Ashley Joens has been waived from the Dallas Wings roster. The wings ended up signing Odyssey Sims.

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ForbinsAscynt

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The thing about the Wild/I-Cubs/Wolves etc is it’s not a top league. I truly don’t know how WNBA would draw in DSM but I can give my perspective on MLS. As an Ames resident I would try to attend a few games a year if a team existed. With the amount of people now living downtown I would think they could have some sellouts on a Saturday night.
 

Cycsk

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Is it common for WNBA teams to post something like this when they waive someone? Seems like a nice thing to do.
 
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HFCS

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Until more people support women's sports this is how it will be.

I recently saw some highlights of women's 3x3 championship for the first time...I think we may have gone about the entire thing completely wrong when it comes to womens basketball. Wow...that is a REALLY fun sport and format.

If ISU women played that and it looked like the championship I just saw on Youtube I'd probably follow quite a bit closer.

Only negative is it would mean even less spots on college rosters. For pro rosters it might mean more spots since I think it would be a much more viable pro sport with bigger crowds and more teams.
 
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crs8975

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I'll disagree about the Barnstormers.

They drew 9-11K at Vets, 9K at WFA when they came back 7-8 years later as an AF2 team, then 7.5-9K in the second AF1 stint (2010-14).

Now, they're a bad team in a 3rd/4th-tier league, with no local-interest players (former Iowa/ISU/UNI guys). And as a result, WFA is a ghost town. I'm not even certain they report attendance figures for their games anymore.
Ah yes. Sorry I meant more recently. The Vet was always packed back in the day. Loved seeing them play there the couple times my parents took me.
 

Urbandale2013

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The thing about the Wild/I-Cubs/Wolves etc is it’s not a top league. I truly don’t know how WNBA would draw in DSM but I can give my perspective on MLS. As an Ames resident I would try to attend a few games a year if a team existed. With the amount of people now living downtown I would think they could have some sellouts on a Saturday night.
They aren’t top leagues and frankly show no real interest in playing well. Some of that is on their parent teams and how they utilize the lower leagues.

If the team doesn’t care about winning why should fans care. The Wild are better with that but hockey is a lower tier sport for most people.
 
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LivntheCyLife

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I could see the MLS doing well. But take a look at the teams Des Moines has now and how bad attendance is. The Iowa Wild are a legit affiliate of a fairly close NHL team and avg 6K fans a game. The barnstormers attendance wasn't anything great nor was the Iowa Energy (or whatever they call themselves now).

The Iowa Wild are 12 out of 32 teams in the AHL. And the Iowa Wolves are 2 out of 30 G League teams. For a market the size of the Des Moines, that's a pretty impressive showing. Bottom line is the trend in minor league live sports attendance is not great anywhere.

I'll admit these aren't the most legit sources but seem unlikely to me to be wrong:

 

egunzy

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Until more people support women's sports this is how it will be.
This definitely sucks for Ashley.

There might be not much growth left in women's sports. I love Cyclone WBB but I have never watched a single minute of WNBA game. Before I get berated please realize I also don't watch the NBA either. I prefer men's college basketball. All that said there just is not the demand for WNBAS and I highly doubt there ever will be.
 

BWRhasnoAC

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This definitely sucks for Ashley.

There might be not much growth left in women's sports. I love Cyclone WBB but I have never watched a single minute of WNBA game. Before I get berated please realize I also don't watch the NBA either. I prefer men's college basketball. All that said there just is not the demand for WNBAS and I highly doubt there ever will be.
Unless more women support it I don't see it growing more. Caitlin Clark could prove me wrong though. I haven't listened to the Title 9 podcast for a few weeks, they usually have a pretty good feel for these kinds of questions.
 

carvers4math

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So sick of all of women’s basketball being about Caitlin Clark. Keith Murphy, who probably didn’t say squat when Ashley was drafted, posts on social media about how shocking it is that she was cut, just to bring out the Caitlin Clark needs to save the WNBA from extinction posts. It’s exhausting and nauseating and makes me, a woman who actually watches a lot of women’s sports, just want to tune it out. Would like to watch Arike Ogunbowale without hearing about freaking Caitlin Clark.
 

mj4cy

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It’s sad but the league doesn’t pay much, she might net out better financially teaching and coaching.

She could easily teach and run camps/do private sessions and be just fine. So cool she made it to the top level in her craft. I couldn't be prouder to have her as a fellow Cyclone Alum. She's exactly what makes this place special.
 

somecyguy

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She could easily teach and run camps/do private sessions and be just fine. So cool she made it to the top level in her craft. I couldn't be prouder to have her as a fellow Cyclone Alum. She's exactly what makes this place special.

She'd be crazy not to play in Europe for a few years. Even WNBA "stars" play in Europe because they can make so much more money.
 
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madguy30

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So sick of all of women’s basketball being about Caitlin Clark. Keith Murphy, who probably didn’t say squat when Ashley was drafted, posts on social media about how shocking it is that she was cut, just to bring out the Caitlin Clark needs to save the WNBA from extinction posts. It’s exhausting and nauseating and makes me, a woman who actually watches a lot of women’s sports, just want to tune it out. Would like to watch Arike Ogunbowale without hearing about freaking Caitlin Clark.

Caitlin Clark won't save the WNBA.

It's really too bad that folks like Murphy throw that kind of thing out there.
 

BoxsterCy

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She'd be crazy not to play in Europe for a few years. Even WNBA "stars" play in Europe because they can make so much more money.

Only the top tier WNBA players get really good money overseas. As closer to #150 she's not going to get paid much but might be fun or an interesting experience if she wants to pursue it. She can certainly get some advice from Bridget as they are sort of on the same tier and Carleton has played in Australia and Europe.

Read some of Chelsea Poppens old blogs if your interested in what it is really like for lower tier players as opposed to the queen treatment Russian oligarchs where giving the Sue Bird set before that sort of blew up.
 

MJ271

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Even she won't be enough of a difference to make the WNBA relevant. It's doomed to always lose money. It will be blamed on all kinds of silly stuff when it's really about the product.
This seems like a harsh take. The WNBA did have it's best season for viewership in quite a while, as did women's college basketball (even beyond Clark).

I think it's important to remember how young the WNBA is. If we were judging the NFL or NBA 27 years into their existence, would we imagine they could ever turn into what they are today? And those leagues didn't have the competition for viewership that the WNBA faces today. I doubt that the WNBA will ever be on the same level as the Big 4 professional leagues, but it takes time to build up a fanbase that will consistently tune in. And it helps to have recognizable faces to popularize the league. Whether we as Iowa State fans like it or not, Caitlin Clark can be one of those faces.


Back to Joens, it's really disappointing that the WNBA is so concentrated with talent that even someone like Joens can't stick on a roster or get enough playing time to really get a shot. I know expansion might be financially infeasible, but I feel like it would have the potential to help the league's popularity, as more college fans would hang on as their favorite players enter the league. When only a few players are able to make an immediate impact in the league each year (as is the case now), there aren't going to be a lot of college fans who will go out of their way to keep up closely with their favorite players who have to fight to get the last bench spot and might get a few minutes one out of every three games.
 
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