The Mahomes and Tatum affect: Sandy Brondello’s on a mission to make women’s basketball a global powerhouse
Sandy Brondello is content where she is: trying to give the WNBA the biggest spotlight she can, and she’s joined by NBA and NFL champions in chasing global domination.
Sandy Brondello’s mission to help the WNBA become a global force has been boosted with two of America’s biggest stars looking to invest in the booming league as owners of new franchises.
Boston Celtics champion Jayson Tatum is reportedly willing to make a $US200 million bid for a WNBA team in his hometown of St. Louis.
Fresh from securing the NBA’s largest contract in history - $US304 million over five years – Tatum is keen to contribute to the rise of women’s hoops.
The Boston superstar’s interest comes just weeks after the NFL’s biggest name – three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes – declared his desire to bring a WNBA franchise to Kansas City.
The Chiefs quarterback said a women’s basketball team was a logical step for his ownership group, NWSL’s Kansas City Current.
“We want to get basketball to Kansas City in general and then WNBA. The success that they’ve had this last season and these last few seasons, it’s kind of a no-brainer,” Mahomes said.
Brondello has the resume to earn big bucks coaching in the NBA, but insists she’ll never take her talents to the world’s best men’s league.
“Because I’m exactly where I want to be,” Brondello declared.
It’s a lifelong mission that started for Brondello on a makeshift grass court on her family’s sugar cane farm near Mackay in North Queensland.
Now after having a front-row seat to the WNBA’s most successful season as the New York Liberty’s championship-winning coach, her drive to see women’s hoops reach even greater heights has intensified.
“Women’s basketball through the WNBA has become a movement and I want to be a part of its continued success,” Brondello said.
“This is the strongest the WNBA has ever been. I think the talent just continues to get better and better and it is going to continue in that way.
“We’re now talking about expansion, we’ve signed a new TV deal and CBA so it is a really exciting time to be involved in the WNBA.
“I love what I do, so the NBA isn’t something I aspire to do.”
CLARK’S GLOBAL IMPACT:
A major part of the WNBA’s surge in popularity has been the emergence of rookie sensation Caitlin Clark.
The sharpshooter is considered a generational talent who has helped pack out stadiums across America.
In fact, some WNBA teams had to find bigger arenas just to accommodate the crowd’s keen to see the gun guard play.
Clark has also helped the WNBA attract record broadcast ratings, with 1.2 million viewers tuning into the 2024 season, the best in league history.
Across 24 regular-season games, the WNBA had a remarkable 170 per cent increase in viewers compared to the previous season.
Clark’s Indiana Fever also had ESPN’s highest viewing game of the season, with a whopping 2.3 people tuning in for the Fever’s clash against the Chicago Sky.
Brondello feels blessed that she gets the chance to watch Clark dominate in the flesh, even if she caused her New York side all sorts of nightmares on the defensive end.
“Because she is attracting so many eyeballs to women’s basketball,” she said.
“I admired Caitlin with how she handled the attention, but still had that competitive fire and confidence and I love that about her.
“She can back it up with her performances and she doesn’t back down. “Everyone was talking about opposition players roughing her up, but I just think they were playing her hard.
“She is the No. 1 pick and all No. 1 picks get picked on by the older players, but Caitlin’s game, especially post the Olympics, went to another level.
“She is an amazing talent who is going to continue to get better and better.
“It could be quite scary how good she could be.”
THE PURSUIT FOR A PAY RISE:
On the back of stars like Clark who transcend beyond basketball, Brondello has dreams of bigger wages for women’s players.
At present, the average WNBA salary is $150,000 a season.
Brondello knows matching the average salary of an NBA player – roughly $10 million – will take time – but she wants a future where women earn enough that they don’t have to play overseas during the off-season to supplement their pay packet.
“That is the ultimate goal, so they can just focus on their development,” she said.
“The WNBA players do as much work as an NBA player, it’s just our league is 50 years younger, so hopefully in 50 years we will look more like the men.
“It won’t be easy, but the platform is there for women’s basketball to do better and become bigger.”
WHY THE WNBL DESERVES BETTER:
The WNBA may be flying, but on the home front the WNBL needs much needed attention.
Australia’s oldest women’s domestic sporting competition is loaded with world-class talent, but it’s behind the other female sporting codes when it comes to exposure and marketing.
Brondello is determined to see the WNBL return to its rightful place as a domestic force in women’s sport.
“It’s what I’ve been hoping to see for years,” she said.
“Basketball is a global game, the Opals are ranked No. 2 in the world and we have so many household names playing in the best league in the WNBA, but I still don’t think that players back home are getting the recognition they deserve.
“Not everyone knows who these girls are and they should because they are amazing athletes.
“I have a positive mindset that it will happen, we’ve just got to keep chipping away.”
In a boost, Basketball Australia plans to bring a WNBA team to Australia in what could be a major coup for the domestic scene.
Brondello, who led the Opals to a bronze medal at this year’s Paris Olympics, says it would be a significant step for a WNBA side to play Down Under.
“If you can get a WNBA team to Australia that would be amazing,” she said.
“When I talk to people back home, everyone knows who Caitlin Clark is.
“I’ve had so many Australians following the WNBA and reaching out to me, so we are slowly chipping away.
“But if we can get a WNBA team to Australia it would be unbelievable. I think it would be a way to market our great players, but also help to grow the sport in our country.
“It (basketball) deserves to be up there as one of the best women’s sports back home.”
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