{"id":510249,"date":"2026-03-02T21:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510249\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T21:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:58:08","slug":"espn-executive-pushes-back-on-caitlin-clark-singular-player-wnba-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510249\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Executive Pushes Back On Caitlin Clark ‘Singular Player’ WNBA Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anybody who follows women’s basketball is well aware of what the “Caitlin Clark Effect”<\/a> is. The narrative that the 24-year-old Indiana Fever superstar has been the riding tide to lift all other women’s basketball boats, so to speak, isn’t anything new. <\/p>\n

Yet, there is still some discussion about just how much No. 22 should be credited for the sport’s massive growth, especially given that she missed <\/a>most of the 2025 WNBA season because of various soft-tissue injuries, and the league still set records in viewership. <\/p>\n

There have been many fascinating opinions shared on this. But perhaps someone whose job it is to bring and sustain viewership should be among the voices most heeded. <\/p>\n

\"WNBA<\/p>\n

WNBA star Caitlin Clark | Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

ESPN Exec Explains Why Fans Are Staying After Caitlin Clark Boom<\/p>\n

Susie Piotrkowski, who works as ESPN\u2019s VP of women\u2019s sports programming and espnW, shared a strong stance on this during a\u00a0Front Office Sports\u00a0event last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say this in quite literally the most positive way possible: Caitlin\u2019s a gateway drug for some people to women\u2019s sports,\u201d Piotrkowski said, per a YouTube video from “Front Office Sports News”.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that brought you in, I\u2019m going to keep you here. And nobody wants the finger wagged at them, especially if you’ve been in sports for 20-plus years, and you’ve worked at ESPN, and you’ve built other parts of our business. It’s my job to build the bridge to get you to understand that this is the best business opportunity. I\u2019m not going to make you feel silly if you don\u2019t get it, or you still think, \u2018Oh, so is that rating because of the Caitlin Clark effect?\u2019” Piotrkowski continued.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark looks on from the sideline | Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

“Well, she\u2019s been out of college basketball for a long time. I\u2019m going to tell you why it is more than that. And that\u2019s okay if you\u2019ve come by way of her; now I\u2019m going to tell you why it\u2019s necessary for you to stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piotorkowski later added. \u201cCaitlin didn’t play from early July on. Most-watched WNBA regular season, most-watched WNBA playoffs, right? So, I think every single one of us can say [that] what Caitlin has done for our business is incomparable. However, people are coming because the product is excellent. And they are not leaving. And that is even without one singular player.” <\/p>\n

In other words, Piotorkowski is saying that while Caitlin Clark has been a “gateway drug” to getting interest in women’s basketball, the sustained growth in the wake of her injuries is because fans have enjoyed what they see even when Clark is sidelined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anybody who follows women’s basketball is well aware of what the “Caitlin Clark Effect” is. The narrative that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-510249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}