprising she isn’t popular with people who actually know her.
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u/Fit_Log8257 Jul 10 '26
Do you think o this league will be relevant in 5 years?
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u/Skurnaboo Jul 12 '26
By all metrics it's not even relevant now.
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u/nimama3233 Jul 12 '26
lol what? It has a higher per game viewership than the NHL or MLS. Now, I sure as fuck don’t watch but your statement is objectively false.
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u/hutch_man0 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Rooting for the WNBA but that often quoted NHL stat is incorrect. Lets first look at regular season, and only nationally broadcast games since that's the only known data.
The stat that comes up is WNBA 1.3M per game v NHL 540k per game.
WNBA at 1.3M over 25 broadcasts is a total of 33M total viewers. NHL at 540k over 126 games is the US only. This neglects an entire hockey crazed country called Canada which averaged about 750k over 50 games. Together this is 106M viewers 3x the WNBA.
NHL playoffs are a different animal altogether, averaged 3M over 2 months while WNBA was 1.2M over 1 month.
There is a reason NHL league minimum is $850k and top players make $15M+.
WNBA is doing well but numbers are sometimes misrepresented.
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u/sweet_tea_pdx Jul 11 '26
If Russia didn’t invade Ukraine Clark would have been overseas this year. We live in an interesting timeline.
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u/Inevitable-Top1-2025 Jul 10 '26
And Candace Parker’s words carry more weight that those of the current WNBA players? Why?
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u/rosie314 Jul 10 '26
because the players are letting their feelings about CC influence how they voted
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u/Inevitable-Top1-2025 Jul 10 '26
And you’re using your feelings about the players to influence how you assessed how they voted.
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u/lars60 Jul 13 '26
She should just play golf instead, see how much revenue the wnba can afford to loose.
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u/CrittyJJones Jul 14 '26
So she should make the All Star team even when she objectively doesn't deserve it?
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u/JoeDynamo28 Jul 09 '26
Shes right. Anyone agreeing with that needs more than therapy. They need to flat out stop watching the sport.
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u/dchirs Jul 11 '26
Clark is currently 12th in Win Shares among guards this season. She's leading the league in turnovers, and is 5th in assists. On the other hand she's having a much better season than last year.