Ryan Ruocco sat down with Sue Bird on her podcast and laid out numbers that should make every sports executive pay attention. As one of the WNBA’s primary broadcasters since 2013, Ruocco has the receipts. He’s watched the league transform from playing to empty seats into a cultural phenomenon. The conversation covered ratings explosions, attendance revolutions, and one statistic that proves the WNBA’s growth runs deeper than any single player. Bird and Ruocco dug into how women’s basketball went from niche sport to mainstream entertainment, examining what happens next for a league that finally cracked the code.
Empty Seats to Sold Out Arenas: The Attendance Revolution
Back then, teams hoped for a few thousand fans. Upper bowls? Forget about it. Nobody even talked about filling upper bowls. The goal was selling out the lower bowl or at least making sure the camera angles showed some bodies in seats. LA Sparks games at what used to be Staples Center felt “totally barren” in Ruocco’s words. Even Minnesota, which has always supported the Lynx better than most markets, only filled the lower bowl at Target Center.
Fast forward to 2025. According to Ruocco on Sue Bird’s podcast, he never walks into a game anymore wondering about the crowd. The question isn’t if fans will show up. The question is how electric will the atmosphere be. Vegas sells out every single game. Golden State sold out every game this season. Barclays, Gainbridge, Target Center, Phoenix, Seattle. The list goes on. Every venue creates an “unbelievable” atmosphere in Ruocco’s assessment.
Here’s what makes this transformation remarkable. It’s not just the big markets or traditional powerhouses. Atlanta’s new venue holds just a few thousand people, but Ruocco called the atmosphere “awesome” when he broadcast games there. Smaller market teams are drawing crowds that seemed impossible a decade ago. And these aren’t polite crowds. These are loud, engaged fans creating genuine home court advantages.
The attendance surge creates a virtuous cycle. Better atmospheres make better television. Better television attracts more viewers. More viewers want to experience games live. The flywheel keeps spinning faster. For playoff games now, Ruocco just assumes sellouts or very close to capacity. That’s not hope. That’s expectation. And expectations met consistently become the new normal.
The 30% Surge That Proves Systemic Growth
Numbers don’t lie, and the 2025 numbers are absolutely ridiculous. The playoffs are up 11% year over year. Compared to 2023, they’re up 168%. Read that again. One hundred and sixty eight percent. Playoff games average 1.1 million viewers across the first round and semifinals combined. The semis alone averaged 1.3 million through the first 4 games of both series. That’s up 48% versus last year.
The regular season was the most watched ever. 25 regular season games averaged 1.3 million viewers, up 6% from last year’s already record breaking campaign. These numbers come despite Caitlin Clark missing huge chunks of the season with injury. And here’s where it gets really interesting.
“Non Indiana games were up 30% on all ESPN networks year over year.” — Ryan Ruocco
Think about what that means. The rising tide is lifting all boats. Phoenix versus Minnesota draws eyeballs. Vegas versus Seattle matters to casual fans. The product itself has become appointment viewing. Ruocco made a crucial point about how people interpret these numbers. Some folks won’t give Clark credit. Others pretend the league sucked before she arrived. Both positions are wrong.
The WNBA is now “stamped as cool.” That phrase matters more than people realize. When something gets stamped as cool, people want in on the conversation. Watching WNBA playoffs became a cultural touchstone this year. It’s not just basketball fans anymore. Sports fans generally recognize the product is elite. The stakes feel real. The games deliver drama.
And when the product gets stamped as cool, everything else follows. Viewership follows. Attendance follows. Sponsorships follow. Media deals follow. The flywheel spins faster and faster. The WNBA spent decades building infrastructure and developing talent. That groundwork made this explosion possible. Clark accelerated the timeline, but the foundation was already solid. That’s why the 30% increase in non Indiana games matters so much. It proves the growth is systemic, not superficial. This isn’t a bubble. This is the new baseline.
