Episode 34 - The Facility Boom, the Playoff Logjam, and Getting the Clowns Out

Cold Open: The Money Behind Women’s Sports

Alex: And so you go back to the nobody watches women’s sports crowd and you gotta say, like, you think that these rich people are investing this type of money on something that’s going to fail?

Welcome to Episode 34

Caitlin: Hi, I’m Caitlin.

Alex: Hi, I’m Alex.

Caitlin: And this is Raising the Game, a women’s sports podcast covering primetime performers, the business behind the athletes and leagues, and what the growth of women’s sports means for the next generation of women’s athletes.

Alex: Episode 34, and we are starting to get down to the wire on some of these seasons that we’re gonna talk about here.

Caitlin: Yeah, I think the W in particular feels like it’s almost at the finish line, but then weird with a FIBA break. And then NWSL, we’ve got like nine or 10 games left for each team. Still a lot to decide in the bottom of the playoff table there. And then just so many other things happening with all different sports. There’s volleyball season starting, and NCAA seasons for soccer and volleyball starting, the Little League World Series, which believe it or not, there’s a girl playing there.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: We’re going to talk about that. So just so many awesome things as per usual.

Alex: Yeah. It’s a good time of the year.

Caitlin: It’s a great time of the year.

Alex: Before we keep going, again, whatever buttons on whatever platforms that you listen to us, watch us on, be sure to click all the good ones. Thumbs up, stars, hearts, subscribe, likes, whatever. It just helps us get out more and we can reach more people, which is always fun.

Caitlin: Always fun. Favorite thing.

Alex: I mean, it’s obvious. Do you wanna take this one?

A Bar of Their Own: Watching the Lynx in a Women’s Sports Bar

Caitlin: Yeah, I’ll start. So I think we’re both wearing our new hats that we got over the weekend. So we had a free night, thank you grandparents for taking our kiddos overnight, and we opted to finally, finally, finally go check out a Minneapolis, Twin Cities all women’s sports bar called A Bar of Their Own. If you live around here, you’ve definitely heard of this bar before, but we hadn’t been able to go and we had wanted to go forever. And so we’re like, okay, the Lynx are playing the Mystics, it’s an away game, this is perfect. Alex messaged them on socials and he’s like, how early do you need to get there? And somebody responded, just like a patron responded. They were like, 90 minutes if you want to guarantee, 60 starts to get tight, and then anything inside 60, you might not be getting a seat.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: So we show up about 75 minutes early.

Alex: Seventy five minutes early.

Caitlin: Oh, and then Jillian, the owner of A Bar of Their Own, who I think now I’ve learned does their social media, she responds and she’s like, oh, it’s not that big of a game. It’ll be fine. Whatever Mark said is great. Right. So we show up about 75, 80 minutes before the game. Standing room only.

Alex: Standing room only.

Caitlin: Yes. And it was fantastic.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: So we spent the evening watching the Lynx game with a bunch of folks who love the Lynx, love women’s basketball, love women’s sports, and surrounded by, like, everywhere you look is an homage to the history of women’s sports across all sports, all types of athletes and coaches and iterations of leagues. And come to find out that all of this stuff gets donated by patrons or people who are supporting their business. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a bar that’s felt more inclusive than this bar, where you’re like, I can show up however the hell I want and no one’s gonna say boo to me.

Alex: We finally got our names called for our seats at like halfway through the third quarter or something like that. And we were just like, well, no, this is way over there. Our friends that we just met are all right here right now. We made friends.

Caitlin: By the bar right here. So we’re just going to stay.

Alex: We’ll give it up.

Caitlin: And it was great. Like I said, I think, you know, especially in the WNBA, we’ve talked and talked more today about how there’s been some maybe disappointment in the lack of focus on all the goodness that’s going on. And this was a true reminder of, like, no. The support and community behind that sport in particular, women’s sports across the board, is alive and well and thriving. So just again, wrap this up with a shout out to A Bar of Their Own. It takes guts to start a business, period. Even more guts to start something like that. They’re doing all the right things. Their staff was great, atmosphere was fantastic. Couldn’t ask for a better place to go watch a ball game.

Alex: Yeah, the only downside is I wish they were closer.

Caitlin: Yeah, but that’s not their fault.

Alex: Yeah, I know. That’s our fault.

Caitlin: All right, so thank you to Jillian and the whole crew over there.

Headlines: Nielsen Viewership, NCAA Attendance Records, and WNBA Playoff Spots

Alex: All right, headlines.

Caitlin: Let’s get into it.

Alex: 28.6 billion minutes of women’s sports were watched in the first half of 2026, an 18% rise year over year.

Caitlin: In case you were wondering if people watch women’s sports. Yes.

Alex: The answer is yes. That was B, billion.

Caitlin: Billion.

Alex: NCAA women’s volleyball and soccer seasons have begun, highlighted so far by 25,433 fans showing up to watch University of Georgia Bulldog soccer at Sanford Stadium.

Caitlin: Yeah, so this is cool. The Dawgs won over James Madison University six to zero. But this sets the D1 attendance record for men’s and or women’s, beating records that were set back in the nineties, so like it hasn’t been done in 30 years, basically. But also a little nugget of history, this is the site of the 1996 women’s gold medal game where Team USA won their gold medal in those 1996 Atlanta Games.

Alex: Very cool.

Caitlin: Yeah.

Alex: All but one WNBA playoff spot remains after last week, with Atlanta, New York, Indiana, and Washington locking up their spots, with Dallas and Portland remaining as contenders for that final berth.

Caitlin: Yes. And I actually was thinking about this. I feel like at the time of recording, perhaps the Valkyries had also not clinched, but they also have clinched. So still the same, but just realizing maybe they’re not in the list there. We are going to talk all about playoff implications in our W segment.

Nneka Ogwumike Announces Her Retirement

Alex: Nneka Ogwumike announces her retirement from the WNBA at the end of the season after a 15 year career in the league.

Caitlin: What did you start last week? Like claps or snaps? Like, thank you, Madam President. We call her Madam President. She spent 10 of those 15 years leading the players association for the W. There were two historic CBAs in that time. So we talk a lot about the one that was just signed, but she was also instrumental in the one signed in 2019. Just a quick rundown of Nneka’s accolades: number one overall pick in 2012, she was the 2012 Rookie of the Year, 2016 WNBA champion and league MVP, 11 time WNBA All-Star, all time leading scorer for her franchise, eight All-WNBA selections, could get a ninth. This season is not quite over yet, those honors haven’t been delivered. She is the only player to win the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award four times. And she was named to the W25, which recognizes the 25 greatest players in W history at their 25th anniversary. So you want to talk about a legacy that this woman is leaving.

And the other thing I want to say about Nneka is I’ve heard some folks in the sports ecosphere saying next commissioner.

Alex: Oh, here we go.

Caitlin: And first of all, Nneka has done enough. Nneka can go do whatever Nneka wants to do. But the woman is brilliant, right? She has had an illustrious career we just highlighted. She has done a fantastic job of leading through. Has the trust of the players, understands the ins and outs. And I have a philosophy where, like, if you surround yourself with the right people, you get people who can help grow the business and things like that. You’re just kind of helping to lead that.

Alex: Yep.

Caitlin: Who knows?

Alex: It’d be interesting. I thought you’d be like, she’s done with the WNBA, but she’s gonna do Unrivaled or something.

Caitlin: No, that would have been sweet. The other rumor I have heard though is like, maybe not commissioner, but does she join an ownership group?

Alex: Franchise.

Caitlin: Yeah, right. I think she’d be great wherever she goes.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Said super smart, fantastic human being. So all the best, Nneka. Thank you for everything.

