Caitlin Clark, pictured autographing sneakers earlier than the WNBA draft final Monday, helps drive demand for the league’s ticket gross sales and TV protection.
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Caitlin Clark, pictured autographing sneakers earlier than the WNBA draft final Monday, helps drive demand for the league’s ticket gross sales and TV protection.
Adam Starvation/AP
Caitlin Clark will not make her WNBA debut till Could 3, when the Indiana Fever — which chosen her because the first general draft choose final week — play their first preseason sport in Texas.
However Clark is already making an outsized impression on the league, which she joins because the all-time main scorer in school basketball historical past.
Her dominance is credited with bringing extra consideration to the Iowa Hawkeyes and girls’s basketball writ giant — and the “Caitlin Clark Impact” appears poised to proceed on the skilled stage, if early numbers are any indication.
“When Caitlin Clark declared for the WNBA draft, we immediately noticed the Indiana Fever’s common ticket value double,” Laura Correnti, founder and CEO of Deep Blue Sports activities + Leisure, advised Morning Version earlier this month.
“We’re additionally listening to from a few of the totally different groups throughout the WNBA that also they are seeing bumps in ticket gross sales and curiosity by way of close to sellout for when Caitlin Clark involves city.”
Clark’s Fever jersey bought out in most sizes on the Fanatics web site inside an hour of her being chosen in Monday’s draft, in what the retailer says is now the top-selling jersey for any draft choose ever.
And the WNBA plans to indicate 36 of the Fever’s 40 common season video games on its nationwide broadcast and streaming companions, in comparison with 22 final yr, when it completed tenth of 12 groups. It hasn’t had a successful season since 2015.
Demand to see Clark in motion has despatched ticket costs skyrocketing and prompted groups in a number of cities to maneuver their video games to greater venues.
Final week, the Washington Mystics introduced that they are going to be relocating their June 7 sport towards the Indiana Fever from their 4,200-seat dwelling stadium in D.C. to the 20,000 plus-capacity Capital One Enviornment, citing “unprecedented demand.”
It is the second workforce to announce such a transfer in anticipation of Fever frenzy. The Las Vegas Aces have mentioned they are going to transfer their July 2 sport towards Indiana from Michelob Extremely Enviornment to T-Cell Enviornment to accommodate some 8,000 extra followers.
And in Chicago — the place the Sky picked up some excessive draft picks together with Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso — followers are petitioning the workforce to relocate their June and August video games towards the Fever from the Wintrust Enviornment to the bigger United Heart.
“Bigger portions of cheaper seats would enable each Caitlin Clark followers and Chicago Sky followers to get pleasure from an important sport on the unbelievable United Heart,” reads the web petition, which had over 700 signatures as of Monday morning.
The Indiana Fever workforce retailer in Indianapolis shows Caitlin Clark merchandise. Her official jersey has bought out from many on-line retailers.
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Michael Conroy/AP
The Indiana Fever workforce retailer in Indianapolis shows Caitlin Clark merchandise. Her official jersey has bought out from many on-line retailers.
Michael Conroy/AP
The Indiana Fever accounts for the entire WNBA’s prime 10 costliest common season video games this yr, based on information from the ticket website Gametime reported by Forbes.
It says the costliest WNBA sport on the secondary market is Indiana’s July 14 sport towards the Minnesota Lynx, with a median ticket value of $615. The Fever’s June video games towards the Chicago Sky ($600) and Washington Mystics ($530) additionally made the record.
Tickets to the Fever’s first preseason sport, towards the Dallas Wings in Arlington, Texas, ranged from $110 to $1,100. CEO Greg Bibb advised WFAA that the Wings scheduled that sport nicely earlier than the draft, anticipating Clark would enter and be picked first.
“Now we have seen incremental positive factors in enterprise development yearly since 2020, and what’s occurred within the NCAA has been an accelerant to that development,” Bibb advised the outlet. “We structured our ticket gross sales accordingly and waited later within the calendar yr to go on sale with them to create a pent-up demand post-draft.”
Resale costs for Fever tickets are going up too, with Vivid Seats reporting they’ve almost tripled since final season.
Clark’s monetary increase to the WNBA has amplified the highlight on its longstanding pay hole with the NBA. That hole is the results of the leagues’ variations in income, season size and union contracts, amongst different components.
As a rookie, Clark’s base wage might be $76,535 this yr and simply over $338,000 for 4 years — far decrease than that of her male counterparts and at the very least some NBA mascots.
In distinction, Victor Wembanyama, the 2023 first-round draft choose within the NBA, began on the San Antonio Spurs with a base wage of over $12 million, as a part of a four-year contract exceeding $55 million.
That disparity has drawn renewed consideration and outrage from many viewers. Even President Biden weighed in, tweeting final week that “proper now we’re seeing that even in the event you’re the perfect, ladies should not paid their fair proportion.”
However Clark — whose identify, picture and likeness are valued at over $3 million — is predicted to earn a living in different methods, together with endorsement offers with corporations together with State Farm and Gatorade. And The Athletic reported final week that Clark is nearing a cope with Nike value over $20 million that features a signature shoe.
Clark holds up her Fever jersey after a Wednesday press convention in Indianapolis.
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Clark holds up her Fever jersey after a Wednesday press convention in Indianapolis.
Darron Cummings/AP
