Posted on 04/03/2024 10:00:09 AM PDT by Kazan
Monday night’s women’s basketball game between Iowa and LSU was the most watched women’s basketball game ever.
Monday night's rematch between @IowaWBB & @LSUwbkb scores as the MOST-WATCHED WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAME ON RECORD
12.3M viewers
Most-watched college basketball game EVER on ESPN platforms
More details to come…#NCAAWBB | #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/55FU8C1NwD
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) April 2, 2024
How big of a night was it?
At 12.3 million viewers, last night's Iowa-LSU game had more viewers than:
• Any women's CBB game ever
• The 2023 NBA Finals
• The 2023 World Series
• The 2023 Orange Bowl
• The 2023 Big Ten Championship
• The 2023 Cotton Bowl
• The 2023 Pac-12 Championship
• The 2023 Big-12 Championship
• The 2023 ACC Championship
• The 2023 Peach Bowl
• Thursday Night Football
• Every 2023 college football regular season game except Ohio State vs. Michigan
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) April 2, 2024
USA Today reports:
Monday night’s Elite Eight matchup between Iowa and LSU was watched by 12.3 million viewers, according to ESPN, which makes it the most-viewed women’s college basketball game on record and the most-watched college basketball game ever on ESPN platforms.
Iowa prevailed 94-87 in the national title game rematch to deny LSU a chance at a second consecutive championship.
LSU’s 102-85 victory over the Hawkeyes last year set the previous record, averaging 9.9 million viewers and peaking at 12.6 million viewers. That game was broadcast by ABC. Monday’s aired on ESPN.
Monday’s game peaked at 16.1 million viewers, per ESPN.
ESPN said the contest drew the second-highest audience for any basketball game on the network since 2012, trailing only Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference finals between LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics, which Sports Media Watch says drew 13.6 million.
What a game it was as Caitlin Clark broke more records and carried Iowa to a victory.
And the women’s Final 4 tickets are outpricing the men’s tickets by almost double!
Minimum ticket price for men: $571
Minimum ticket price for women: $970
At this very moment:
The minimum ticket price on StubHub to get into the Men’s Final Four: $571
The minimum ticket price on StubHub to get into the Women’s Final Four: $970 pic.twitter.com/2hZxc58ze9
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) April 2, 2024
I used to watch the NBA for years. But two things happened together. Jordan retired. But the worst was that the NBA started promoting rap “culture”. Stupid. It’s the middle aged white guys who buy the tickets and take their sons to the games, not gang bangers. And the simply horrible officiating is the icing on the shyt cake. Eff the NBA.
Front and center is where they belong.
That's part of it. But what bothered me more was that they stopped taking the game seriously. They were no longer interested in competition.
she has some strength in those arms and wrists and it also reflects in her crisp passing. I’m thinking WNBA point guard.
6’ tall.
#22 Caitlin Clark ; Height 6-0 ; Class Sr. ; Hometown West Des Moines, Iowa ; High School Dowling Catholic.
Clark wants to go to the olympics The training camp is about to start.
How about of the globetrotters pick her up for a couple of games. That would be interesting.
The Iowa-LSU contest brought to mind the great Michigan State-Indiana State championship game of 1979 that featured Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
They took their rivalry to the next level and revitalized the NBA for two generations. I wonder if the WNBA will allow something similar to happen between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese?
It would be interesting to see the winner play a team of Junior High School Boys all star team...
No one is claiming Clark could compete against men on the court.
That post makes me want to watch!
Also, NC State & UConn are in both men & wimmenz final 4.
Only UConn has won both (m&w), & they've done it twice.
Putting asses in seats is gonna get Caitlin some serious dough.
**(and values) of Caitlyn Clark**
That’s nice. But our Sunday School lost a girl to Sunday basketball practice and league tournaments. Getting that college scholarship is more important donchaknow. Thousands of parents will spend a lot of time and money trying to raise the next Caitlin.
We ran our youngest son to a bunch of saturday practices and tournaments from his 10 to 15 years. He was a dribbling and passing machine. Not greedy, but could shoot too.
His older brother won a state football championship (IL 2A 1998), and suddenly basketball was not important anymore.
I’ve seen a lot of that. A kid burns out on a sport before he’s old enough to drive car.
My sons would marvel at my handling of livestock, my metalcrafting, my mechanic skills, and my driving and piloting ability. I would tell them, “you don’t learn that stuff spending your time playing ball somewhere.”
No, I meant I'M 5'9" - most of the guys I played with were in that range: 5-8 to 6-3, so I never had to work against giants, (or worry about getting dunked on).
.
This is a one time thing, Caitlin Clark Senior Year, rematch from the final last year and the classless behavior of the LSU team and coach...
And take nothing away from Angel either, though I don’t like her attitude and behavior, she’s a star too, and will wind up in the WBNBA as well.
This is an anomaly, but sold as something more.
That being said, Caitlin Clark is absolutely a generational athlete in her own right.
I am sure when she joins the WNBA they will see attendance and attention increase for a while, but the WNBA has recruited great players in the past too, and still has never had a game top the viewership numbers of a game in its very first championship series 25 years ago, or whatever it was.
This LSU/IOWA game was the perfect storm for attention, but anyone who believes for one minute that that one if is an indication of the new normal, is going to be eating crow down the road.
Caitlin is a natural athlete who clearly had her talents nurtured... She played all kinds of sports, and was successful in them too.. she played HS Soccer through her Sophomore year of HS as well as Basketball. I believe she averaged something like 3 goals per game in her sophomore year, or something ridiculous like that.
There is nothing wrong with sports, but most folks are not going to be able to go pro playing them, even if they are very very good at them.
I do think there is a lot of crazy focus on sports in some aspects, parents pushing their kids hard at young ages in sports, and most of its waste effort, if its a kids passion they will stick it out, if its not they will burn out.
My middle daughter plays HS sports, she enjoys them, but she’s not a natural athlete, in a bigger school she probably wouldn’t even make the team, but she enjoys it, and she works as hard, and in many cases harder that even the most talented players on her team. Me nor her mother have ever pushed her to play any of the sports she plays, but she enjoys them and we will support her. I have zero delusions about her being an athlete, or about her ever being recruited to play in college, but as long as she enjoys it and wants to do it, we’ll continue to support her.
I don’t know if kids BURN OUT on sports, or they realize they don’t have the skill and talent needed to play at the level the coaches expect of them... Or just find other interests. Nearly every organization that involves kids finds it hard to retain kids once they get into their teen years, as they find different interests and move on... Doesn’t matter if its sports, or scouting, or church groups, or whatever it is... once the kids get to a certain age they just develop other interests and leave past ones behind...
It was expected to be a great game and it did not disappoint, thus the ratings.
She's hnest. She trashed the city of Albany (a failed Dem city with high crime and no businesses) saying there was nothing to do. The local libs and media had a hissy fit, how dare you trash a Blue crime ridden city that all the businesses have left, by noticing it.
I’m interested in junior high players
NC State has both teams in Final Fours also.
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