San Francisco Lands the 2027 WNBA All-Star Game

Alex: Yeah. San Francisco named as host to the 2027 WNBA All-Star Game and festivities.

Caitlin: This is so unprecedented for such a relatively young team. So next season will be their third season in the WNBA. But there’s definitely a reason they’re picking this market. So in 2025, they earned 70 million in revenue, which led the WNBA. They had 20 million in sponsorship revenue, 10,000 season tickets sold both seasons so far. And they sell out every game, 42 straight home sellouts. I think I talked about it in an early episode, we were talking about attendance figures and there’s this nice website that shows attendance high, attendance low, and attendance average, and the Valkyries’ number is just the same because it’s 18,000 in whatever their capacity is, because their average attendance is their sellout attendance.

Alex: Yeah. And I mean, I think we talked about the PWHL expansion, that whole Bay Area is just like a hotbed for women’s sports right now.

Caitlin: That and Portland, I feel like, are just nuts for women’s sports.

PWHL Ownership Questions and a Late Start to the Season

Alex: A PWHL league spokesperson said that there is absolutely no expected change to ownership of the PWHL as questions swirl amidst an SEC investigation into majority owner Mark Walter.

Caitlin: Yeah, I read a little bit later on that there was actually Stan Kasten, who was on the advisory board, who said there’s no disruption expected. We’re not selling this. This isn’t an offload like he’s done with Chelsea and the Lakers and things like that. But it was also announced last week that training camps will start just 48 hours after the world championships in Denmark. So the players who are playing turn around and try out. So that’s fun. But late start this season to the PWHL. November 18th is when those training camps start, with, I think, two weeks before. So right around late, right after Christmas.

Alex: Right after Christmas.

Caitlin: Yeah.

NWSL Match Week 18 and the Playoff Race

Alex: NWSL completes match week 18 as Gotham refuses to lose, Washington’s August woes continue, and the last few playoff spots are up for grabs.

Caitlin: Yeah, so the Spirit haven’t won. I got that right. Look at that. The Spirit hasn’t won since July 29th. So they have lost or tied all their games in August. And then Gotham is on a nine game unbeaten streak. And I can’t quite remember, was Utah’s 10 before they lost? Or did it go a little longer than that?

Alex: I think they maybe went to 13. I can’t quite remember.

Caitlin: But I was like, nine’s long. And then we’ll talk about this in our segment, but eight through 11 in the standings right now are separated by two points.

Alex: Geez. Yeah, that’s insane.

Caitlin: It’s going to be a battle.

Tobin Heath’s Jersey Retirement in Portland

Alex: Tobin Heath has her jersey retired by the Portland Thorns, where she began her career 13 years ago.

Caitlin: Another one. I have to say thank you to Tobin Heath. Really changed a lot about how we think about what women’s footballers are capable of. Her footwork was, yeah. There was nobody who held a candle to her at the time in the women’s game. A few notes on her accolades, since we’re doing this today: two time World Cup champion, two time NWSL champion, two time Olympic gold medalist, two time CONCACAF women’s champion, 2016 U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year, 2016 NWSL Shield winner, 2013 NWSL Championship MVP, and a 2026 National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee.

Alex: Wild.

Caitlin: Yes. So well deserved rest. It was cool, Portland actually set an attendance record for this game over the weekend, over 22,000 fans showed up. Tobin signed a one-day contract to technically be rostered with the Thorns when she retired, because she was on the Reign, I believe, when she ended her play, and she started her career with the Thorns. So she wanted to end as a Thorn.

The 2027 Women’s World Cup Schedule Is Out

Alex: The 2027 Women’s World Cup schedule has been released.

Caitlin: Yes, group stages will run next year, so mark your calendars now, starting June 24th through July 8th. And then you’ll have round of 16 play following that, July 10th through the 13th. Quarterfinals, July 16th and 17th. Semis, July 20th through the 21st. And the final on Sunday, July 25th. Rio de Janeiro is host to the most games, including the opener and the final. And Sao Paulo and Fortaleza are the other two most used host cities.

Alex: We should get some like prime time games. Later in the day.

Caitlin: Because they’re going to be either maybe a little bit Eastern or Central.

Alex: So we don’t have to start drinking at 8 AM.

Caitlin: No. That was rough. Even like, was it, no, Paris was 2019.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Where the hell was 2023? Why can’t I think of that?

Alex: Australia. Yeah, Australia.

Caitlin: I think it was, right? Am I?

Alex: I don’t remember.

Caitlin: I got to look this up while you’re, you look that up.

Alex: You look that up, I’ll go ahead and make a nice headline.

WPBL Standings and League Leaders

Alex: Just a few weeks left in WPBL regular season play, and the San Francisco Fire Bells lead the standings with a six and four record.

Caitlin: Australia.

Alex: I wasn’t crazy. You were right.

Caitlin: Australia and New Zealand, okay. Because the time was so weird.

Alex: I’m going to clip that headline and you saying Australia.

Caitlin: All right. In the WPBL, as Alex just mentioned, all teams, just keep in mind, there’s four teams, so all of those teams will advance to postseason play, but the records determine the seeding. So a couple quick highlights. We’ve seen some cool highlights of homers, some great field play, grand slams. But Benitez leads the league with a .658 batting average, and the league right now has eight players batting .500 or above, which is pretty cool. And then Benitez and Kelsi Whitmore are tied for the home run lead with eight apiece, which is pretty cool. So some great hitting out there. It was a little harder for me to parse out the pitching, because it seems like a lot of players pitch and field, which makes sense, I think, at this stage. But fun to watch, fun to watch for sure.

Coco Gauff Wins Cincinnati, and the Williams Sisters at the US Open

Alex: Coco Gauff wins the Cincinnati Open, defeating fellow American Jessica Pegula six two, six four.

Caitlin: Six two, six four. This is Gauff’s second Cincinnati Open championship in the Open era. Second, and tied now with Sabalenka and Serena for two titles at Cincinnati. Sabalenka lost again, kind of unexpectedly. And so this is like the third or fourth one so far this season. I’m wondering, I know in the WTA it’s a points based system ranking, but I’m like, how much is that gap closing on that number one ranking for her?

The Williams sisters, I think we mentioned this right at the end of last week’s episode, they were playing the doubles and they ended up losing that. But they had fun and it wasn’t about winning. As Serena says, she doesn’t need to win anymore. I did see a lot of clips of Gauff and Pegula’s semifinal matches that were just, there were some insane rallies and points. So if you’re interested in tennis and want to go see some awesome play, I would go look those up. And now we look ahead to the US Open, which is going to wrap up the kind of series until the end of the year. Venus did get a single wild card, and then Serena is teaming up with Carlos Alcaraz in the mixed doubles and they have gotten a wild card there. So that will be fun to watch.

Miyu Yamashita’s Record-Tying Win at the CPKC Women’s Open

Alex: That will be fun. Miyu Yamashita wins the CPKC Women’s Open by nine shots and ties the LPGA’s 72-hole scoring record.

Caitlin: I don’t feel like Alex read that with enough hype in his voice.

Alex: Well, I was trying to get the name, the acronyms, all of that.

Caitlin: She won by nine shots. Okay. So she scored a minus 23, like 23 under par in the overall tournament, which was that scoring record. And her rounds went like this. So she was eight under, then 14 under from there, so went six under in her next round, then 19 under, so went five under in her next round, and then 23 under, so went four under. That is…

Alex: That’s insane.

Caitlin: Like you must’ve just been on every single shot.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Every single shot. So good for Yamashita, fun to see.

Major League Volleyball Expands for 2027

Alex: Major League Volleyball announces an updated schedule format and conference structure as they prepare for the upcoming 2027 season.

