Caitlin Clark helped advance the Iowa Hawkeyes to the national championship game in back-to-back seasons.
Photo Credit: Matthew Holst/Getty Images
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Caitlin Clark Fever, it seems, has taken the country by storm.
We’re in the first round of the NBA playoffs, first month of the MLB season, and it’s NFL draft week, and yet the water cooler talk continues to center on the West Des Moines native who seems to be popping up everywhere, whether making a cameo on “SNL,” on Instagram posts, showing her launching bombs from beyond the arc, signing a lucrative Nike deal (worth $28 million), and even whipping the crowd into a frenzy at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where she saw the Indiana Pacers take a 2-1 lead on the Milwaukee Bucks in a thrilling overtime win Friday night.
The six-foot, dribble happy, elusive guard from Iowa smashed so many records in college that it takes work to keep up with her crown of laurels.
Some of her many milestones include:
• Compiling 3,951 points over four years — the most ever in NCAA men’s or women’s Division I history;
• Recording 1,144 assists and 990 rebounds;
• Breaking the record for 3-pointers in a single season,;
• Advancing to the National Championship game twice; and
• Being named National Player of the Year.
In just 40 games, she became the fastest player in Big Ten history to reach the 1,000-point milestone.
If that wasn’t enough, the “Mad Bomber” joined just two other Iowa women’s players who had their numbers retired— Michelle Edwards, whose No. 30 was retired in 1990, and Megan Gustafson, whose No. 10 was retired in 2020.
Clark’s amazing rise to rock-star status came quickly for the Iowa guard.
Imagine, in her first nine games with the Iowa Hawkeyes, games were only available on streaming services, and some games, believe it or not, were played on weekday afternoons.
Three years later, in her senior year, Clark's 137th, 138th and 139th college games became the three most-watched women's basketball games ever: 12.3 million for Iowa's win over LSU (Elite Eight); 14.4 million for Iowa's win over UConn (Final Four); and 18.9 million viewers on ABC against South Carolina (national championship).
Caitlin Clark speaks with reporters after being introduced as the newest member of the Indiana Fever, Wednesday, April 17, in Indianapolis.
Photo Credit: WTHR
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As is widely known, Clark was the No. 1 draft pick of the Indiana Fever in the WNBA.
Normally, WNBA drafts receive scant attention in the media. This year was different. The draft featured some mighty big stars: Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink, to mention just a few of some highly gifted athletes. The draft, covered live from Brooklyn by ESPN, averaged a record 2.45 million viewers, a whopping 307 % increase in viewership over last year.
And it was also the first WNBA draft broadcast in Spanish. Reaching a larger global audience is one of the many challenges facing the WNBA if they hope to be on par with the NBA.
So, it appears the WNBA, founded on April 24, 1996, 28 years ago, has begun a new chapter in its proud history.
Given the way Clark has rocketed to stardom in such a brief time and with so much interest turning toward the WNBA, many argue that the media landscape of the league has been turned upside down.
With Clark and Brazilian center Kamilla Cardoso, of the South Carolina Gamecocks, taking center stage, the women’s national championship game drew a staggering 18.9 million viewers, the most viewers for any basketball game, college or pro, since 2019, according to ESPN. The women’s championship game drew more viewers than the men’s national championship game, which logged 14.8 million viewers.
Many make the point that UConn's Paige Bueckers and Clark have done for women's college basketball what Magic Johnson and Larry Bird did for men's college basketball decades ago. There was suddenly heightened interest in college basketball and March Madness, which spilled over into the NBA.
With basketball stars like Hannah Jump, Cameron Brink and Dyaisha Fair joining Clark in the WNBA on their respective teams, along with veterans Breanna Stewart (New York Liberty), Alyssa Thomas (Connecticut Sun), and Kelsey Plum (Las Vegas Aces), already entrenched in the WNBA, once-dormant coverage of the league may reach towering heights this season.
It’s interesting to note that before Caitlin Clark was drafted, the Fever averaged 4,067 fans at their home games, the second lowest in the league. This year, ticket prices have doubled and a ticket to their home games is hard to come by, though the Fever hasn’t announced ticket sales and which games have sold out. It’s widely believed the Fever’s home opener against the New York Liberty on May 16 will be a 19,000-seat sellout.
A number of major media outlets have responded to the seismic shift toward women’s basketball.
