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).
The 2022 WNBA postseason stands as the most-viewed since 2007, even with three of the four WNBA Finals contests going up against NFL games.
justwomenssports.com
Women’s college basketball just had its most-viewed regular season on ESPN in eight years, continuing a viewership surge for women’s sports.
justwomenssports.com
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.