New York – Caitlin Clark and Indiana’s fever will face Angel Reese and Cielo de Chicago during the star schedule to give birth to the inaugural week of WNBA rivals in August.
Other games will include two between New York and Minnesota in a rematch of the WNBA finals; A confrontation of Projected draft pection No. 1 Paige Bueckers and Dallas against Clark fever; and Brittney Griner de Atlanta in front of his former Phoenix squad.
The week will be sponsored by Ally Financial, a new partner for the league this season.
“It can have a great association, but you must also have a great activation,” said the WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, in a Zoom interview. “There will be a complete list of games that week and that will be a great part of activation.”
The games of the rival week will be transmitted in a variety of networks, starting with the star schedule game between Faver and Sky in CBS on August 9.
“The moment of that week is fundamental, because in August you begin to make that dripoff impulse,” said Engelbert. “Therefore, it would be great to have those clashes during that period to boost that playoffs push to September and crown a champion in October.”
The NBA has had a rival week for three years.
Engelbert has mentioned in the past how important the rivalries can be to grow sport. The League began the Cup of the Commissioner in 2021 and that season tournament has helped generate rivalries between New York and Las Vegas, as well as freedom and Lynx in recent seasons.
“Having two teams that only compete extremely hard every time they coincide and every time you look is a great basketball,” Bueckers said. “So I think it was a perfect opportunity to start that: there are many great rivalries in the League.
This is not Ally’s first foray into female basketball. He was one of the inaugural partners with the unmatched League 3 against 3 that ended his first season last month. The conversations with the WNBA started years before they emerged unmatchedly.
“What Cathy and his team have done with the League, the cultural currency of the players, the connectivity of the media, the entire ecosystem, is simply phenomenal,” said Andrea Brimmer, Marketing director at Ally Financial. “For me it is the kind of crown jewel of what is happening in the women’s sports space.”
Ally has made it a mission to grant the same advertising dollars to the sports of men and women.
“This very intentional approach in women’s sports has been something that has not only been words, but also the works behind this,” Brimmer said. “The ability to appear as the new WNBA sponsor for us is to add another jewel to the family.”
Ally also signed Bueckers, the UConn star, for an approval agreement. The company already has agreements with the WNBA players Breanna Stewart and Sydney Colson.
“Associating with Ally is more than just banking: it is about people to work more intelligently,” Bueckers said. “As a athlete, I have learned that success is not only about the game you play, but of the opportunity and resources to which you have access.”
Brimmer said Bueckers is not just a brand ambassador, she is also an online customer.
“She uses the product and has a lot of passion around financial education and financial education,” Brimmer said.
___
