The USA women’s basketball team blew out Japan to open its gold medal bid in the 2024 Olympics; however, not a lot of fans watched A’ja Wilson and Co. destroy their Japanese opponents.

Team USA won against Japan 102-76, with Wilson recording 24 points and 13 rebounds. Breanna Stewart was the Americans’ second-best scorer with 22 points along with eight boards.

Despite the star power featured on the women’s roster, there wasn’t a lot of interest in the contest. In fact, out of the six women’s basketball games played at the Olympics so far, the USA-Japan clash had the lowest attendance with 13,040.

The Serbia-Puerto Rico game was the only other match that drew below 20,000 fans. Still, it’s significantly higher than USA-Japan, with an attendance record of 15,324.

Spain’s battle with China drew the largest crowd with 27,021, followed by Nigeria-Australia with 24,023. Germany vs. Belgium and France vs. Canada had similar attendance numbers at 20,211.

Of course, there are several reasons why the USA’s battle with Japan didn’t generate much interest. As many have commented, it’s possible that fans simply knew the USA would dominate and didn’t bother watching.

There’s also the timing issue. Both the USA-Japan and Serbia-Puerto Rico games were scheduled at 9:00 p.m. local time, while the others were played earlier. Considering that both matches had the lowest attendance among all the games played, the time could have been a huge factor.

United States head coach Cheryl Reeve watches her team’s game against Serbia in first quarter at Sydney SuperDome.

© Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports

Regardless of the attendance, Team USA is in Paris to win gold. Sure enough, they are off to a great start in that regard.

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