{"id":54973,"date":"2025-05-16T14:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T14:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/54973\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T14:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T14:45:12","slug":"wnba-commissioner-calls-caitlin-clark-most-popular-athlete-in-america-talks-schedule-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/54973\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA commissioner calls Caitlin Clark \u2018most popular athlete in America,\u2019 talks schedule expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caitlin Clark didn\u2019t just bring new fans to women\u2019s basketball, she introduced new viewers to the world of sports, WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert said during an interview on \u201cThe Bill Simmons Podcast.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c(NBA commissioner) Adam (Silver) and I talk all the time about this; she\u2019s the most popular athlete in America,\u201d Engelbert said.<\/p>\n

With the second season of the WNBA\u2019s Caitlin Clark era set to tip off Friday night, the reigning Rookie of the Year remains the talk of the league despite Clark and the Indiana Fever not playing until Saturday.<\/p>\n

The league is brimming with other marketable stars such as 2025 No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers, who will be making her WNBA debut Friday, and reigning MVP A\u2019ja Wilson, who had a signature shoe released with Nike. And while that\u2019s a good problem for the league to have, Engelbert stressed the importance of showcasing the league\u2019s other standout players, while also leaning into the Clark phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a balance, but she\u2019s a generational talent,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cNo league is ever about one player, but in this case, Caitlin brought tens of millions of new viewers into the W. And there\u2019s no denying that impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to balance making sure that you\u2019re also promoting your other stars like an A\u2019ja WIlson, like a Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier \u2026 That\u2019s why this year is sustain and gain. Sustain the momentum we had last year and gain even more new viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Englebert and the league are leaning even more into the Clark momentum by broadcasting 41 of the Fever\u2019s 44 games on national TV. This is an unprecedented showcase for a league that just expanded from 36 games to 40 games in 2023 and now from 40 to 44 in 2025.<\/p>\n

And that expansion may not be complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can definitely see us going to 50 (games),\u201d Englebert said.<\/p>\n

But lengthening the WNBA\u2019s summer schedule is complicated. On the front end, the league needs a buffer after the NCAA season for its rookies \u2014 Bueckers was drafted by the Dallas Wings just eight days after UConn won the NCAA title on April 6. And on the back end, lengthening the schedule means competing with the heart of college football and NFL season \u2014 the 2024 WNBA Finals wrapped on Oct. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t move it too much forward if you want the rookies to come in, which we do because it\u2019s a great, it\u2019s a great theater system for us,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll look at the back end and how far can we go and how many NFL and college football Saturdays can we go into and we\u2019ll evaluate all that under the CBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Photo: Matthew Holst \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark didn\u2019t just bring new fans to women\u2019s basketball, she introduced new viewers to the world of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,17597,49,48,156,12370],"class_list":{"0":"post-54973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-indiana-fever","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-sports-business","13":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114518053874343696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}