LEAGUES
Women take charge and get results in WNBA and NWSL
Women’s professional sports leagues matter. Period. The WNBA and NWSL are the two most prominent women’s leagues in the country. Despite still being new to the national landscape, they continuously make headlines, turn heads, capture hearts and captivate new fans.
“As one of the longest standing women’s professional sports leagues in the United States and going into our 24th season, I think it’s important that we stand for more than just professional basketball, but the power of women,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told the Daily News in April.
Players in both leagues have established themselves as leaders not only in the conversation about gender issues, but broader social issues. Players in both leagues have stood up to injustice, voicing their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and using their platforms to raise awareness and fight social and racial injustice.
Liberty veteran Layshia Clarendon and Washington Mystics veteran Natasha Cloud both penned essays in The Players’ Tribune about their thoughts on the current Black Lives Matter movement and how it’s affecting BIPOC athletes. Pride month has always taken center stage. Players have opted out of the current bubble season plan just to continue fighting for human rights.
All players from the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage and Portland Thorns took a knee during the national anthem and wore “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts before the start of the first match back from the coronavirus hiatus. The OL Reign created a video explaining social and racial privilege and posted it to their Twitter page. All the Sky Blue players pledged to donate money to the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice after every goal scored in the Challenge Cup.
These are just a few examples from the last two months in both these leagues. Considering they’re the two youngest major sports leagues in the country — the NWSL is in its eighth season — they’ve proved not only is their very existence revolutionary, but so is what they stand for.
THE VALUE OF WOMEN’S LEAGUES
The WNBA is about where the NBA/ABA was in the 1950s, as one sports economist explained, which only speaks to how much more growth there is to come and how much more these leagues will have to offer.
“Women’s sports leagues (like the WNBA and NWSL) don’t have a lot of economic value right now because they’re still relatively small,” sports economist David Berri told the Daily News. “But sports leagues in general don’t have much economic value.
“Their importance is their value in the future and the opportunities they create.”
“Women’s sports is really an exciting place to be for any sports executive — not just women — any sports executive because there’s so much momentum and growth,” NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird said in an April interview with Reuters.
And in leagues so new that the only way to go is up, the possibilities seem endless. Those involved take great care in understanding the weight of the power they hold.