With interest in Lynx and WNBA growing, so are options to see preseason games

A year ago, the Lynx opened the 2024 preseason against Chicago at Target Center.

If you weren’t in the crowd, you couldn’t watch it. No streaming, no local TV, no national TV for a game that featured promising teams with three of the top eight picks in the WNBA draft.

So Alli Schneider, a local Lynx season-ticket holder, streamed the game on her X account. As many as 200,000 watched it live. In the ensuing days, the post was viewed more than 2.5 million times.

Finally, the league got it.

On Tuesday night in Chicago, the Lynx, coming off a trip to the WNBA Finals, will open the 2025 preseason against the Sky. The exhibition game will be available on FanDuel Sports Network North, the first time the local outlet will show preseason games. Around the WNBA, the league has four preseason games on national TV. And, combining cable, broadcast TV and streaming (the WNBA is offering a free preview to the league pass), fans can watch every preseason game played.

As so often seems to happen, the WNBA is reacting to a phenomenon rather than anticipating it. On this point Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve agrees.

“I would,” she said. “I thought there would be a real understanding of the players that were coming into the league and their popularity. I think it’s unfortunate we didn’t see it last year, no question about that. But we’re glad it’s here now.”

Last year, Caitlin Clark‘s rookie season with the Indiana Fever caused a swell of interest in the WNBA. This year, former Hopkins star Paige Bueckers — the No. 1 overall pick by the Dallas Wings — could have a similar impact.

It’s not surprising, then, that Bueckers’ first preseason game was available nationally and that three of the other nationally available preseason games include Indiana and Clark.

The surge in popularity in the league carried through to the WNBA Finals between the Lynx and the New York Liberty. Overall, the series — televised on ESPN and ABC — averaged 1.57 million viewers, a 115% increase over 2023. Game 5 at Barclays Center averaged 2.15 million viewers on ESPN, peaking at 3.3 million — making it the most-watched WNBA Finals game in 25 years.

Then the Unrivaled three-on-three league, started by Lynx forward Napheesa Collier and New York star Breanna Stewart, reset the bar in terms of salaries for pro women’s athletes.

“It was an example of what women’s sports could be,” Collier said. “In how to treat athletes, how to pay athletes, what the experience should be. Now that we’ve experienced that, I think we’ll take that to our teams and into CBA negotiations.”

So, what will fans see?

A mix of the familiar and the new. The Lynx have all five starters back from last season — though Kayla McBride, coming off a stint in Europe, has yet to practice — and so Reeve wants to see her starters play together but not overdo it.

“We’re also evaluating things,” Reeve said. “Players, in terms of where they are, whether they stay in camp or maybe they don’t. Or maybe they’re still in the running for a position. It’s also an evaluation of lineups, who is playing well together.”

Whoever plays, they will play in front of fans outside of Chicago who can actually see the game. That’s a step forward. Another would be broadening the pool of teams available on national broadcasts; it’s interesting that neither New York nor Minnesota — last season’s finalists — appears in a nationally broadcast preseason game. Maybe next year.

“Coming off the Finals, being the winningest franchise in the history of the league,” Reeve said of her team. “I think all those things bode well for being on a national broadcast. But I’m just happy each of our [preseason games] will be available.”