Earlier in the week, Indiana Fever superstar guard Caitlin Clark was involved in multiple scuffles in a game within the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup in-season competition. While Clark and the Indiana Fever secured a 17-point victory over the Connecticut Sun, it did not come without her being the subject of stringent defensive play and hard fouls. The occurrence was a topic of conversation between Mike Mulligan and David Haugh on 670 The Score this Thursday morning ahead of an interview with USA TODAY sports columnist Christine Brennan, who recently wrote a book about Clark and her impact on women’s sports.
Haugh characterized this instance as one of the byproducts surrounding the Clark phenomenon, and while he does not perceive it as being difficult to understand, he acknowledges potential challenges surrounding its comprehension. The fact that there seems to be substantial animosity towards her harbored by other contemporaries is something he feels has to be born from jealousy.
Earlier in the season, Clark missed five games with a quad injury, and according to Nielsen Media Research data cited within a USA TODAY article by Jeff Zillgitt, national television ratings for the league were down 55% since that time. Upon her return against the New York Liberty, ABC garnered its third most-watched ESPN WNBA game to ever air on the network with an average of 2.2 million viewers.
“The reality is that you just have to look at the numbers, and there’s no other player in professional sports who means as much to his or her league than Caitlin Clark means to the WNBA in terms of interest and television ratings, which creates revenue,” Haugh said. “…I mean, you can go through the leagues. Show me somebody who has more at stake when they’re on the court or on the field and creates a bigger disparity when they’re gone in terms of interest and viewership.”
Haugh claimed that Clark is “good for sports,” pointing out the aforementioned television ratings and questioning what the problem is surrounding the game that is looking to become more popular. Twenty-two WNBA regular-season games averaged more than 1 million viewers last season, a record for the league and the first instance in which a game eclipsed the threshold since 2008. Dustin Rhoades, the producer of the morning show, concurred with Haugh’s point and mentioned how there are ongoing negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.
“They wanted to be treated like the men, and I understand that and I’m all for that, but when this particular one person goes out and you lose 55% of your audience, you have to be there to embrace it,” Rhoades said, “and shame on USA Basketball on the women’s side for not including her in the Olympics. That was just a dumb decision.”
Mulligan questioned the lack of sportsmanship and referenced how Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese had her hair pulled in the last game. While he admits that there are hard fouls and that players can shove one another if there is a fight, he affirmed that they cannot knock people down or take cheap shots. On top of that, he wondered why the league had not cleaned up this apparent issue heading into the new season nor immediately protected a player who helps generate strong television ratings.
“I don’t understand why we’re getting to the cheap-shot stage as quickly as we have in that league,” Mulligan said. “Has this been going on all along? Have they been playing like this? Honest to God, it’s like watching the ‘90s Pistons when the Bulls were coming up. It’s just too much. They don’t allow that in the NBA. Why are they doing it in the WNBA? Doesn’t make an ounce of sense to me, and again, why would you kill the golden goose? I don’t get that at all.”
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