The rest is confetti
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
Hello there!
Raise a hand if you feel like women in sports deserve some good news this week? Well, the WNBA is back and eager to cue the confetti. Just ask four-time champion and three-time MVP Sheryl Swoopes, who narrates the third and final film from its 30th anniversary campaign. Prepare for goosebumps.
WNBA
🏀 Nobody does it better
The GIST: Over 1.2M people watched Team USA win its fifth consecutive FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup despite competing with the US Open men’s final and the NFL’s first Sunday of the season. Needless to say, fans are ready for more hoops.
- Each WNBA team has four regular-season games left and with the playoffs positioned to set even more records, let’s look back on the league’s historic year.
📺 The viewership: In 2026, the WNBA reached over 88.5M unique viewers to date to mark the most-watched season in its 30-year history. In fact, the W passed its 2025 number all the way before the All-Star break in June — which boasted a 44% YoY increase in viewership.
- On top of that, 47 different games averaged over 1M viewers, more than the last 21 seasons combined, and national networks saw a 23% YoY viewership increase. Hats off to the media deal negotiators.
📱 The engagement: The W is already the most-followed women’s sports league in the world with over 10M followers across socials, but it continues to optimize how it’s engaging with fans. This has resulted in over 3.5B social media views this season, nearly 20% more than last year.
- With WNBA League Pass subscriptions growing 520% since 2024, WNBA ID — the league’s new global account system that allows fans to personalize their digital experience — has also seen over 2M sign-ups since launching less than six months ago.
🎟️ The attendance: The success extends far beyond fans’ screens, with the league on pace for the most-attended regular season ever. Average attendance is up 21% YoY, coming in at over 11K per game, a remarkable feat considering WNBA arenas range between 3K and 20K seats.
- Overall, there have been 180 sold-out games this season and total attendance is sitting at 3.24M. Well-dressed butts in seats.
Zooming out: There’s 30 games left before the postseason begins on September 27th, and with playoff seeding still TBD, expect these numbers to grow. Thirty, flirty, and absolutely thriving.
🏈 Think you can out-pick the competition? One GISTer just did. Suna topped the leaderboard in our free-to-play NFL Weekly Pick’ems game and walked away with a $100 NFL Shop gift card. Not bad for a few clicks and some NFL know-how.
- ⚙️ Here’s how it works: Every week, you choose the winner of all 16 matchups. No buy-in, no complicated rules — it’s just you and your picks with bragging rights over thousands of GISTers on the line.
New here? Perfect timing. A new round starts every week, and you can jump right in. The only catch is that you must make your picks before tonight’s 8:15 p.m. ET matchup between the Lions and Bills.
💡 Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) shines light on barriers affecting Latinas in sports
Hispanic Heritage Month kicked off on Tuesday and WSF was ready with the facts, highlighting that while participation continues to rise among Latina girls in sports, 61% of Latina pro athletes surveyed by Parity in 2025 said they don’t earn a net income from their league, compared to 49% of other women athletes.
- Never ones to just talk about inequality, WSF also offered ways to help close this gap from contacting school boards in predominately Hispanic school districts to supporting organizations that are actively removing these barriers.
⚽ Drafted offers more ways to support and recognize Latinas in sports
Founded by Karina Martinez and Jennifer Yepez-Blundell in 2023, sports culture platform Drafted focuses on women at the intersection of sports, music, and fashion. Go for the Latina athlete spotlights, stay for the Dominican nail artists.
- And of course they have a dedicated Latina fútbol account. Síguelos.
📈 Latino audiences are refining sports marketing
A Sports Business Journal op-ed from LiS: Latinos in Sports co-founder Xavier A. Gutierrez makes the case that the Latino community is the most influential in sports. From U.S. population size (65M), to their youth, and digital savviness, Latinos are engaging across the sports landscape and are projected to drive 30% of the U.S. sports economy growth over the next decade.
✨ The Girl Scouts released new data showing 83% of surveyed girls aged five to 13 think having fun while playing sports is more important than winning…while their parents tend to think otherwise. Girls really do just want to have fun.
❤️🩹 Racing Louisville FC player Savannah DeMelo sued University of Louisville Health and her team’s doctors, alleging that negligence led to her on-field cardiac arrest last year.
🏡 Four WNBA players’ homes were featured in Architectural Digest, another example of the league’s growing emphasis on player storytelling.
🎾 The WTA will move its 2027, 2028, and 2029 championships to Charlotte, NC, leaving Saudi Arabia a year earlier than planned. The city will also host the org’s global headquarters.
❌ The top five U.S. men’s pro leagues sent a joint memo to state gaming regulators regarding betting-related harassment, but did not include any women’s leagues — an exclusion the WNPBA called “deeply disappointing,” according to Front Office Sports. Sigh.
▶️ TMRW Sports, the parent company of sports leagues including the Women’s Tomorrow Golf League and a future flag football league, is now valued at over $1B, more than double its previous valuation from two years ago.
🎵 Aspiring WNBA development league Upshot League announced its newest team location and branding: the Nashville Vibe. Feeling it.
Today's email was brought to you by Rachel Fuenzalida and Katie Foster. Fact checking by Bonnie Lee. Operations by Elisha Gunaratnam. Ads by Ali Haberstroh. Managing edits by Molly Potter and Katie Foster. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.