Greater than 500,000 followers have now watched Caitlin Clark’s record-shattering rookie season in individual, setting a brand new attendance excessive for a WNBA workforce.
The Indiana Fever not too long ago reported that 503,921 guests have attended the workforce’s 31 house and away video games this season, together with 17,274 who watched the Fever beat the 22-8 Connecticut Solar 84-80 Wednesday night time.
Amongst these at Gainbridge Fieldhouse had been Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Gabby Thomas. Biles posted on-line that it was her first WNBA recreation—however that it wouldn’t be her final.
Throughout the recreation, Clark additionally set the WNBA rookie report for 3 pointers, ending the night time with 88 on the 12 months. She had 19 factors, 5 rebounds and 5 assists within the victory.
After a sluggish begin to the 12 months, the Fever are actually just one recreation under .500, with a marquee matchup in opposition to Angel Reese and the 11-19 Chicago Sky arising Friday night time. The most cost effective ticket on Ticketmaster for the matchup at Chicago’s Wintrust Area was roughly $150 as of Thursday morning.
The Fever had been in a position to set the common season attendance report with 9 video games to go partially as a result of some opponents have moved their matchups into larger venues. In July, the defending champion Las Vegas Aces drew 20,366 followers to T-Cell Area—the most important WNBA crowd in 25 years—when Clark got here to city. In Might, the New York Liberty set the WNBA report with $2 million in ticket income for a matchup with the Fever.
In accordance with an evaluation accomplished in July, attendance at non-Fever WNBA video games can also be up almost 20% this 12 months.
“I believe the thrill and simply the eyes that Caitlin has introduced from Iowa now to the WNBA is gonna be a collective win for all,” Liberty star and reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart stated on the time. “And now that she’s part of our league … despite the fact that we’re competing in opposition to one another, we’re ensuring that we’re persevering with to raise up this league collectively. And I believe that is an important factor.”
The Fever have additionally been breaking TV viewership data; the workforce set NBA TV’s WNBA recreation tune-in mark on Saturday in opposition to the Lynx, averaging 569,000 viewers, and they’re more likely to do the identical on Ion Friday in opposition to the Sky. Clark’s All-Star debut averaged 3.44 million views on ABC, up almost 150% over the earlier excessive set on the community in 2003.
In June, Sportico valued the Indiana Fever because the sixth-most invaluable WNBA franchise at $90 million, with $9.1 million in 2023 income. Earlier than new nationwide TV offers kick in, most workforce revenues are generated on the native degree, with tickets driving a bulk of these earnings. Final 12 months, the Fever had the second-lowest common house attendance within the WNBA with 4,067 tickets bought per recreation. The workforce launched a monetary report earlier this month detailing its 2024 success.
Indiana finishes the season in Washington on Sept. 19. That recreation has already been moved to Capital One Area, the place 20,333 followers confirmed up in June to see the rookie, essentially the most followers since 2007 on the time.
“I’m only a child that performs basketball and has quite a lot of enjoyable,” Clark stated after Wednesday’s recreation. “And for me, like, coming into these arenas and these environments, I go searching, and it’s unimaginable. It truly is.”