Women’s basketball feels like it’s at an all-time high coming off the NCAA tournament, and the Liberty are hoping to take advantage of that, not just for the good of the franchise but the good of the WNBA.
The Liberty are hoping that the formation of their superteam will generate new buzz for the WNBA in one of the biggest sports markets in the world and will expand the footprint of the league. New York is one of two so-called superteams in the W this year, with the Las Vegas Aces being the other.
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General manager Jonathan Kolb already noticed a difference in the interest with the arrival of Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot. For one, the Liberty GM was quick to point out the increased number of reporters at the team’s media that was held at Barclays Center earlier this week.
While the “Big 3” era with the Brooklyn Nets and the NBA as a whole is not new, it’s still very new for the WNBA, which only recently gave its players more freedom to change teams. And it’s a chance to see some of the sport’s best athletes on one team.
“It’s a great opportunity for fans of basketball that maybe haven’t had the chance or really the opportunity to key in on our league. Now’s the time and so I think through your coverage, your storytelling, our players, I think it’s a great opportunity for something that’s pretty unprecedented,” Kolb said.
While the profile of women’s basketball has grown over the last few years, there still has been a divide it seems between those who are fans of women’s college basketball and fans of the WNBA. Stewart and Jones even addressed the narrative around college players making more than pro players due to NIL deals during a recent espnW Summit in Brooklyn.
Kolb is hoping the fandoms can be bridged so that the league continues to grow stronger.
“I would love to consider them the same fan base,” Kolb said. “I think the tournament this year was phenomenal. The games are incredible, quality of play all-time high. Our league is really good and the basketball is second to none. So if you’re a fan of the game, and you liked what you saw this spring, I would pay attention this summer. I think there’s a real opportunity to see something special play out there.”
But the Liberty’s push to better the league goes beyond just trying to raise its profile. It extended to the ongoing push to have chartered flights for every team, which has been one of the causes that Stewart has taken up.
New York’s owners, Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, have been at the forefront as well trying to work to put greater investments into the on-court product. The Liberty was given a sizeable fine by the league last year for chartering flights during the second half of the 2021 season.
The WNBA has since announced they’d charter flights for all playoff games and for teams playing back-to-back games. Stewart said she’d take that as a good first step, but wants to get the league to a place where it’s beyond just a small scope of games.
“I think the whole thing behind it is, we want to get to the point in the WNBA where our first response to a question is not a no,” Stewart said. ” You know it’s a yes, maybe, or yes and. Really trying to figure that out to where we can have the freedom and flexibility to fly private and continue to make sure our bodies are rested and recovered. Because we want to be great on the court and sometimes these places we’re going don’t all have direct flights.
“Or we don’t all have great seats. So it’s just a part of raising the needle and setting the standard. Hopefully, we’ll have a little bit more than what we have now.”
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