Unrivaled have kept Caitlin Clark’s seat ready as upstart league struggles to garner viewers
Caitlin Clark chose not to sign with the Unrivaled League this season as she focuses on rest and development.
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Unrivaled League co-founder Napheesa Collier has kept a seat for Caitlin Clark for next season
Caitlin Clark has avoided playing any competitive basketball this offseason. She prioritized rest and development over another exhausting schedule. But the upstart Unrivaled League had the chance to tempt her to play in their debut season.
They even went way out of their way with a massive offer comprising of league high salary, equity and even cuts from merchandise sales. At the end, Caitlin Clark did not go ahead with the deal as she felt it would not be fair to the rest of the players, and it would compromise her rest.
Declining that gave fans the idea that Clark was going to participate in the upcoming NBA All-Star three-point contest. That idea too was thrown out of the window when her representatives revealed that she would make her debut at the WNBA All-Star weekend three-point contest.
Unrivaled League is midway through their first season and currently the 1v1 tournament is playing out. League co-founder Napheesa Collier was speaking about the tournament with former NBA star Chandler Parsons of Run it Back. He asked her what they are doing to get Clark into the league.
I think everything we are doing, you know for Caitlin. I think it’s been such a whirlwind coming from college to being in her WNBA rookie season. It’s just a lot to handle and there’s no break. All we can do is show her what we have. Of course, we have a spot for her and hopefully we can make it work in the future.
Napheesa Collier said
Will Caitlin Clark be playing in @Unrivaledwbb next season? 👀@PHEEsespieces says the league has a spot with "Clark" written all over it… pic.twitter.com/gZgZwkgQeU
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) February 11, 2025
This means the Unrivaled league is keeping a spot open for her. They went to the extent of adding four Indiana Fever teammates along with her best friend Kate Martin. But at the end, she did not want to risk her conditioning.
Caitlin Clark less Unrivaled League viewership tapers off
Napheesa Collier would have liked if Caitlin Clark had signed on to their offer. She could have drawn the millions of viewers the WNBA enjoyed in her rookie season. After starting their debut season with an average of 312,000 viewers, those numbers have tapered off.
As per Sports Media Watch, after the end of week four, the numbers stood at an average of 166,000. Overall, the average is a bit higher. However, those numbers are the average from six games. Collier’s Lunar Owls game notched 216,000 viewers.
The game between Sabrina Ionescu‘s Phantom vs New York Liberty teammate Breanna Stewart‘s Mist averaged 177,000 viewers. If these are the top games, then there are other games which are struggling to draw decent numbers.
Next season, they will have Paige Bueckers in the league. But as the numbers have shown so far, the league needs that spark for it to truly take off. Maybe Caitlin Clark is the answer, for which Collier and her investors will have to take the lead in convincing her to sign.
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Joseph Varghese
(2461 Articles Published)