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This past Monday night will end up being one of the biggest nights ever in Indiana sports.
Hyperbole? Well, that’s why sports columnists exist, right? But, while we’ve all been a prisoner of the moment at one time or another, this particular moment—one where the Indiana Fever just made Caitlin Clark the no-brainer first overall selection in the WNBA Draft—feels uniquely impactful. That’s because Clark, the most famous college basketball player (men’s or women’s) and arguably the most recognized female athlete in America at this second, immediately becomes one of the biggest sports stars this city has ever seen.
Outside of Peyton Manning’s MVP trophy hoisting and “Saturday Night Live” hosting peak 20 years ago, it’s hard to find any single Indianapolis sports figure that ever quite possessed the cachet that Clark carries with her to the Circle City. Clark is riding the wave of momentum generated by her record-smashing senior season, where she was crowned the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer (again, men’s or women’s—sensing a theme here?) while ushering in an unprecedented explosion of interest and viewership for women’s basketball.
When you dig into the Clark-fueled numbers, they’re truly astonishing. Nearly 19 million people tuned in to see her Iowa squad battle undefeated South Carolina for the national championship earlier this month, and that was after 14.2 million watched Clark and the Hawkeyes upend UConn in the semifinals. Both of those games earned higher ratings than any of the men’s games played in Phoenix, with this year’s women’s title bout being the most-watched basketball game in the United States on any level since 2019.
With that attention has come real dollars for Clark, who has fully taken advantage in the infancy of the name, image and likeness era. She parlayed the national obsession over her basketball exploits into a reported $3 million bag in NIL deals while in Iowa City. Clark was such an economic powerhouse as a college athlete that there was actually some debate over whether she should turn pro at all. However, at the end of the day, many of her high-profile national advertising partners like Nike and State Farm will likely follow her along to the Fever, with more to come.
Indianapolis-based businesses aren’t going to miss out on the party, either, as Gainbridge, the namesake for the Fever’s home arena at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, has already inked Clark as a brand ambassador. Thousands of screaming fans were in that building just the other night to watch her get drafted to their team.
As the Caitlin Clark Express chugs into Union Station, it carries the most valuable cargo of all for the city and state: eyeballs. People from well outside this state have followed Caitlin Clark, and those folks will continue to watch and seek out Caitlin Clark as a pro. This month alone, she’s been featured in a 96-page tribute issue by ESPN, and she dropped by “Saturday Night Live,” Manning’s old stomping grounds, for a Weekend Update visit with Colin Jost and Michael Che.
Her national profile now places an incredibly bright spotlight on Indianapolis, something we’ve rarely had in this city, and upon the Indiana Fever, which is something the team has never had in its 25-year lifespan as a WNBA franchise.
It’s hard to truly gauge how big of a superstar Clark can become as a professional because there aren’t any apples-to-apples comparisons. There is no test case for this new era of women’s sports, as many of the game’s current titans were more prominent figures in college than they are now.
You probably remember Breanna Stewart’s 4-for-4 championship dynasty at UConn in the mid-2000s, but how many folks know what team she plays for now? (New York, in case you’re curious.) A’ja Wilson also dominated college basketball at South Carolina, leading Dawn Staley’s breakthrough championship team in 2017. She’s a back-to-back WNBA champion and won the Finals MVP last season, but those games averaged fewer than a million viewers—a small fraction of the audience that Clark and the current Gamecocks enjoyed.
And that’s not to knock the WNBA!
Last year’s finals were the highest-watched in 20 years and up almost 40% from the year prior. In the regular season, the WNBA broadcasts on ABC averaged 627,000 viewers, making the season the most viewed for the league in over a decade. Those games drew over 36 million unique viewers across all networks in 2023, the highest since the 2008 season and up more than 25% from 2022. The WNBA is undoubtedly on the rise, but now that the league has thrown Clark into the rocket ship, the expectation is that she’ll propel the league to new heights.
That viewpoint has met with some skepticism, as Clark wears a target on her back for the star WNBA veterans who weren’t able to enjoy the same pomp and circumstance as collegians, despite similar dominance. If you listened to Diana Taurasi, one of the game’s all-time greats, on SportsCenter a few weeks ago, she outlined what was coming for the top overall pick.
With just 12 teams, 18 fewer than the NBA and 20 fewer than the NFL, the WNBA carries an exclusivity that many other sports leagues do not have, and an overall talent level that is unquestionably made up of the best of the best. The learning curve will likely be much steeper for Clark than it would be for any of her male counterparts in their college-to-pro leaps.
But the doubters and critics will fuel her star power, too. Just like LeBron James or Tiger Woods, not everyone tunes in to see Clark succeed; some may hope to see her fail. For a league that has operated under the radar for nearly its entire existence, any attention is good attention, and Clark can be a lightning rod for players, coaches and fans, regardless of whether they are for or against her, or whether she succeeds or fails.
Clark already understands the haters, dealing with those who publicly questioned her scoring record or her college basketball legacy over the past few months. As evidenced by her throwing Che’s old jokes right back in his face on “SNL” last week, Clark has left most detractors, serious or unserious, eating their words over the past 15 months.
The spike in interest for the Indiana Fever happened the second Clark announced her intentions to turn pro. Her jerseys at the team store are already selling out, and game tickets are in short supply, so you might not get to see Clark play in person this year, but this is a unique opportunity to witness a ready-made superstar continue her ascent while wearing INDIANA across her chest. She’ll have an opportunity to raise the profile of the Indiana Fever as a franchise, the WNBA as a league, and Indianapolis as a city, while possibly becoming one of the most prominent sports figures in state history.
And, for that, we all get a front-row seat.•
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From Peyton Manning’s peak with the Colts to the Pacers’ most recent roster makeover, Schultz has talked about it all as a sports personality in Indianapolis for more than 15 years. Besides his written work with IBJ, he’s active in podcasting and show hosting. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @Schultz975.
Correction: This story has been corrected to say WNBA star Breanna Stewart plays for the New York Liberty. You can see other corrections here.
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I think Caitlin Clark will have a significant impact in narrowing WNBA pay inequity in the same way that the success of Women’s national team did for pay equity in soccer. That said, I don’t think thar a first pick in the WNBA well make the same amount that a NBA first pick makes simply because of fewer games, lower average attendance, and broadcast packages. But the current gross inequity will narrow. And that’s a very good thing.
@Michael – I think you’re right and it takes a player of Clark’s star power to get the ball rolling. WNBA has slowly be on the uptick here in recent years so I think she, and the explosion of women’s college basketball interest overall, will help accelerate that positive momentum. Thanks for reading!