WNBA Closes Regular Season Up In Attendance, TV Ratings, and Web Traffic

By the WNBA
Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2008

NEW YORK, Sept. 16, 2008 – The WNBA concluded its 12th regular season with increases in attendance -- including a record-setting 46 sellouts -- a 19% increase in TV ratings, and new records for WNBA.com traffic. In addition, the league formed new marketing partnerships with several leading companies including McDonald’s, Kia Motors and Pitney Bowes.

Additional 2008 highlights include:

WNBA Attendance:
o Capping two straight seasons of attendance increases, the 2008 regular season finished up +2.21%.

o There were 46 sellouts, more than triple the 17 for the 2007 regular season and more than double the previous record of 23 in 2004.

WNBA on TV:
o WNBA on national television (ABC and ESPN2) finished up +19% both in ratings (0.32 US vs 0.27 US) and viewership (413,000 vs. 346,000).

o WNBA ratings finished up +16% on ESPN2 (0.22) and even on ABC (0.5).

o WNBA viewership finished up +12% on ESPN2 and even on ABC.

o WNBA finished up in key demos on ESPN2 -- Women 18-34 (+71%) and Men 18-34 (+28%) – and on ABC -- All Women (+10%) and Women 18-34 (+20%).

WNBA.com:
o WNBA.com set all-time highs in visits and page views. Overall, WNBA.com received nearly 13 million visits and 59 million page views, up +35% and +20%, respectively, versus last season.

o WNBA.com also set monthly traffic records in July with more than 3.8 million visits and 16 million page views.

o On June 23, 2008, one day after L.A. Sparks rookie Candace Parker became the second WNBA player to dunk in a regular season game, WNBA.com set a single-day record with nearly 95,000 video streams.

Merchandise:
o League merchandise sales are up more than 36%, and WNBA jersey sales are up more than 46%, based on combined sales from the NBA Store and WNBAStore.com.