Basketball-Sponsors swoop in to net new generation of WNBA fans

By Amy Tennery

INDIANAPOLIS, July 18 (Reuters) - An onslaught of brands has descended on Indianapolis to take advantage of the WNBA's growing popularity, with new sponsors setting up shop for the All-Star weekend to meet a crush of fans.

TV viewership and attendance have soared across the WNBA in recent years, buoyed by rising stars like the Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark and the Chicago Sky's Angel Reese, and the growth of women's sports around the globe.

Fans waited upward of two-and-a-half hours on Friday for a meet-and-greet with the first overall draft pick Paige Bueckers at a booth by sponsor DoorDash DASH.O at WNBA Live, an event where 25 brands hoped to capture fans' attention and dollars.

"It's about time, it's amazing," said Gabby Mendoza, 37, a fan since the league launched in 1997, who flew in from San Antonio, Texas.

"Probably the backing of the brands coming through is probably what's helping the exposure."

The sprawling ticketed event at the Indiana Convention Center was a far cry from the inaugural WNBA Live in 2022, when only a handful of vendors were to be found, according to fans who spoke to Reuters.

The Women's National Basketball Association has 13 teams, with plans to add two more in 2026 in Toronto and Portland. The league recently announced it would add three more expansion franchises by 2030. In this year's All-Star Game, Team Caitlin Clark takes on Team Napheesa Collier.

Marrian James, a 56-year-old Las Vegas Aces fan, has been attending All-Star Games since the showcase came to Orlando, Florida, in 2001. For Saturday's All-Star Game in Indianapolis, she shelled out $1,000 for a ticket.

"Before, you'd have one or two vendors - we didn't have a whole lot of support," said James, who flew in from Florida for the event.

"So now, with all the vendors, you see where the fan base has changed. We have more young people, old people - it doesn't matter, all walks of life are WNBA fans now."

A crowd 30 feet (9.1 m) deep waited by a State Farm pavilion for star player Clark to make an appearance on Friday, while fans browsed leather purse tags with team logos inside at fashion designer Coach TPR.N, one of the league's newly minted sponsors this year.

AT&T T.N, a sponsor since 2019, offered a place for fans to shoot hoops and receive applications of custom WNBA-themed nail art with robotic technology.

"This is our biggest WNBA activation, footprint, that we've ever had," said Andrea Wilson, director for sponsorships and experiential marketing at AT&T. "We go bigger and bigger every single year."

The 2024 WNBA season attracted record viewership on ESPN DIS.N platforms, up 170% from 2023, and brands appear to have gotten the message across Indianapolis, where Coach, Nike NKE.N and Gatorade PEP.O took out massive advertisements around town.

Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who attended her first All-Star Game as an assistant in 2002, said the growth of the annual exhibition has created better opportunities for players.

"We're finding amazing ways to monetize their brand," said Reeve, who will coach Team Collier on Saturday. "It is a great space that we're in and it was very different than what it was even five years ago."