NEW YORK — Caitlin Clark’s and Angel Reese’s return to college for WNBA preseason games will be two of a record four exhibition games shown on national TV.
Clark will head back to Iowa for an exhibition Sunday between her Indiana Fever and the Brazilian national team, a game airing on ESPN. The Fever’s exhibition game against the Washington Mystics on Saturday will be on NBA TV.
Reese will lead the Chicago Sky back to her alma mater, LSU, on Friday to face the Brazilian team. Sky teammate Kamilla Cardoso played for Brazil in February 2024, trying to help it qualify for the Paris Olympics. That game will be part of a doubleheader on Ion.
The WNBA will show all 15 of its preseason games either on national television or the league pass.
“We’ve seen the demand for WNBA content grow exponentially and we are meeting that demand by working with our broadcast partners and our teams to make a significant investment by making all 15 preseason games available to WNBA fans,” Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison said.
The league showed two exhibition games in 2023 and four last year, including Clark’s debut, which was on league pass. Reese’s preseason debut against the Minnesota Lynx wasn’t televised, but a fan livestreamed it on social media. The livestream drew significant attention, getting millions of views.
The two rookies last season helped the league draw record-breaking viewership. ESPN games averaged 1.2 million viewers in the regular season, a 170% increase from the previous year. The postseason averaged 1.1 million viewers, making it the league’s most-viewed playoffs in 25 years.
The other nationally televised game will be the Dallas Wings versus the Las Vegas Aces at Notre Dame in the first game of the Ion doubleheader Friday. Three former Irish stars — Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale and Las Vegas’ Jewell Loyd and Jackie Young — are coming back to campus.
That game also will mark the debut of Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft by the Wings two weeks ago.
