Lynx fan’s livestream of preseason game goes viral after WNBA app error

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The Minnesota Lynx hosted the Chicago Sky in a preseason game Friday night at Target Center, which meant the WNBA debut for former LSU star Angel Reese.

The problem? You could only see it if you were in the arena. Due to a WNBA app error, the debuts of Reese and former Iowa star Caitlin Clark with the Indiana Fever were unavailable, sending fans into a social media frenzy. One Lynx fan at the game provided a livestream that did huge numbers in viewership.

The user is identified as “alli”, with a handle of @heyheyitsalli, and her profile picture is of Lynx star Napheesa Collier. Her live stream of the Lynx/Sky game had 100,000 live viewers at one point, and had more than 170,000 views total. By the time the game was over, it had around 200,000 views. By Saturday morning, it had 1.8 million views.

Four minutes into her post-game news conference, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve addressed the issue.

“One, @heyheyalli, we should all send three bucks. Anybody that watched it should send three bucks to the person, I don’t even know who it is,” Reeve said. “What I would say is that the growth is happening so fast, it’s so accelerated, business as usual isn’t going to work anymore. They have to weigh production cost for preseason games. That’s what’s in the way, where are you going to spend your money? Certainly Caitlin’s first game they were going to value, I’m all for that, I get it. It’s not just about Caitlin, there’s general excitement about the WNBA in ways that we haven’t seen before. We have to capitalize on those things.”

It took one Lynx fan to take advantage of the WNBA’s error.