AUSTIN (KXAN) — Women’s sports have been shattering glass ceilings over the last few years when it comes to growth, popularity, marketability and viewership.
Texas — and Austin — have plenty of chances to tap into the momentum, especially as the Women’s National Basketball Association, or WNBA, regular season tips off Friday night.
Texas’s only pro women’s basketball team, the Dallas Wings, got the luck of the draw this year with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA draft. That was University of Connecticut star Paige Bueckers. She’s been credited with contributing to the uptick in viewership and marketability that women’s basketball has seen over the last few years.
Bueckers follows in the footsteps of Caitlin Clark, the 2024 top pick in the draft, who broke several records and helped drive a steep increase in the popularity of women’s basketball — known as the “Caitlin Clark Effect.” That effect helped grow the Indiana Fever’s fan base after the team drafted her last year.
With Bueckers, nicknamed “Paige Buckets,” on the roster, Texas’s team has the chance to cash in similarly. Time reported that Wings ticket prices skyrocketed after Bueckers’ selection.
And as the WNBA regular season tips off Friday night, Dallas will host a sold-out home opener at College Park Center in Arlington against the Minnesota Lynx.
The momentum isn’t just growing in Dallas, though. A few hours’ drive southward on Interstate 35, Austin has established itself as a growing hub for women’s athletics.
Most notably, Austin is home to the University of Texas, which has several athletic departments that experience success in their respective sports. The women’s basketball team, for example, made it to the Final Four in the NCAA College Women’s Basketball playoffs.
There’s also an Austin chapter of a social group dedicated to watching women’s basketball.
Socorra, Commissioner of the Women’s Basketball Club Austin, or WBB Club Austin (formerly WNBA Club Austin), started the group last year after hearing about the Denver iteration.
The group is celebrating its one-year anniversary this weekend, in alignment with the WNBA’s first games of the regular season.
“The WBB Club Austin is a social group For Fans, By Fans uniting women’s basketball fans of all levels,” Socorra explained via email. “Starting in Denver in 2023, we’ve grown into a network of chapters, each led by passionate volunteers we call commissioners.”
She said she wanted to watch WNBA games with other people and didn’t believe she was the only person in town who felt that way.
“The WBB Club is important because it gives people a chance to share in their fandom. To make new friends, find community and have a great time together.”
Socorra also added that she’s excited for Bueckers’ slot on the roster in Dallas and thinks it’ll translate to a bigger fanbase in Texas.
“I think Paige coming to Dallas will definitely increase the fanbase in Texas,” she said. “I’m excited to see her play! I’d love it if they came down to Moody Center for a game!”
There has been a push in recent years to bring a WNBA team to Austin, too. Former NCAA champ and Texas Longhorn standout Fran Harris has been behind that push. She told KXAN last year, “I think Austin checks every single box – location, corporate partners, beautiful arena, and best of all, a community that has demonstrated support for women’s basketball.”
Austin also boasts being home to the state’s first women’s sports-centered bar, which opened just months ago. The bar, 1972: ATX Women’s Sports Pub, is located on Guadalupe Street and opened right before March Madness tipped off.
A bar in Houston — SidePeace Sports Bar — also dedicates its screens to women athletes.
Austin is also home to a number of professional, semi-pro, and recreational teams, including the following:
- League One Volleyball Pro (LOVB Austin), a professional indoor women’s volleyball league
- Austin Rise FC, a women-owned semi-professional women’s soccer club
- Austin Valkyries Women’s Rugby
- The Texas Smoke, a Women’s Professional Fastpitch (WPF) softball team
The Wings tip off Friday at 6:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on WNBA League Pass and Fubo TV, and it’ll broadcast on Ion.
