The Caitlin Clark Effect

There's no denying the impact that Caitlin Clark has had on the sport of women's basketball.  Ratings for the NCAA Tournament skyrocketed during Iowa's back-to-back runs to the Championship Game.  And it wasn't just Iowa.  It led to increased interest in women's college basketball across the board.

Clark's popularity is without question, but some wondered whether the attention she generates would carry over into the WNBA.  Through the first half of her rookie season, all indications are that the momentum she's created isn't going down at all.  Quite the opposite, actually.  The Caitlin Clark Effect is real.  She's done just as much to increase interest in the WNBA as she did for women's college basketball.  The proof is in the numbers.

Caitlin Clark is so popular, in fact, that she evidently impacted other sports without even trying.  The UFL just concluded its first season and, while the league was happy with its TV numbers, the in-stadium attendance figures were disappointing.  Oddly, Daryl Johnston, the UFL's Executive VP of Football Operations, said Clark was one of the reasons.  Since, apparently, the WNBA and spring football are going after the same target audience.  The Caitlin Clark Effect is THAT powerful!

What Johnston said is obviously ridiculous, but there are other, more tangible, numbers that show just how popular Clark is.  Voting for the WNBA All*Star Game just concluded.  Clark, not surprisingly, was the leading vote-getter with more than 700,000 votes.  Last year's leading vote-getter was A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces...with 95,860!  The top five vote-getters in 2023 received 391,639 total votes.  This year, Clark got nearly double that by herself.  Overall, there was a 600 percent increase in the amount of votes cast this year compared to last year.

The WNBA's TV ratings are also higher than they've ever been.  Clark ended up on the Indiana Fever because they were terrible last year, which is how they got the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft.  Because they have Clark, though, most of the Fever's games have ended up on national television...which has proven to be a wise decision.  Again, the Caitlin Clark Effect.

They also loaded up on Indiana's games that they knew would be the biggest ratings-generators early in the season.  The Fever's first four games were against either the Sun or Liberty (two of the best teams in the league), and they've already played both teams three times.  They've also played the Chicago Sky, who have a highly-touted rookie of their own in Angel Reese, three times, and the most recent of those games on June 25 averaged 2.25 million viewers, making it the most-watched WNBA game in 23 years.

Whether that ratings success continues into the second half of the season is anyone's guess.  Clark and Indiana won't be featured on national TV nearly as much after the Olympic break, when the WNBA will also be competing with the start of the NFL and college football seasons.  They'll also hope to keep this momentum going after a month off, although, the U.S. winning another Olympic gold could certainly help provide a boost.

That Olympic break actually starts with the WNBA All*Star Game, which is set for July 20, less than a week before the Opening Ceremony in Paris.  We'll get our first look at the Olympic team during the WNBA All*Star Game, too, since in Olympic years, the matchup is Team USA vs. Team WNBA.  There were a lot of people who thought Clark should be on the Olympic team, so you know people will tune in to see her play against Team USA instead.

One of her teammates on Team WNBA will be Angel Reese.  The rivalry between the two has been brewing since Reese's LSU team beat Clark's Iowa squad in the 2023 National Championship Game, and it's only grown since they moved to the WNBA with Indiana and Chicago.  They'll be the faces of the WNBA for the next decade, and their rivalry certainly hasn't hurt the hype.  This is the first time they'll be teammates (although, you'd have to figure they'll both be Team USA regulars moving forward, as well).  And I think a lot of people may tune in just to see the two of them playing together.

While Clark has definitely been a huge factor in the WNBA's increased popularity, it wouldn't be fair to give her all the credit.  Because it's not just her.  Fellow rookies Reese and Cameron Brink (who, unfortunately, is out for the season after tearing her ACL) have helped, too.  And, while the rookies brought people in, it's the talented players who were already in the league who've kept those newfound fans watching.

Although, as much as they claim otherwise, Reese and Brink aren't the draw Clark is.  Most WNBA teams play in smaller venues than their NBA counterparts.  The demand for tickets to see Caitlin Clark is so high, though, that several teams have had to move their home game against Indiana to the NBA venue.  The Fever played the Aces in Las Vegas the other day in front of 20,000 fans at a sold-out T-Mobile Arena (many of whom were wearing No. 22 Fever or Iowa jerseys).

Indiana has gone from the second-lowest attendance in the league to the highest.  The Fever have drawn over 15,000 for every home game and have sold out the 17,274-seat Gainsbridge Fieldhouse five times this season.  Not surprisingly, they also lead the WNBA in road attendance.  Indiana has outdrawn the Liberty, who rank second in the WNBA in attendance, by 3,000 fans per game.  They were drawing fans despite starting the season 1-7 (a direct result of playing so many games against Connecticut and New York early).  Now they're winning!

Those attendance figures can be attributed almost entirely to Caitlin Clark.  Last year, only two WNBA teams, the Aces and Mercury, had an average attendance over 9,000.  Most WNBA games not involving the Fever don't even draw that many fans.  And teams certainly aren't moving games to larger venues when they play other opponents.  That may change in the future.  Hopefully it will.  But, right now, it's only Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever who are doing that.

This hopefully is just the beginning for the WNBA.  ESPN has even talked about potentially sharing the WNBA Finals with another network for the good of the league if it means they can get more in rights fees.  That likely wouldn't have been possible if not for Caitlin Clark.  The impact she's had on the WNBA in half of one season is immeasurable.  And it only figures to increase.  From in-arena attendance to TV ratings, the Caitlin Clark Effect is real.