WNBA’s got fever for Clark & Fever
Call it the Caitlin Clark effect. The WNBA will show 36 of the Indiana Fever’s 40 games on its national broadcast and streaming partners, starting with the season opener at Connecticut on May 14. Last season, the Fever had only 22 of their games shown nationally.
The Fever, expected to take Clark first in the WNBA draft on Monday, will appear eight times across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 as well as eight times on ION and twice on CBS. In addition, the Fever will be highlighted 13 times on NBA TV, four times on Prime Video and once on CBS Sports Network.
Clark helped the NCAA get record TV ratings, including 18.9 million that watched the NCAA title game.
“With the energy and excitement already generated by what we anticipate will be a star-studded rookie class, and on the heels of a 2023 season that featured one of the greatest MVP races in WNBA history and our most-watched regular season in over two decades, the WNBA’s broadcast and streaming partners are offering a huge national platform that will showcase the league’s superstars, rising stars, rivalries and a newly reconfigured WNBA Commissioner’s Cup,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said.
The WNBA just recorded its most-watched season in 21 years, averaging 462,000 viewers per game across ABC, ESPN and CBS. The league also saw its most-watched Finals in 20 years that featured Las Vegas and the Liberty. It was up 36% from the previous season. The league’s TV deal is expiring at the end of next year and that could lead to a massive new contract for the WNBA.
SUGGS ARRESTED
Former NFL linebacker Terrell Suggs has been arrested after allegedly threatening another man and showing a handgun during a dispute in a Starbucks drive-thru line.
Scottsdale police arrested Suggs at 3 p.m. Tuesday. and charged him with threatening and intimidating and disorderly conduct with a weapon. The former Ravens player was released Wednesday morning.
The incident on March 10 began after a black Range Rover driven by Suggs passed the ordering speaker at Starbucks and had to back up to place his order, backing into the other vehicle, the police report said. The other vehicle didn’t receive any damage, and both men got out of their vehicles and argued before returning and collecting their orders.
Suggs allegedly flipped off the other driver and threatened to kill him before driving off. He stuck a handgun out of his window without pointing it at the other man and then left, police said.
Suggs released a statement through EAG Sports Management saying he was “in a quiet area of Scottsdale in the middle of the day” when the incident happened.
CHISOX LOSE MONCADA
White Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada will miss at least three months and maybe up to six with a severe leg injury sustained while running to first base on Tuesday night.
The team said Wednesday that Moncada suffered a strained adductor as he tried to beat out an infield grounder in the second inning of Chicago’s 7-5 win over the Guardians.
The 28-year-old Moncada, who had been dealing with a nagging injury in the same area for a few days leading into the game, collapsed as he neared the bag. He writhed in pain on the ground for several minutes before he was helped off the field.
He’s the third regular to be injured already this season for Chicago, which is already missing outfielder Luis Robert Jr. (hip flexor) and slugger Eloy Jimenez (adductor). The timetable for Robert’s return remains unknown while Jimenez could be back as early as this weekend.
To take Moncada’s roster spot, the White Sox recalled outfielder Oscar Colás from Triple-A Charlotte.
Moncada, who has been slowed by injuries the past few seasons, was batting .282 with three doubles in 11 games this season.
Colás appeared in 75 games and batted .216 with five homers and 19 RBI as a rookie with the White Sox last season. So far this year, he’s batting .321 with one homer and four RBI in the minors.
OLYMPIANS CASH IN
Track and field is set to become the first sport to introduce prize money at the Olympics, with World Athletics saying Wednesday it would pay $50,000 to gold medalists in Paris.
The move is a symbolic break with the amateur past of the Olympics in one of the games’ most-watched events.
The governing body of athletics said it was setting aside $2.4 million to pay the gold medalists across the 48 men’s, women’s and mixed events on the track and field program for this year’s Paris Olympics. Relay teams will split the $50,000 between their members. Payments for silver and bronze medalists are planned to start at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the move is meant “to recognize that the revenue share that we receive is in large part because our athletes are the stars of the show.”
The prize money will come out of the share of Olympic revenue that that the IOC distributes to World Athletics.