The WNBA has posted record attendance and viewership numbers in 2026, prompting questions about whether Australian women's sport is keeping pace with the league's commercial momentum.
On July 10, a crowd of 20,996 at Montreal's Bell Centre watched the Toronto Tempo take on the Dallas Wings, shattering the WNBA's regular-season single-game attendance record. The figure was considered extraordinary given Montreal does not have its own WNBA team. An avalanche of social media posts followed, including one that proclaimed: "Tough day for the 'No-one watches women's sports' crowd."
The records did not stop there. Last week the WNBA announced the first round of the play-offs was the most-watched yet, averaging 1.3 million viewers over 10 days. Analysis from Sports Business Journal found the league drew a record 3.79 million fans to games across the 2026 season.
Dr Kasey Symons, a lecturer in sports media at Deakin University, said Australia had fallen behind the US when it came to creativity and innovation in marketing women's sport.
"I want to be generous to where we are in our sporting landscape in terms of resources, revenue, and support, but we are undoubtedly behind," she said.
"It's not enough any more just to say, 'One day we'll get there'. 'One day' is now, and we can take some examples from other sports to see what they're doing."
Symons said the league's record-breaking attendance, sold-out stadiums, in-demand merchandise, fan activations and superstar players had set the benchmark for what marketing in women's sport could achieve, the payoff of what many people in women's sports spaces had been dreaming about for decades.