Caitlin: Yeah, so they’ve expanded, right? We got a new team here in Minnesota. They kind of unveiled their branding, which looks really, really cool. The league now comprises of 12 teams, two conferences, an East and a West. They’ll play 156 total matches over the course of the season. And that schedule is supposedly set to drop coming soon. I haven’t seen much on LOVB yet, because we also have that. So you’ve got this kind of competing leagues, and we’re getting a team in that.

Alex: Yeah, we are.

Caitlin: Lots of volleyball to be watching this fall.

Alex: There is.

NWSL Playoff Table: Who’s In, Who’s Fighting

Alex: All right, let’s move it on. We got some soccer to talk about. Match week 18.

Caitlin: Yep. So we’re going to talk a little bit about the NWSL, that playoff picture, and then we’re just gonna talk about Portland Thorns, in conjunction with the Portland Fire, opened their massive new training facility over the weekend. And so we wanted to talk a little bit about that and what that kind of investment means for women’s athletes. But back to the table. You wanna take us through the top eight as they stand right now?

Alex: Yeah, we got Gotham with 44 points, Washington with 37, Portland with 37, Utah with 36, San Diego with 36, North Carolina with 33, Kansas City with 31, and Seattle with 28. I’m gonna go through the next: LA with 26, Houston with 26, Orlando with 26.

Caitlin: And then Denver sitting right around the edge at 24. I think it’s safe to say that barring some massive collapse, which could happen, that Gotham is likely to win the Shield, like the regular season, with a seven point lead on Washington. It’s also interesting to me that the point spread between first and, well, even if you look at Washington and Seattle, it’s nine points, right? Three games, three wins, I should say. So we definitely feel like the top five have been pretty locked in for some time now, right? San Diego, Portland, Utah, Washington, Gotham certainly seem to be the top.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely.

Caitlin: Right. And then you’ve kind of had this dance going on between North Carolina, Kansas City, Seattle, LA. And then it was Orlando for a little while, and then it was Denver. Now Houston’s back up there somehow. And so there’s a lot of shuffling going on.

Alex: We’ve seen them shuffle around like multiple spots. And as an example, if Orlando were to win their next game, and I can’t remember who they play, they could go all the way up to eighth on one win.

Caitlin: Right. Yeah.

Angelina Anderson, a Bad Handball Call, and Angel City’s Point Against Gotham

Caitlin: So a couple highlights from last week’s match play, because we actually watched more games.

Alex: Yeah, we finally were able to watch a game each night.

Caitlin: Yeah, which was fun. But I have to call out Angelina Anderson, the goalkeeper for Angel City FC.

Alex: Was that that handball penalty?

Caitlin: Yes. So first of all, she had made like three brilliant run of play saves that honestly, I was surprised she got to them, but she was just able to lay out and stretch. And then Angel City is trying to hang with Gotham, trying to hang with Gotham. They had created a bunch of chances in the game last night. And then Gotham kept showing, like, we have Sam Kerr. We will counter. We have Jordan Dudley. Like, we will counter. Jaedyn Shaw, like, we can score on you in a minute, right? And if you let your guard down.

Now, Angel City’s defense was incredible. Sarah Gorden’s one of my favorite players to watch. She’s so fast and her timing is so good every single time. She definitely had some goal-saving tackles.

But so Angelina Anderson, she made these big saves. There’s, it’s like late in the game, I think five minutes left, trying to cross the ball in. It hits off of Sarah Gorden’s shoulder. It is very clearly off her upper arm, which is not a handball.

Alex: That is not a handball. She didn’t move it in a weird way or unnatural.

Caitlin: And I also, your dad talks about this in the NFL all the time. It’s like, if it takes you more than a minute to look at a clip to try and understand if your call on the field should be overturned, it shouldn’t be overturned. Like you should just go forth and say that call stands. Especially a call like that. I’m sorry. And referees do this, right? Like they have to take into consideration a little bit like a situation.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: She wasn’t trying to hand it. Her arm wasn’t moving towards the ball.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: You can’t give a PK.

Alex: Something we were, when we were at A Bar of Their Own, we were speaking to someone who used to ref a lot of different levels. And one of the things she said is, like, you also have to understand the intent of the rule. And I don’t think in that case her intent was a penalty, right? Like it should not have been a penalty.

Caitlin: But the ball don’t lie. And I genuinely believe that when bad calls are made, that results in usually the penalty taker, excuse me, my gosh, ends up missing. Or in this case, Angelina Anderson makes a brilliant save. So saves the PK, keeps it at a nil-nil. Angel City gets out of there with a point, which is huge against the top team in the league, and keeps them right in ninth, right? Which is two points behind Seattle. So that game was super fun.

And then you’ve got Washington kind of on this slide, right? But props to them on the lead they built up, because the fact that they’re pulling a point here and there, but they’re not winning games, and they’re still able to kind of maintain. Now Portland’s now tied with them.

Breaking Down the Remaining Schedules

Caitlin: But what I think is more interesting is this race at the bottom. And for me, it really starts with North Carolina in that sixth spot. So they’re at 33 points. Then you’ve got, as Alex mentioned before, Kansas City at 31, and then Seattle at 28. So those are your last three in right now. But then it’s three teams with 26 points. So they’re within a game or two.

I don’t think North Carolina is not making the playoffs.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: To be clear. But it is interesting to think about, like, would they bump down, somebody surge? So I went and looked at remaining games, right? Thinking, okay, is there a clue here as to how we think this might play out, or who has a tougher sled than someone else, of these six teams. So the next three out right now are LA, or Angel City FC, Houston, and Orlando.

So North Carolina does have a tough schedule, but they have games against all of the teams right around them. So they’re kind of in the driver’s seat, as far as, you know, you have to go in these games and you’ll be fine, right? Which as an athlete and frankly as a coach, I love that, because you’re just like, great, I’m gonna go take care of this business.

Kansas City has five of their remaining nine games against teams below them in the standings, and they only play one game against a team close to them. That’s North Carolina. So they either are playing top of the table or bottom of the table. Which means they don’t really have games against like Seattle.

Alex: Yeah, whatever. Right.

Caitlin: They’re kind of in a good spot too, assuming they can take care of business against those lower ranked teams right now.

Seattle plays all four teams behind them. So directly behind them in the standings. And only have three potential, like what I call a gimme game, against the bottom three, basically. And those aren’t even gimmes when you think about the parity of the league, right? And so I think they actually have one of the toughest schedules remaining to hold on to that eighth spot. And as you mentioned, the three teams behind them are all tied on 26 points, two points behind. So I think Seattle is gonna have a tough go of it.

LA then will play Denver twice. So Denver’s just outside of that block of three teams.

Alex: They’re only two points behind LA.

Caitlin: Right. They play North Carolina, they play Seattle, and then they have four games of their remaining nine against the bottom four teams. So I think LA, yes, if they can kind of stick with it. I do think that the coaching change there that they had at the World Cup break, I feel like that has added something.

Alex: Yeah, even if you split those four against the bottom four, and then split like the rest.

Caitlin: Then you’ve got Houston. They have a tough sled and they have a really young team too, so you just wonder how are they going to hold up against that challenge. They have to play Portland and Orlando twice. So Portland, top of the table, harder to beat. Orlando right behind them in the standings right now, but you have to win those games, right, to create separation. They still have to play the Spirit. They still have to play Utah. Like you’re just, you’re looking at a really tough slate.

Alex: Yeah, unless they hit their cards or not, I don’t think they’re in.

