The Bill Simmons Podcast
The Bill Simmons Podcast suggested that having to remember WNBA team names has been a factor in the league’s struggle to expand its audience.
During the recent episode, sportswriter Ethan Strauss floated the idea of giving WNBA teams the same names as their NBA counterparts. It would be similar to the format used in colleges — LSU’s men’s teams are known as the Tigers while the women’s teams are named the Lady Tigers.
“The one thing they should’ve done — and maybe there’s still time to do it — that they didn’t do from the outset is just use the same team names,” Strauss said. “Like, why force people to learn about the Fever? Why not just have the ‘W Pacers’? I think that makes it so much easier to just resonate and cut across.”
Ethan Strauss thinks WNBA teams should be called like the “W Pacers” bc it’s too hard to learn the name Fever and Bill agrees pic.twitter.com/gIg8OdI6MO
— Paternity Riley (@lesterfreamon) May 8, 2024
The suggestion did not go over well online.
I’m all for welcoming new fans to women’s sports but the guys who wanna change names, lower rims & relate everything to men’s sports can kick rocks.
Women’s sports are their own awesome thing (with their own team names!). Get on board or don’t, just don’t get in the way. https://t.co/HQ9mmmvSJV
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) May 8, 2024
Well, that’s just a moronic thought. https://t.co/TU0QoS5O4u
— Chris Carlin (@ChrisCarlin) May 8, 2024
fever, sky, aces – all very difficult words to learn https://t.co/frhUCgSFmE
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) May 8, 2024
it’s honestly incredible that two men who have spent their entire careers overwriting about basketball by many thousands of words can claim to not have the ability to remember 12 additional nouns https://t.co/2UubXJ9jGv
— Emma Carmichael (@emmacargo) May 8, 2024
maybe the worst 20 second audio clip i’ve ever heard? https://t.co/SbLbFSQ5E6
— Jordan Zirm (@JordanZirm) May 8, 2024
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