The WNBA season hasn’t even started yet and the Dream are already benefiting from the Angel Reese trade.
After Atlanta acquired Reese from the Chicago Sky on Monday for two first-round picks, the franchise’s ticket sales have since skyrocketed.
Stubhub revealed Thursday that sales spiked by 15 times last season’s amount, the “largest single day spike in franchise history.”
“The Angel Reese effect is real,” the company wrote in an X post.
Reese is one of the top up-and-coming stars in the WNBA, so the increase isn’t all that surprising.
Atlanta fans and even those not previously interested in the league now have somebody they can easily recognize and instantly becomes one of the best players on the team.
In just two years in the league after being drafted seventh overall in 2024, Reese is averaging a career double-double.
She led the WNBA in rebounds per game in both seasons, with her totals sitting at 13.1 and 12.6, respectively. That makes her career average a whopping 12.9 rebounds per contest.
Reese can score, too. She bumped her scoring to 14.7 points per game last season after posting a 13.6 mark in her rookie year.
But after threats of wanting to move in a “different direction” if the Sky didn’t improve from their last-place ranking in 2025, Chicago shipped her off.
“I’d like to be here for my career, but if things don’t pan out, obviously I might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me,” Reese told the Chicago Tribune.
Reese has been active off the court as well.
She participated in Victoria Secret’s “Season of Strapless” campaign in the offseason. She also has her “Unapologetically Angel” podcast, where she routinely posts videos featuring special guests.
For a team that drew 4,400 fans per game last year in a winning season, acquiring Reese could shoot the Dream to the top of the leaderboard — a similar trend to when Caitlin Clark joined the Indiana Fever after her college stardom — and perhaps make them a title contender.
Atlanta finished first in the Eastern Conference last season with a 30-14 record, the third-best mark in the league. Despite earning a favorable playoff matchup, the Dream were upset in the first round by the Fever.
Reese has the scoring and rebounding ability to steer Atlanta through the postseason in 2026 and avoid another early exit.
And she’ll do it while a horde of fans the team has never seen before cheers her on.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
