FOIA requests received by federal agencies

The number of FOIA requests received by federal agencies and WNBA average game attendance have, between 2017 and 2024, risen together at a correlation of 0.919. Americans are asking the government for more information and attending more women's basketball games, which is either a civic golden age or a trick of the spreadsheet. Probably both.

FOIA requests to federal agencies grew from around 800,000 in 2017 to over 1.5 million by 2024, driven by increased public interest, journalist usage, and some institutional backlog effects. WNBA average attendance climbed from around 7,700 in 2017 to over 9,800 by 2024, powered by generational talents like A'ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark, plus growing investment in women's sports broadcasting. Both trends reflect the same broad societal engagement expansion: public-record transparency demand and previously-underinvested sports leagues both scaling up across the same seven-year window, for entirely separate reasons.

Seven years of two lines rising together can describe a civic awakening and a sports awakening happening on the same calendar. The request and the tip-off share no cause. They share the decade.