The WNBA held its 15th All-Star Game on Saturday June 28th (in Minnesota) and unlike the 2018 MLB (-6% YoY), NBA (-1% YoY) and NHL (-10% YoY) All-Star Games, viewership increased +17% YoY (to 709,000 viewers); making it the league’s 2nd most watched ASG since ’13. The viewership increase for the midsummer game follows the first half of a season that saw the number of viewers tuning in per game rise +35% YoY across ESPN2 & NBATV and +38% YoY (to 247,000) on ESPN. It’s not just increasing television viewership numbers that indicate the league is on an uptick though, merchandise sales on the league’s website are up 50% YoY and Puma recently announced a league-wide footwear partnership with the WNBA; the company’s first deal with a pro sports league. Atlanta Dream forward Angel McCoughtry took notice of all the progress, calling 2018 “the year of the woman.”
Howie Long-Short: While the partnership deal with Puma is significant and the merchandise sales growth has been impressive, WNBA bulls might want to temper their excitement surrounding the ASG. Even with a +17% YoY increase, the 709,000 viewers that tuned in represented just the 9th largest audience in WNBA ASG history.
As for Puma SE (PMMAF), the company reported a +42% YoY increase in profits (to +/- $36 million) on revenues that rose a currency adjusted +15% YoY (to $1.2 billion) during Q2 ’18, as all regions and product segments reported double digit growth. Quarterly financials would have looked best had the euro been stronger, the national teams they sponsor performed better and if they were seeing returns (not just marketing expenditures) on their basketball business. Shares dropped -5.5% on the news and have continued decline since, closing on Friday at $487.00.
Fan Marino: EA Sports (EA) has taken notice of the rising popularity of the WNBA and acted accordingly. The company announced that gamers will have the option to create female players, in career mode, in NBA Live ’19 (launches 9/7) and that female player “abilities and perks” will be modeled after WNBA stars like Candace Parker. The announcement comes just one year after all 12 WNBA teams were included in the game for the first time. This isn’t the first-time EA Sports has included female players in its games, the company’s hockey series first included women in “Be a Pro” mode back in ’11. In that game, females and males competed against each other; all EA Sports UFC and FIFA games since have featured single-sex matches.
Fun Fact: 68% of the WNBA audience on ESPN 2 is male.
Fun Fact 2.0: Just 7% of the WNBA’s audience on ESPN 2/NBA TV is female and under the age of 35.
Interested in Sports Business? Sign-up for our free daily email newsletter list, here!
