April 18, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: WNBA Draft and converting college fans with Aliyah Funschelle
By The Next
What is the best way to turn women's college basketball fans into WNBA fans?
On today’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Gigi Speer is joined by Aliyah Funschelle, a New York City-based sports reporter and content creator. They discuss the WNBA Draft and how the league can go about converting college fans into WNBA fans, and the many ways they could go about accomplishing that.
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As a creator focused on sports, Funschelle spoke about how she handles talking about men’s and women’s leagues: “For me, I’ve always approached it as like, I’m going to post about men’s and women’s the exact same,” Funschelle said. “And I kind of make a joke where I’m like, there’s a lot of people that follow me for my men’s sports coverage and then I just, like, casually dropped all the women’s sports stuff on them. And I have people that tell me that it actually works.”
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“Honestly, I give better treatment to the woman sports, but I don’t want to make it seem like I’m like doing charity work. Like some people, when I first started my career, that’s what they thought I was doing. Like, ‘oh, it’s so nice that you’re posting about women’s sports, like that is so nice.’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s like what I want to do.’ So that’s why my approach is, I approach it the same. I’m not treating it like it’s something that I’m doing as a favor,” she continued.
Funschelle also talked about her process and how she balances folding in new fans and giving long-time fans new and engaging stories or questions to think about.
“My bread and butter is definitely finding like things that people might not know and talking about it. I love like the human side of sports, so like, what are you like off the court? What are you passionate about? Things like that. So I love bringing that, but also, you have to think there’s a lot of people that have never seen these athletes … So I kind of have to balance being introductory … giving them enough context [so] I’m not going on a tangent, but then getting right back into the story. So kind of like finding a balance,” she explained.
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Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.
Speer and Funschelle also discussed more from the floor of the WNBA Draft, Kate Martin‘s surprise appearance, the role of influencers and content creators in the women’s basketball space, and more. Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!
