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INDIANAPOLIS — All signs point to Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark becoming a member of the Indiana Fever Monday night.
The WNBA Draft kicks off in New York Monday, and the Fever have the first overall pick. This is the second straight year the Fever will have the No. 1 pick.
Clark led the Iowa Hawkeyes to the national championship game this season. Now, she’s the consensus top pick in the draft.
The phenom doesn’t just bring 30-foot 3-pointers and elite passing, though. Clark has built a following never before seen in women’s basketball.
“TV viewership of the Final Four was bigger at the women’s final game than the men’s final game,” said Dr. Michael Hicks, an economist at Ball State University.
ESPN’s broadcast of last Sunday’s Iowa-South Carolina contest averaged 18.7 million viewers, becoming the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever. Iowa also broke viewership records in the Elite Eight against LSU and the Final Four versus UConn.
”You don’t have to know anything about it to just watch her play and be dazzled by the 3-point shots, the poise of her,” Hicks said.
Even though Clark hasn’t been drafted by the Fever yet, the team’s ticket sales have skyrocketed. StubHub reports overall sales for Fever tickets on its site are 13 times what they were this time last year.
This is a trend Iowa also saw while Clark was there. A StubHub spokesperson said the number of tickets sold for Iowa’s 2023-24 regular season games eclipsed the total number of tickets sold for all regular season women’s college basketball games in 2022-23.
”This level of hype has not existed before,” Hicks said.
Hicks has studied how superstars impacted cities in the past to try to figure out what Clark’s presence could do for Indianapolis He estimates the Fever will see an additional 26,000 fans this season, with 10,000 coming from outside the state. That would generate a net increase of $2.4 million to the local economy. Hicks added that his numbers are conservative.
”It wouldn’t surprise me if its double or triple that,” Hicks said.
“The Caitlin Clark Effect” is already being felt in downtown Indianapolis. Brent Drescher, the general manager at District Tap, said his restaurant has been full for Clark’s March Madness games. Not a sight they’ve ever seen in years past for women’s basketball.
”A lot more excitement, a lot more engagement,” Drescher said. “Crowds are really loving the games.”
Hicks knows “The Caitlin Clark Effect” will go far beyond Indy. He sees Clark elevating the entire WNBA.
”The sky’s the limit in terms of the excitement around the WNBA over the next several years because of this young woman,” Hicks said.
The Fever have already announced 36 of their 40 games will be played on national TV this year. Opposing teams have even moved home games against the Fever into bigger venues to accommodate more fans wanting to watch.
”What she’s going to do is elevate other players because there are going to be other players that advertisers want to raise up as their version of Caitlin Clark,” Hicks said.
His best comparison for the all the hype surrounding Clark? Taylor Swift.
”The hype around her right now is very like that with Caitlin Clark ,” he said.
And Indianapolis gets to be at the center of it all.
”This is Peyton Manning luck for us,” Hicks said.
The Fever are having a free watch party Monday night for the WNBA Draft. It will start at 5:30 p.m. at Bicentennial Unity Plaza, then doors will open to Gainbridge Fieldhouse at 6:30. The draft starts at 7:30 p.m.
A spokesperson for the Fever told FOX59/CBS4, 10,000 tickets have already been claimed for the watch party.
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