A welcoming bandwagon: New and lifelong Lynx fans rally for team, community in WNBA semifinals

Allison Broeren was never a sports fan, but she’s found community in the Lynx.

“I wasn’t very athletic as a kid. I’m an artist, and so sports weren’t really my thing, but everyone was just so welcoming ... so full of joy,” Broeren said at Sunday’s Lynx game, donning a giant pink bow, sequin dress and handmade purse made out of a basketball. “The world’s hard, and to get to come here for a couple hours and just celebrate with the community around us is so special.”

As the team competes in the WNBA playoff semifinals against the Phoenix Mercury this week, fans new and old are flocking to Target Center to cheer on a team that represents more than just a game.

This is Broeren’s second season following the Lynx. Broeren and her husband, Marlow, like to sit courtside at Target Center, where they’ve formed bonds with other fans, who taught the basketball newbies the rules of the game and even connected with players’ parents. Broeren, 44, said she’s been to dinner with Lynx guard Natisha Hiedeman’s father. She chatted with him after Sunday’s game.

It’s that access and feeling of a family where everyone is welcome that keeps the Lynx fan base growing each season.

“I’ve never been to a more diverse or inclusive crowd at any concert, any sporting event of any kind,“ said Justin Vernon, the Grammy-award winning frontman of Bon Iver who launched a philanthropic partnership with the Lynx this season.

“There’s so much love in the crowd. There’s love for the team. There’s love for the players, and there’s love for everybody else. And nobody looks like each other, there’s every walk of life in this building. And I just think that’s part of why I keep coming back.“

“They didn’t need much convincing,” he said.

Vernon’s “2 A Billion” campaign pledged $250,000 in grants to 10 local nonprofits focused on gender equity, youth empowerment and domestic violence prevention. He joined Hiedeman this summer to host a conversation and skills session with girls from She Rock She Rock, a local music nonprofit.

“I always say we show the world what’s possible,” said Carley Knox, president of business operations for the Lynx. “It’s so beautiful when you look around at a Lynx game, the diversity and the love. ... It’s really part of this larger movement that our fans are a part of as well. I think we have so many fans that aren’t necessarily basketball fans that are fans of this larger movement in terms of our commitment for societal change.”

Knox said the Lynx were the first sports franchise to wear Black Lives Matter on warm-up shirts. The Lynx team champions marriage equality and fights for marginalized groups, she said. Fans take notice and have been quick to hop aboard the Lynx bandwagon, Knox said.

“It’s really cool to see, like, the queer community here and represented,” said Lynx fan Aidan Kraus, of Minneapolis.

“When everything else might feel kind of bleak, I know that my crew is gonna be here,” Kraus said. “We’re gonna have a good time. Also, shout out, StudBudz.”

“StudBudz” is a now-viral Twitch channel launched by Hiedeman and teammate Courtney Williams. They have matching pink hair, so it’s common to see fans in pink wigs.

Hannah Luedoble, 38, of Minneapolis, has followed the Lynx her whole life, but this year she and her wife, Tess, purchased season tickets.

“I think that since the WNBA has just gotten more attention over the last couple of years, the energy in the league has really been reinvigorated, and it’s bringing in new fans, and it’s just a lot of fun that it’s gotten a little bit more mainstream, and it’s being consumed by even more people,” Luedoble said.

Being queer and a woman of color, Lynx games have felt “like a very safe place to be,” Luedoble said.

“You have the Frost [women’s hockey team] that won two championships, and you have the Lynx that have four going on five, so you got to back them up,” Luedoble said. “You got to support them.”

Kelly Griffiths, 57, has traveled to many home Lynx games from Duluth with her parents during the last 20 years. She uses a wheelchair due to a spinal injury and relies on oxygen tanks. She said she goes through 100 tanks a month during Lynx seasons, undeterred by any barrier to cheer on her favorite team.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said.

And as a lifelong Lynx fan, she knows the team has won championships in odd-numbered years (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017).

Asked about how she’s feeling about 2025, Griffiths had no doubt.