Caitlin: Right. And then Orlando, even tougher in my opinion. So they have those two games obviously against Houston right before them, but they only have one game remaining against the bottom four teams. So all of the rest of their games are against either teams who are vying for that final eight spot, or up high. Now, depending on when your games against the top teams fall, it’s possible that some of those teams like Gotham may get to a point where they’re resting a lot of their stars, right? It’s a long season. You’re going right into playoffs basically. Maybe you can. Those aren’t exactly games that you’re going to lose, but it’s going to be a bit crazy.

Alex: Yeah, I think, for that last spot.

Caitlin: Yeah, for sure.

The 10-10 Watch and the Golden Boot Race

Caitlin: All right. We had mentioned last week that the 10 and 10 watch is on. So that’s 10 goals, 10 assists. An update to that. So Pietra Tordin of Portland, she’s still sitting on seven goals and nine assists. So I guess kind of the closest in total things she needs, but she needs the right mix. And then you’ve got Trinity Rodman on 10 goals and five assists. And then Cloé Lacasse added an assist to her bag, I believe on a Mina Tanaka goal, who became the Utah Royals all time leading scorer over the weekend. So she’s sitting on six goals and nine assists. So we are keeping our eyes on that. It has never happened before.

Alex: I don’t think Trinity is going to stop scoring goals.

Caitlin: And yeah, I agree. I think we said that last time. I was like, I don’t know if Trin’s going to be, necessarily, especially with where they need to get their form turned around.

All right. And then the Golden Boot race, we have a new leader, ladies and gentlemen. Ashley Sanchez. She got her 13th goal over the weekend on a 107th minute, because they played 17 minutes of stoppage time. It is the latest goal ever scored in NWSL history.

Alex: That’s shocking.

Caitlin: Yeah. And she also scored another goal in that game as well. So she had a brace in that game. So she jumped ahead of Barbra Banda, who’s still sitting on 12. And then you’ve got a three-way tie at 10 between Trinity Rodman, Evelyn Ijeh, and Sophia Wilson, who continues to score. And then Temwa Chawinga just outside of the double digits with nine.

Alex: We kind of expected it, but I mean, Trinity Rodman was kind of a little bit lower. I think even last week we talked about, she’s just been kind of sneaking her way up the ladder a little bit.

Caitlin: Trinity has been on 10 now for a week, maybe before that.

Alex: Yeah, before that, then.

Caitlin: Yeah. She had a stretch of weeks where she scored, I think she had like four goals in like a 10 day span.

Inside the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center in Hillsboro

Caitlin: All right. So that’s it for NWSL standings. We want to pivot a little bit and talk about these facilities investments. So I’ll take us through a quick overview of this new dual team training facility out in Portland. And then Alex has a lot of detail on some of the other investments that have gone towards women’s training facilities. So trying to pull all that together. We’ve touched on a lot of them individually, but with this opening up, we felt like it was a good time to bring it back.

So for the Thorns and the Fire, their training facility is the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center. It is a 100,000 square foot facility, 150 million, in Hillsboro, Oregon. Just opened. Backed by RAJ Sports, which is the ownership group behind both teams.

Alex: And if you’re new here, this is soccer and basketball combined.

Caitlin: Yes.

Alex: If that was not clear.

Caitlin: Soccer and basketball combined. It is the first training facility in the world built to house two professional women’s sports teams, and teams of two different sports.

So we talked about the size of the facility itself. It’s on a 12-acre campus. And we’ve got, on this campus, two full-size outdoor soccer pitches, one grass, one turf, for the Thorns. You have a 17,000 square foot practice gymnasium featuring two full-size basketball courts for the Fire. There’s a 5,000 square foot strength and performance center, hydrotherapy, cold tubs, saunas, an underwater treadmill, right? They use those a lot coming back off of injury or what have you. Dedicated yoga and Pilates studio, massage and meditation areas, full service dining.

And I actually was reading an article in the New York Times. They were interviewing Karina LeBlanc. Now, Karina LeBlanc played professionally for a long time. She’s a goalkeeper, Canadian international, and she actually was the general manager for the Thorns for a time and then has moved into a leadership role for RAJ Sports. And so she’s now involved in this project, right? And she was saying, it’s so cool, it’s state of the art from a support perspective for these players. She’s like, but the coolest thing to me is that women’s sports are so centered around community, and the idea that a basketball player might see a soccer player in the cafeteria, right, and they can talk about their different experiences. Maybe they’re new to the team, right, and they just want to meet people because they’re new to the area. It kind of expands that community. And you also have just like a group of like-minded people around you, even though it’s a different sport. It kind of takes me back to playing college sports, right? When you’re around other athletes, that kind of rubs off on you. And I really liked that concept a lot. And honestly, after you go through, it’s something I kind of hope to see more of.

Alex: Yeah. I mean, I’ll talk about it here, and some of these too. It’s really cool that they do have private player and family lounges. So it’s not just for the players. The family can have somewhere to go hang out, or just maybe if it’s a four hour game or whatever.

Caitlin: Inclusivity and being like, hey, bring your people here.

The Rest of the Facility Money: Denver, Chicago, Gotham, Atlanta, Columbus, Manchester City

Alex: All right, so I’m just gonna go over a few. We have discussed, I think, most of these, going back to episode three is what I think when I was doing my research. But we’ll talk kind of here about where they are, how big they are, how much money went into them, things like that. So just kind of drive home the point of investment, and that these are not just, we’re throwing up a tent somewhere. It is real investment, really state of the art stuff, like you talked about with that facility.

So the Denver Summit have the CommonSpirit Performance Center in Centennial, Colorado, which we saw, we walked past. 20,000 square feet and opened in June of this year. They put 25 million into that, which honestly is pennies compared to some of the rest of these.

Caitlin: Yeah, and I was like, oh, 150.

Alex: And that place is beautiful.

Caitlin: It’s beautiful.

Alex: From what we saw from the outside.

Caitlin: The building is beautiful, yeah.

Alex: They have two natural grass fields, a natural grass agility zone, and an artificial turf pitch, hydrotherapy, cryotherapy, saunas, massage rooms, light wave and sound therapy spaces.

Caitlin: Oh, cool.

Alex: A state of the art gym, customized elite locker rooms, and onsite medical care provided in partnership with CommonSpirit, their sponsor.

Caitlin: Makes sense.

Alex: Then we have the Chicago Stars, so theirs opens next year.

Caitlin: Yes.

Alex: 45,000 square feet, $30 million plus. Some of these, I think the investments come from a few different places, so they don’t have some of the detail. I think like the local government’s list, sometimes that whole investment’s there. I think it’s, you know, 30 million plus is what they said. Two full-size soccer fields and a goalkeeper specific pitch. Grass, turf.

Caitlin: What is a goalkeeper specific pitch?

Alex: That’s what I was like. Is it just like a semi-circle with a goal? Like, what do we?

Caitlin: I am looking this up. A half field? I don’t know, keep going.

Alex: Grass, turf, a seasonal dome, state-of-the-art gym and recovery spaces, and mindfulness and wellness spaces as well.

Caitlin: Makes sense.

Alex: Yup. Gotham FC, they’re actually moving into and renovating the facility previously used by the New York Red Bulls. By next year, they’re putting $35 million into a renovation.

Caitlin: Okay.

Alex: This place has three grass fields, one of them is heated, and an indoor turf field, a 3,000 square foot gym, hydrotherapy and dedicated recovery spaces, and private player lounges and family areas for staff and players.

Caitlin: Okay. Okay. Are we starting to sense a theme, listeners? There’s some things that we include here that are important.

Alex: For Atlanta, I only was able to pull a little bit off of here. It’s 33 acres, 38,000 square foot facility, opening in 2028, 100 million dollars.

Caitlin: And they’re blank. We’ll spare no expense.

Alex: The only kind of line here I got for data is four full training fields and two half pitches. So five fields.

