It’s getting difficult to keep track of WNBA milestones.

As the league tips off its 28th season this week, viewership and revenue are skyrocketing and show no signs of slowing. Ticket sales are up. Stars are landing the most lucrative endorsement deals in history. And just last week, the league announced that for the next two seasons, WNBA teams will travel on chartered flights for the first time, after historically relying on commercial air travel for transportation to and from games.

Some of these victories are larger than others. But today the WNBA is beginning to look less like a scrappy startup and more like an entertainment powerhouse, and 2024 could be the year we look back on as the one that changed everything.

The WNBA’s Rise

No American women’s professional sports league has lasted as long as the WNBA. And while Iowa superstar and No. 1 overall draft pick Caitlin Clark may be the woman of the moment, after more than 20 years of modest and inconsistent attendance and viewership, the WNBA has found its footing.

The league’s 36 million total unique viewers across all national networks in 2023 was the highest figure since 2008 and a 27% increase from the previous year, while average regular-season viewership across major networks was 505,000. The league also brought in more than $200 million in revenue, a 200%-plus year-over-year increase, while attendance was the highest since 2018 at 6,615 fans per game, up 16% from 2022.

Many downplay the WNBA’s rise, comparing its metrics to the NBA, which averaged 1.6 million viewers across major networks in 2022-23, generated more than $10 billion in revenue, and averaged 18,324 fans per game.

To be fair, the NBA had a 50-year head start. If we look back at the league roughly halfway through its third decade, the NBA averaged 7,648 fans per game in 1970-71, not far ahead of where the WNBA is today. In fact, the ’70s were so tumultuous for the league that it nearly disintegrated. And while 1970 was the first year that all games of the NBA Finals were nationally televised, the league’s total revenue in 1970-71 was just $32.3 million, about $244 million in today’s dollars.

But that was a different era, so there are no apples-to-apples analogs.

One irrefutable fact is that in today’s landscape, TV contracts are key revenue drivers in pro sports. The WNBA’s $60 million annual TV deal is up for renewal in 2025, making 2024 a year that could set the financial foundation for the next decade and beyond.

The Most Pivotal Year in WNBA History?

If you want to point to one number that exhibits the rise in the popularity of women’s basketball, it’s $28 million. That’s the value of the eight-year deal Clark signed with Nike ahead of her rookie campaign. It’s the largest endorsement deal ever for a woman basketball player, and includes her own signature shoe, a rarity.

Clark is a huge reason for the buzz around the WNBA. The 2024 draft, in which she was the No. 1 overall pick, was the most-watched in history, averaging a record 2.446 million viewers, a 307% increase over 2023. Her new team, the Indiana Fever, averaged just more than 4,000 fans per game in 2023. Last week, in Clark’s preseason home debut, more than 13,000 fans were in attendance. Fever ticket sales have increased 13-fold, and ticket sales across the WNBA are up 93%. Ticket demand, especially for Clark and the Fever, is so high that some WNBA teams are moving games to larger arenas.

Pro sporting events are historically star-driven, especially in basketball. Wilt Chamberlain dominated the 1960s. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar captured fans’ imaginations in the ’70s. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird carried the NBA through the ’80s; Michael Jordan owned the ’90s; and Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and LeBron James took it from there.

The same is true for the WNBA. From Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper to Lisa Leslie—followed by modern icons like Sue Bird, Candace Parker, and Diana Taurasi—the rise of the league can be tied directly to the enhanced quality of play, the growth of the off-court culture, and the stars who transcend the sport.

The WNBA’s New Magic vs. Bird Vibe

That’s where Caitlin Clark—and the player linked to her most from their college careers, No. 7 overall pick Angel Reese (who now plays for the Chicago Sky)—come in. As their rookie campaigns begin this week, Clark vs. Reese already has Magic vs. Bird vibes.

High praise for two players who have yet to play in a WNBA game? Yes. Unfair expectations to impose upon a couple of rookies? Definitely. But something tells me that as they take the torch from Bird, Parker, Taurasi, and others, they’ll deliver—and the WNBA and women’s sports at large will never be the same.