The W.N.B.A. is in the heat of the postseason, and arenas are packed with passionate fans. Many of them are women and girls, of course. But most of them are male. And among boys, that fandom is quickly growing.
I first noticed this not as a reporter, but as a mom. My 12-year-old son is obsessed with the Golden State Warriors. It seems as if half his wardrobe has Stephen Curry’s face on it. He wanted to paint his entire bedroom Warriors blue (I convinced him that one accent wall would be a more soothing choice).
When the W.N.B.A. introduced a new team in San Francisco this year — the Golden State Valkyries, which I recently profiled — I bought us tickets for the first game. I hoped he would become a casual fan.
Before long, though, he developed full-on Valkyries fever. Suddenly, he was sporting a violet cap and a Tiffany Hayes jersey, studying the roster and memorizing statistics. The real eye-opener for me came one Saturday morning when I saw that he was playing his NBA 2K video game not as the Warriors, but as the Valkyries.
It turns out my son is in very good company. Boys and young men are helping to fuel the surge in interest in women’s basketball.
This season, the W.N.B.A.’s fan base was 57 percent male and 43 percent female, according to statistics provided by the league. Men have actually made up more than half of viewership for years, but they were mostly middle-aged before. Now they’re skewing younger. The number of boys under 18 who watch W.N.B.A. games has grown by 130 percent over the past four years.
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The post The W.N.B.A.’s Growing Fan-Base appeared first on New York Times.