Caitlin: I wonder too, if it’s being built with that many fields for a national team.

Alex: All of these could be.

Caitlin: But they tend to do, I think, I think U.S. Soccer actually has, they might have even helped with that or something. I feel like I remember reading that. So I might be wrong, but I feel like that’s sticking in the back of my head right now.

Alex: The Columbus NWSL team, a 45,000 square foot, two story facility for $50 million, has two and a half heated fields and three more for academy and community play, coming in 2028.

Caitlin: Wow, okay.

Alex: And then Manchester City women’s team, 17,000 square foot facility opened this past May. 10 million pounds it cost. Hydrotherapy, recovery, a two-story gym, and they have a tailored nutrition canteen and customized player lounges. So I was like, tailored nutrition. They have like private chefs and stuff like that. I’m like, is it by player? Do they do things like, if you’re recovering, this is your meal. If you’re somewhere in your cycle, this is your meal. Like, I wonder how customized that gets. You play this position, you play this position.

Caitlin: Yeah. Versus if you came off the bench or didn’t play, right? All things that we really should be thinking about.

Why the Facility Investment Actually Matters

Caitlin: Yeah, so I think the takeaways here for me are, one, there is a significant amount of money going towards these training facilities. Two, good, because women deserve to have spaces that are for them.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: We’ve talked about that a lot, and I’m sure that some of the customization, whether it’s renovation or modification, what they need, which might be, I think sometimes those community rooms, right? Or maybe there’s ways that they can also support women who have recently had babies, right, coming back. That’s really important too.

Alex: And actually the whole family too. Like having trouble, everyone’s having trouble getting to sleep, we have potentially like a nanny here that can help out, or whatever it needs to be. Like it’s all that different support.

Caitlin: Right. And I think, so there’s a couple of things. One, there’s just a level of professionalization that is going to unlock a whole new layer of possibility for these players, right? Many of, well, not many of them, but up until this point, right, a lot of the experience of being a female athlete is you are second or third tier in the pecking order in the spaces that you use, right?

And so this creates a draw for players to want to go play for these teams. It creates, like I said, kind of that safety. It creates this whole ecosystem to help them perform at their best. And so then we start to talk about not only player safety in the here and now, but longevity, and how much more can we see of the potential that these players have because they have the right tools?

Now, I think that at certain levels in sport, you do need that level of customization you were just talking about with the Man City one. We’ve talked in the past about, we had listened to that interview with one of the New York owners, Clara Wu Tsai. And she had talked about how they want to get training to that level of customization, having spaces like this where they can track. So not only is it great for the players, but when you’re thinking of the trainers and the coaches and all of it, there’s so much data that they can use to really, really tap into that individualized programming that is going to help with the sustainability, the longevity, and the unlocking of that potential.

Alex: I think the interesting thing, I just did some quick math. Just the NWSL training facilities that they have here, not including the Portland one, 240 million over the past couple of years into the next year or two.

Caitlin: Maybe the last three, maybe.

Alex: And so you go back to the nobody watches women’s sports crowd.

Caitlin: Yeah.

Alex: And you gotta say, like, you think that these rich people are investing this type of money on something that’s going to fail?

Caitlin: Yeah, yeah.

Alex: Like, I think it’s just insane that people would think that.

Caitlin: Yeah. Or Kaiser Permanente is willing to put their name on it.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Or the wall of the CommonSpirit, right, or whatever.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Like, yeah, there’s plenty of evidence, right, that women’s sports are a long term investment that you will get return on over time. And I think, actually, to put a finer point on it, it’s like these kinds of facilities to me are indications that these investors believe that this has runway.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely.

Angel Reese’s Big Week and Her Efficiency Jump

Caitlin: So, all right, we’ll use that to shift gears into some W action. So we’re going to kick things off with talking about some amazing performances. This is not an exhaustive list, but this is the list that we wanted to hit on this week.

Alex: So starting off here with Angel Reese.

Caitlin: Man, she was so good last week.

Alex: Against the Mercury, 31 points and 14 rebounds. 31 points and 14 rebounds, people. That’s wild. In the past seven days leading up to this recording, she was averaging 24 points per game, 11 and a third…

Caitlin: That’s gotta be rebounds.

Alex: Oh, sorry, yes. No, sorry, yes, it was rebounds. I wrote the wrong word there. And I put here that the knock has always been efficiency. During this stretch, she shot 67%. And I believe her field goal percentage is up about 5% from two years ago. So she is finding that rhythm and bringing that efficiency up. It’s going to be hard for people to keep knocking her on, hey, she can’t hit the shots.

Caitlin: I think she did have a game where she was perfect from the floor.

Alex: She did. I thought I had written that down here. It does not…

Caitlin: What I find really…

Alex: She was nine for nine in that game.

Caitlin: Yeah. What I find really admirable about Reese herself is her ability to kind of take hits, if you will, focus on her game and getting better. I do think we have seen a very steady trajectory upward since she joined the league in 2024. And that is what I love to see in a player, right? Like you are clearly coachable. You want to get better. She’s in a much better situation for her now than she was with Chicago, right?

And I think just from a microcosm perspective in this last week, right, Atlanta played a really tough game against the Fever. She had a chance to win it on a layup, right, as time expired, and she missed, and they ended up losing in overtime. What did Angel do? Did she sit back and pout and kind of get in on herself, right? Because, oh, I missed the layup, the thing that everyone and their grandmother on the internet rides me for, and even the sports analysts ride me for, and blah, blah, blah. No, she turned around. She had this week, right?

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: So it’s like, she was right there. She makes that layup, that’s a different outcome for her team, right? And she knows that. She frickin’ knows that. She doesn’t need everybody telling her that, right? And the other thing I loved in that moment too, in watching that game in particular, was the way that her teammates rallied around her. Like showed, hey, we love you. We know you’ve got that. Like that was just a fluky thing, right? Not letting that narrative further, like even in her head, of like, oh, I just always miss these, right? And so like that growth, incredible to see.

Awak Kuier and the Wings’ Rim Protection Problem

Caitlin: Speaking of, I don’t even know if it’s growth, but Awak Kuier. The Dallas Wings had a fantastic game against Indiana over the week. And I think what really stood out to me was, the Wings get ripped constantly for their rim protection. They’re just, they are honestly horrible at it. But Awak actually, she was fantastic in this game. And I kind of am starting to see, like, I think they’re figuring out how to do that a little bit better because of her presence.

So against Indiana in particular, using that as the example that really stood out over the last week, Awak had 11 points. She had a couple of really clutch three-pointers in that game. Eight rebounds, four assists, one steal, and seven, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven blocks. Five in the first half.

And honestly, you could see the Fever players, all of them, hesitant to go to the rim, because they’re worried they’re going to get blocked, right? And that’s what that kind of presence, you don’t need somebody getting seven blocks every night, but somebody who can consistently get two or three just makes you think twice about, can I go in for that layup, right?

She shot 50% from the floor, 33% from three in that game. But again, I think it was the psychological element for Dallas and the Fever. So Dallas had 46 points in the paint to the Fever’s 28, and the Fever’s bigs shot under 50% from the floor. Boston only had 14 points. She averages closer to 20, I think 18 or something like that. And then Timpson had 11 points and 12 rebounds. She’s been playing great, honestly.

But really, I think, again, they were more hesitant. You could see Clark more hesitant on her drives. Kelsey Mitchell’s never gonna be hesitant. There’s no stopping that woman. But I think that was just huge. And that was, again, it’s like that timing too. We’ve talked about with Meme, a Coffey. You get it at the right time and it just shifts the whole momentum.

Alex: Yeah.

