{"id":83455,"date":"2025-08-15T00:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T00:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/83455\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T00:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T00:23:07","slug":"from-sellouts-to-the-reese-effect-sky-attendance-tells-a-bigger-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/83455\/","title":{"rendered":"From sellouts to the Reese effect, Sky attendance tells a bigger story"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a packed night at Wintrust Arena, the sound hits you first \u2014 the bass of the music, the crowd roaring when Angel Reese is introduced.<\/p>\n

This year, there have been more of those nights than ever, and the numbers tell the attendance story. But they also reveal plot twists worth watching as the Sky<\/a> \u2014 and the league \u2014 ride a wave of change.<\/p>\n

Attendance rising<\/p>\n

Rising attendance at Wintrust is no longer a flash in the pan. Back in 2019 \u2014 before civilization shut down and then opened its eyes to professional women\u2019s basketball \u2014 6,748 fans were filing in on an average night.<\/p>\n

Today, that number is up to 9,471. It\u2019s even higher than in 2022, when the Sky had one of the league\u2019s most exciting teams and a chance at the title. That\u2019s right: a significantly larger crowd is showing up for a drifting, 8-24 team than for a contender. And there\u2019s more good news to come.<\/p>\n

The Sky have sold out seven games this season, including two at the United Center. Both set franchise attendance records. For a team with a 25% win rate to sell out more than 40% of its home games is saying something. But will that momentum survive without Angel Reese?<\/p>\n

The Reese Effect<\/p>\n

Reese has missed the last seven home games with a back injury, and Wintrust attendance has dropped to an average of 7,560. No shocker there. She returned to practice this week<\/a>, but with no real shot at the playoffs, there\u2019s no reason to rush her back. Whether she plays again this season is an open question. So is the Sky\u2019s place in a hyper-growth league.<\/p>\n

Competing in the hyper-growth era<\/p>\n

The Sky\u2019s growth is solid, but elsewhere, it\u2019s exploding. The expansion Valkyries are on pace for the highest attendance in WNBA history. Caitlin Clark\u2019s Fever and Ellie the Elephant\u2019s Liberty are regularly filling NBA arenas. Despite their steady growth, the Sky rank ninth out of 13 teams in attendance. That\u2019s a dynamic for Sky fans to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n

In the league\u2019s hyper-growth era, real progress for the Sky may pale next to other franchises with deeper pockets and bigger arenas.<\/p>\n

What the naysayers are naying<\/p>\n

The naysayers will tell you the league\u2019s attendance wave is riding on a handful of stars like Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers. And there\u2019s truth to it: the Sky\u2019s two United Center sellouts were against Clark\u2019s Fever, and two of their five Wintrust sellouts came against Bueckers\u2019 Wings.<\/p>\n

But is it really bad for a league to be driven by young stars? Especially when more are on the way \u2014 Azzi Fudd, Olivia Miles and Flau\u2019Jae Johnson all have national followings and are set to join the league next year.<\/p>\n

That is, as long as there\u2019s a league to join.<\/p>\n

The CBA wild card<\/p>\n

The league and players\u2019 union still need to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement, but they left their All-Star weekend meeting with very different takeaways. The league called the talks \u201cconstructive.\u201d The union called them a \u201cwasted opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Union secretary Elizabeth Williams told the Sun-Times this week that players remain \u201cadamant\u201d about resolving salaries first, before moving on to other issues. She thinks the latest meeting hinted the league might finally be getting that message.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me, like, this much hope,\u201d she said, holding her thumb and forefinger a sliver apart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a packed night at Wintrust Arena, the sound hits you first \u2014 the bass of the music,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-83455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}