Natasha Cloud’s Career Night and Sydney Taylor’s Second Buzzer Beater

Alex: All right, let’s talk about Natasha Cloud. She dropped 35 against the Liberty with nine rebounds, six assists. And I think the interesting thing is Chicago’s, they’re out of it. But she, as she does with many things, stands on business, and she’s like, I’m still gonna play. I’m still gonna play like this is a playoff game and show up. I think I saw that that was the best night of her career. So I guess snaps for her. And then, yeah, I think just, you know, she’s out there doing this and then turning around and letting marginalized people know that she’s always gonna protect them. She’s there for them. And like I said, just always standing on business is just really admirable.

Caitlin: Yeah, I think her leadership is, and again, it’s like the passion, like she’s always in, right? She’s not sitting back. She also is in a position where she’s on this one-year contract with Chicago. So she’s doing a little bit of an audition for herself, excuse me. But you just continue to see that leadership. I mean, just the courage to speak up while those players were being harassed in the game yesterday, which we’ll talk about in a second. You can always turn on Tosh to do that.

So, and I got to call out just another Sky player. Sydney Taylor hit another epic game winning shot over the Golden State. It’s her second game winning shot in August. So she had one right at the beginning of the month over the Aces. Liberty. I can’t, it was much a lot of pass. Yeah, I can’t keep it straight. But I love watching her play. I’ve shouted her out multiple times on the pod. She’s so fun. Undrafted rookie, really coming into her own since being made a starter, excuse me, in the June timeframe.

And I do like, they’ve had so many injuries there in Chicago that it’s hard to really know. Like, I think their season would have been very, very different if a few key pieces could have stayed in the game.

Alex: Or Rekia, yeah. Heartbreaking.

Caitlin: Really changed the trajectory of their season. But honestly, I don’t know if we would have gotten to see Sydney Taylor the way we have if Rekia had stayed healthy. Not that I ever want a player to get injured, but I think it’s awesome that the silver lining there is we do get to see these performances. And obviously hoping Rekia’s recovery journey is going well.

Kelsey Mitchell’s Record Scoring Streak and the MVP Race

Alex: All right, we mentioned her earlier. Kelsey Mitchell’s scoring streak.

Caitlin: You can’t not mention Kelsey Mitchell when you’re talking about highlights.

Alex: Yeah, we have to talk about her every week now. We’ll talk about her all year. 23 games in a row she scored more than 20 points, breaking the old record set by A’ja Wilson.

Caitlin: That’s unreal.

Alex: By three. I think it’s still going.

Caitlin: Yeah, it’s still going. She had 30 last night against the Sky.

Alex: So I think the big thing about this is you say, okay, well, 20 plus points a game, yeah, she’s getting 20, 21, 22. She has two games that have 37 points. I think there was two or three games at 30 points, and then the rest are the majority in that upper 20 range. Like we’re not talking about these 20, 21, 22 point games. It is like she’s blowing it out of the water too. So I think that was super impressive. She’s shooting on an average of 24.3 points a game, 50.7% from the floor, and 44.3% from three.

Caitlin: Yeah, she’s the most efficient three-point shooter for volume three-point shooters in the league right now.

Alex: And I think we talked about this earlier today, like, I think we both kind of agree that A’ja Wilson probably has MVP locked up. I think Kelsey Mitchell’s the only one who’s even close. I think you can talk about like an Olivia Miles or a couple of the other folks in there, but those are the two that are the top two.

Caitlin: I made the face because I don’t think that there’s any other folks who should be in the conversation. Like I keep seeing things with including Bueckers and Clark, and I’m like, I just don’t. Like Paige is on a team that’s in eighth place. That’s just not, she’s had a great year, and it kind of has tapered a little, honestly. She had a great game over the weekend, by the way. She had, what did she, set like some record for the threes made in a quarter or something like that? Maybe it was a Dallas record or something. But not an MVP caliber season. And then Clark isn’t the best, she’s not even the best player on her team. Like, I don’t know, it’s just not a, it’s just really silly.

So I think you’re right. I think it’s between A’ja and Kelsey. And yeah, I think you can have Liv in that conversation. It’s just, A’ja Wilson’s the best basketball player in the world. So sorry. Actually, I’m not sorry.

Olivia Miles’s Seven-Nothing Run Against the Mystics

Caitlin: All right. And then speaking of Olivia Miles, we just had to shout out this mini seven-nothing run that she went on at the beginning of the Mystics game on Friday.

So she scored a layup. Then Washington’s going to inbound the ball, and she just like steals the inbound pass, scores a layup. And then they come down the floor and they’re working their offense. They kind of do a little bit of a swing pass. This girl starts to go drive. She kind of turns inside and then she goes to turn baseline, and Liv is right there, dribbles up the court, pops at the three point line and drains a three. And so she scored seven points in like 38 seconds or something like that. Which sort of set the tone, I think, for that game for the Lynx.

That was the first game that they haven’t had Phee since she came back. So she was getting some rest ahead of FIBA, which we’ll talk about here in just a second. And they looked okay there. I know there were some injury, like little things that came up. Court didn’t play tonight as a result. And so Cheryl, I do think, has to start to think about managing the minutes of players. Like we 100% should be on our path to a chip, right, this season, but we got to stay healthy.

So anyways, that was fun. The team showed up. Natasha Howard also had a great game there too. She shot 10 of 12 from the floor, had seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks. So fun to see. We love it.

The WNBA Playoff Picture and the New Format

Caitlin: So moving into the playoff picture for the W here, we mentioned in the headlines, all but one spot has been claimed. So yeah, Dallas and Portland, Portland could still get that spot, but that’s gonna come down to a head-to-head matchup between those two teams. And I believe it requires that Dallas loses out the rest of the way and Portland wins out, which is highly unlikely. So I think essentially, I think Dallas plays Portland maybe the day that this…

Alex: Tuesday or Wednesday.

Caitlin: Yeah, I think it might be when this episode comes out. Essentially, you can think about it this way. If Dallas wins, they are in the playoffs, right?

With that being said, we’re now kind of jockeying for home court advantage. So the Lynx, as an example, tonight could have locked up the overall number one seed. They lost to the Valkyries. The Valkyries finally beat us.

Alex: They did. We’re just getting that out of our system now.

Caitlin: But great game by Golden State, honestly. Their hands were so active and we couldn’t buy a bucket to save our lives. So here we are.

And so it’s going to be interesting to see how these teams play, because you’re kind of like we were just saying with Cheryl, it’s like you’re kind of at the point where you don’t necessarily need to win more.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: But you want to win more, because it could change whether or not you have that home court advantage.

And then you have the FIBA break, which is kind of weird, right? Because you’ve got some players that aren’t going to get rest and some players that are going to get a bunch of rest. And so like, how does that impact? And we’ll also talk about FIBA mostly in terms of Team USA, but there’s a whole bunch of international players who are going to be on duty too.

So as a reminder on playoff structure. So in the WNBA, as of last year, I could not find any information on this changing on the standard WNBA website, but the way that it will work is the first round of the playoffs is a best of three series. And you play home, away, home for the top seed, right? Then the second round, you play a best of five series. That’s a home, home, away, away, home, right? And then the third round, this is new this year, they are playing a best of seven series. And that will be a home, home, away, away, home, away, home.

Alex: Okay.

Caitlin: So they’re extending that series. I think that’s great, because I think a three game series is frankly BS.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: That’s stupid. That’s like one kind of off game, and then like you’re now, by the top seed, and then now you’re going to the lower seed’s place. Like, I just think that’s, I get why they do it. I think it’s probably for safety, where they’ve said it’s for safety reasons, but I don’t think this should change that.

Our 2026 WNBA Playoff Predictions

Caitlin: So Alex and I were talking earlier today about our playoff predictions that we’re willing to put out there. So we decided we’d do that now, even without all the playoff spots locked up. So that seems a little ominous. So sorry, Dallas, if this doesn’t go the way you want it to.

So I think you’re going to end up with a seeding roughly like this. So I think Minnesota is going to finish number one. I think Vegas is going to jump the Valkyries for the two spot. Valks helped themselves tonight by getting a win. And then you’d go Vegas, Golden State. Then I’ve got Atlanta, Indiana, New York, Washington, and Dallas. Which is basically the standings right now, minus that Vegas, Golden State switcheroo.

So that would leave our first round as Lynx play the Wings. We would have the Aces play the Mystics. We would have the Valks play the Liberty. And we would have the Fever play the Dream, which I definitely want to see.

Alex: I think the most interesting games are those last two. Valks, Liberty. Fever, Dream.

Caitlin: Yeah. Yeah. I personally think that from there, the Lynx will win. They will beat the Wings in two. And that the Dream will beat the Fever. I don’t care which way those are seated. I just think the Dream will beat the Fever.

So you’re gonna have then, and then I think the Aces will beat the Mystics. And I think the Liberty will beat the Valkyries. And I say that because I think the Liberty are finally healthy.

Alex: I hope that’s real wood.

Caitlin: I don’t know. We’ll find out, I guess. And I do think that when they are healthy, they are very, very dangerous. And I also think Breanna Stewart is Breanna Stewart, and I just think she’s so difficult to defend. So I think that, because the Valks live and die by the three, they have really good defense, but when they are not able to push the pace by getting steals and rebounds and get out in transition, I just think that that’s a difficult matchup for them.

So then that would leave us with a second round of Lynx play the Dream and the Aces play the Liberty.

Alex: Yeah, that’s right. Okay. I was just thinking about it for a second.

Caitlin: Okay. Coming out of that, I think that the Lynx will beat the Dream. I do think that will be challenging.

Alex: I was going to say, I think that might be one of the toughest series.

Caitlin: Yes, I do think that that’s challenging. It could go to five games, right? But I just have a hard time thinking that anybody can actually beat the Lynx in a multi-game series.

Aces and Liberty, this is where we have some, I think recent events changed this. So actually before, I had had the Aces beating the Liberty. And then NaLyssa Smith of the Aces went down with what looked like a very bad knee injury yesterday, and she is so critical to their success. She’s not as critical as A’ja Wilson, but I don’t even think we understand how much NaLyssa draws attention and creates space for A’ja to score. A’ja can get her own buckets, don’t get me wrong. But I just think that NaLyssa Smith has been very instrumental for them. We’ve watched her, there’s been a couple of games in the recent stretch where A’ja’s not been as efficient in her shooting and NaLyssa has been able to step up and kind of take that on. She’s so physical, she’s so quick. She’s so good at just getting into good positions, rebounding, all of those things.

I think a healthy Liberty beat the Aces without NaLyssa Smith. Now, to be clear, I just want to, yeah, there has been no confirmation, no information about the injury. I am saying this based on speculation from what I saw happen, which was not good.

Alex: I think the interesting part is I think both of those series could go to…

Caitlin: Easily go to five. I think we can see some great basketball in both of those series.

And then that would leave us with the Lynx playing the Liberty for the 2026 championship, which is a rematch of the 2024 championship. And I’ll say it here, Lynx in five.

Alex: Yeah, I think that’s a pretty good prediction. I don’t think anyone’s, this just feels like it’s been inevitable all year. Knock on wood, I hope it is.

Caitlin: Yeah. And we, of course, obviously, are Lynx fans. We want them to win. You can come shout at us about how we were wrong when we maybe are wrong. But I got to manifest.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: I got to manifest.

Alex: We already told the girls we’re going to the parade.

Caitlin: Yeah, they already think they’re getting out of school or something.

Harassment at WNBA Games and the League’s Response

Caitlin: All right, we’re gonna wrap up this section. We’ve got two more things to hit on. We do wanna hit on FIBA, which is coming up. There’s a couple more games for each team this week, and then they go on break for a couple of weeks for that tournament in Berlin.

But before that, we wanted to share our thoughts on some of the recent events in the W just this last week. So for those who may not have heard, I think the summary view would be that there were multiple WNBA games where sex toys were thrown onto the court while players, by men. And then we had the culmination of a particular person who is seeking to draw attention to himself do just that in these women’s place of work, harass the players from the sideline, step onto the court basically, onto the baseline, which is not allowed, and get escorted out. That particular individual is also one of the men who declared himself for the 2027 draft.

Panic unfolds. Just so we’re clear, for the record, there are no trans athletes in the W. There are no trans athletes trying to play in the W. This is not an issue. But it is being made an issue by cis men. Yeah. Because honestly, at the end of the day, that is where the problems lie. That’s what we talked about a few weeks ago.

Alex: Yeah. I mean, it is, and I don’t even know where to start. Like, the point that they’re thinking that they’re proving is not the point they’re proving. If there were trans women in the WNBA, they would not be in the locker rooms to perv on women or prey on women, or be in there to try and be the best player. They’re just trying to be there to be in a space where they think that they belong and…

Caitlin: Where they should belong.

Alex: Where they should belong, right? The people we need to worry about are the people like this person, who say they’re trying to protect women, but all they’re doing is disrupting games, threatening them, doing all these things. So I think it’s just, the dude’s a clown. He’s a complete clown.

Caitlin: This is literally the opposite of protecting women. Like, you espouse to be protecting women’s sports, yet you are showing up and harassing, like I said before, harassing them at their place of work. If you’re some of these other weirdos who are throwing these things on the court, you are making players less safe. You are in a public place with children. You are so concerned about girls being protected. Like, why are we okay with this? Why is this individual who’s causing all of this uproar not speaking out about the sex toys, throwing sex toys on the courts?

Like, all of these men are clowns. They are weird, and they are foolish as hell. And frankly, again, like you said, they are not making the point they think they’re making. In fact, what they are doing is they are strengthening the point of everybody else who speaks out against them, because they are pointing the finger back at themselves to say that I am the problem, I am the reason why women need protection in sport. Period. End of story.

This is a distraction. It is not okay. And we need to speak up against what they are doing, but we also need to make sure that we continue, as we try to focus on the amazing basketball that is being played. And she was like, you know what, she’s like, all of this, whatever extras on the outside of the day to day play, right, and what these players are doing, it’s because you’re doing the right thing. Like, keep going, keep going, right?

And no, we don’t want these types of things happening. This is taking it from online and now it’s coming into the court. Like, now it’s in real life, right?

Another thing that I saw, there was a flagrant foul on Dearica Hamby of the Los Angeles Sparks. We don’t need to debate whether or not that should have been a flagrant, whatever. She got nasty text messages sent to her about, saying racial slurs. Like, you guys, stop it.

And my final word on this.

Alex: Leadership.

Caitlin: Step the F up. These people need to get banned, lifetime bans. You cannot allow this to continue to happen. Your players are unsafe. People feel unsafe going to your games. If you want this to continue to be a space where people want to be, right, playing, coaching, spectating, get these clowns out.

Alex: Yeah. Get them out. 100%. Do something, Cathy.

Caitlin: God, she won’t.

FIBA World Cup Preview: Team USA’s Roster and Group

Caitlin: All right, woo. Wrap it up with a little bit of a FIBA overview. So games for this group play start for Team USA a week from Friday. So when you listen to this, it’ll be a week from Friday.

We never really went through the roster, so we just wanted to highlight that for you. Lots of names that you have heard us say before. And then I have a couple comments on maybe what to watch for.

So for our front court for Team USA, we have A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, Napheesa Collier, Angel Reese, and Breanna Stewart. For our back court, we have Paige Bueckers, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, Rhyne Howard, Kelsey Plum, Kahleah Copper, and Caitlin Clark. Team is led by head coach Kara Lawson and assistant coaches Natalie Nakase, Nate Tibbetts, and Stephanie White.

So almost all of those names that I just mentioned, you’ve heard us talk about in the W. Kara Lawson currently is the head coach for Duke women’s basketball. She’s a legendary player, played Tennessee under Pat Summitt. Natalie Nakase obviously coaches the Golden State Valkyries. One of my favorites, Nate Tibbetts, coaches the Phoenix Mercury. And Stephanie White coaches the Indiana Fever.

What I’m going to find really interesting about this, and Kara Lawson I think in a recent interview said, you know, when we come together as a team, these players are gonna play very different roles than what they play on their W teams, their professional teams. And you can imagine why. Think of the names I just read off. Not everybody here can be a starter. Every single one of these players starts for their pro team. And so I’m going to be really interested to see what roles they do get put in and how they respond to that, right?

I think you’ve obviously got a spoils of riches here from a talent perspective. But how does somebody who is for 30, however many games, we’re almost 40 games at this point, started every single game for their team, adapt to becoming somebody coming off the bench, right? And whoever handles that best are the players we’re gonna see in those knockout rounds later in the tournament.

Alex: It is kind of wild to think, if you’re an opponent, you have to go up against a team that their bench players are starters in like the best league in the world.

Caitlin: Yeah, I don’t envy most teams that are going to be playing us. I will say, I think our group is pretty interesting. So we play China first on September 4th. This game, we were talking about the time difference, this game is at 7:15 AM.

Alex: Okay.

Caitlin: So you can have your coffee, watch a little basketball. All of these are on TNT Sports. China has a lot of height, which I know is not typical, but you think of Han Xu on the Liberty. And I think there’s a few other players who play in other places, but for the Chinese national team. So that’ll be interesting.

You’ve got Italy on the 6th, and that’s a 1:45 PM tip. And then you have the US playing Czechia on the 7th at 1:45. So they’ll wrap up that group play and then they would advance to a quarterfinal, semifinal, final. So it’s pretty quick because it’s single elimination once you get out of the rounds. But we’ll be watching.

What to Watch This Week

Caitlin: Speaking of watching. What to watch.

Alex: Let’s get into what to watch. Thursday at 7 p.m. we have Golden State versus New York Liberty. Saturday at noon on CBS and Paramount Plus, Chicago Sky versus New York Liberty. Sunday at 2 p.m. on NBA TV, I’m sure it’s also Victory or whatever other one. Well, it is Atlanta and Minnesota, they’re both on Victory, so probably be there too. Minnesota versus Atlanta. And then on Sunday, we have the Dallas Wings versus the Connecticut Sun at 7 p.m. on NBC. Depending on how Dallas does on that Tuesday, Wednesday game, they might need this one to get in.

Moving to the NWSL, Portland Thorns versus Gotham FC Friday at 7 p.m. on Prime.

Caitlin: A battle for the top. Well, not quite, but.

Alex: Orlando Pride versus Utah Royals, Saturday at 6 p.m. on NWSL Plus.

Caitlin: Orlando needs that win.

Alex: Yeah, they absolutely need it. Bay FC versus Washington Spirit Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN2.

Caitlin: Maybe the Spirit can get back on track.

Alex: For LPGA, we have the FM Championship Thursday through Sunday. It’s at TPC Boston and it’s on the Golf Channel. I’m gonna just rapid fire these. WPBL on ESPN Select. They’re all at 6:30 p.m. this week. So on Wednesday, you have Boston at Los Angeles. Thursday, Los Angeles at New York. Friday, Boston at San Francisco. Saturday, New York at Los Angeles. And Sunday, New York at San Francisco.

And then we have the Upshot Basketball League, which we have not really talked about. The Jacksonville Waves play the Charlotte Crown for the championship Saturday, 7 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Central on YouTube.

Caitlin: We finally figured out what that was about. It’s like a G League kind of, it’s like a lower tier league where they play. They’re playing full five on five basketball, and actually two players from the Upshot league have been signed to developmental contracts in the W as injuries and things have piled up. So that’s a really cool feeder program to the W, but also a way for players who play in college to prolong their careers. And maybe eventually you can get a look, right? But you can keep working on it. So that’s awesome. Wanted to spotlight that for sure.

Momentum and Setbacks

Alex: All right, momentum and setbacks.

Caitlin: Okay, my setback is NaLyssa Smith’s injury. I kind of harped on this already, but horrible. It did not look good. And I think she’s, I just think we don’t understand what her impact has been. She has been there all season long. And so I do think that that is a huge blow for the Aces. Now they have a ton of talent, but I just, again, I don’t think that we fully appreciate how important she is to them.

Alex: I mean, we just talked about it. All the nonsense happening with these jokers and the WNBA. We could just be talking about basketball, but this happens and we have to talk about it.

Caitlin: It immediately transports me back to being a kid, right? And being told, like, oh, you don’t belong in this space. Like, you don’t get to be an athlete because you’re a girl. Yeah. Like that is, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that feeling, right? That is the message that these men are sending, of like, this is a joke to me, so I’m going to make a mockery of it. And that’s, again, foolish behavior. We have shared so much data that shows that these women absolutely deserve to be in this space and they deserve every ounce of credit that they’re getting. And the fact that some knuckleheads who are missing something in their life…

Alex: Didn’t get enough hugs.

Caitlin: Yeah, really, really sucks. But on the bright side of that, everyone watches women’s sports. Yeah, again, so much data to support that. This is on the rise. Rich people, as you say, are investing millions of dollars into facilities.

Alex: That’s my momentum, is the facility investment. Well, there you go. Like, okay, we’ll just segue right into it. All of this investment is just insane to me. And these aren’t stadiums, these are training facilities. Like, that’s the crazy part. We’re not even talking about those stadiums. Wait till we get to stadiums, because that’ll be crazy.

Caitlin: Right, right. So I think that’s like money where mouth is, right?

Kinley Rasmus at the Little League World Series

Caitlin: My momentum is also talking about a girl who is showing up in a space that I’m sure she’s been told many, many times that she doesn’t belong. And so if you follow any kind of sports highlight type thing, but the Little League World Series in particular, you may have heard the name Kinley Rasmus. There’s a whole history on her dad and her uncle playing Little League and things like that going way, way back. And then they played in MLB.

But she right now is playing for, let’s see, Phenix City, Alabama is where she’s from. She is the 25th girl to play in the Little League World Series all time. But she pitched, let me see if I get this right here, she’s a pitcher, she also plays in the field, strikes out eight and allows one hit over 81 pitches in six shutout innings. This is in a single game. This performance made her the first girl to notch eight strikeouts in a Little League Baseball World Series game since Mo’ne Davis in 2014, who now plays in the WPBL.

And so we see this pipeline, and we now see something like the WPBL where there’s opportunity opening up in all manner of sports for girls like Kinley who can play, hang with the boys, right, and play great baseball. And now she can look ahead and say, I could go play professional ball somewhere, because people are investing in women’s sports.

Alex: 100%.

Caitlin: So, get the clowns out, keep the money coming in. That’s all we want.

Alex: Unfortunately, sometimes with money comes clowns.

Caitlin: We have definitely seen that this year. There’s a lot of clowns coming as the money comes into the W.

Where to Find Us

Alex: All right. Instagram, Threads, YouTube at RTG underscore pod. Website RTGpod.com. Raisingthegamepod at gmail.com.

Caitlin: Like, subscribe, share.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Comment.

Alex: Bye.

Caitlin: Bye.