Because of the frenzied popularity of Clark, it’s been announced that 36 of the Indiana Fever’s 40 regular season games will be on national television this year, one more than the defending champion Las Vegas Aces.
Shortly after announcing a multiyear agreement with the WNBA, CBS Sports doubled its coverage for the upcoming season by broadcasting eight regular-season games, up from four last year, and for the remainder of its deal, CBS Sports will televise 12 games.
The WNBA previously announced that eight Fever games this year will be broadcast nationally.
ESPN will significantly increase its WNBA coverage.
The WNBA and ESPN announced that there will be 25 national broadcasts during the regular season across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s Spanish-language network.
During the season, the WNBA will collaborate with ESPN to present up to 52 games, beginning with the WNBA regular season presented by Google and extending through the WNBA Playoffs presented by Google, which will feature up to 27 games, including the WNBA Finals presented by YouTube TV.
Next month, a new four-part series from Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and Words & Pictures in partnership with ESPN+ will feature exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes access documenting elite collegiate women’s basketball stars from this year’s record-breaking season, including Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso and Kiki Rice.
It will premiere on May 11-12 on ABC and ESPN +
For the second straight year, the AT&T WNBA All-Star Game will air in primetime on ABC from Phoenix (8:30 p.m. ET) on July 20th.
Additionally, the Las Vegas Aces, New York Liberty, and Indiana Fever each will be featured on an ESPN platform for eight games.
According to Front Office Sports, the Fever recently struck a deal with Tegna (a digital media and marketing services company) to broadcast 17 of the team’s games on the media company’s over-the-air stations in Indianapolis. The Fever’s home opener against the New York Liberty will be shown on either WTHR, the NBC affiliate, or WALV, the MeTV affiliate.
The Indianapolis Star, a Gannett daily newspaper, is placing itself front and center to cover the Indiana Fever along with Caitlin Clark Fever.
Articles by Fever beat reporter Chloe Peterson have been coming thick and fast from the IndyStar.
Prior to Peterson coming on board last May, the Star devoted limited space to the WNBA, usually assigning an intern to cover the Fever with lots of turnover from year to year and with practically no offseason coverage.
The IndyStar is now devoting additional time and space to the WNBA and sent Peterson, its star Fever reporter, to Brooklyn to report on the draft. Peterson covered the entire 2023 season for the IndyStar.
A spokesperson from The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism website, and the sports department of The New York Times, said the Athletic doesn't like to comment on its upcoming coverage. It does, however, have a page devoted to the WNBA ; and in 2022, the Athletic and Google launched a new Multiplatform program to double The Athletic's coverage of professional women's sports, with an emphasis on basketball and soccer.
The Associated Press is already well-positioned to cover the anticipated increased popularity of the WNBA. A spokesperson for AP said it will provide coverage of every WNBA game, along with features and enterprise stories. Nicole Meir, media relations manager for AP, tells me that "AP’s basketball writer will continue to produce a weekly fixture on the league, ‘Around The WNBA,’ which will include updates on Clark’s season on merit." Much like the Athletic, AP has an entire section devoted to the WNBA.
Despite all the buoyancy over the media’s newfound interest in women’s athletics, Cheryl Cooky, professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies at Purdue University, interjects with a word of caution.
As positive as increased coverage of the WNBA appears on the surface, Cooky said “some of the impact on broadcast coverage, at least at this point, is quite contained to Clark and the Fever.”
Outside of the niche media platforms, Cooky hasn’t seen much coverage on the upcoming WNBA season and what to expect or look for. “In fact,” Cooky observed, “many sports news media outlets returned to ‘business as usual.’ This aligns with the patterns we identified in our last study (which we are currently updating), where the media employ a ‘one and done’ strategy in women’s sports coverage.”
Other WNBA teams having to move to larger venues (Las Vegas, Washington) when Indiana comes to town, may help to move the needle Cooky thinks, “but again, that remains to be seen.”
Photo: Caitlin Clark going through some preseason practice drills with the Indiana Fever.
Photo Credit: Associated Press/Michael Conroy
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Timing is everything.
It appears Clark is entering the WNBA at an ideal time. The league will add a team in Golden State (San Francisco) in 2025, bringing the league to 13 teams; and the word is the WNBA wants to expand to 16 teams in the near future. Charlotte, Toronto, and Denver are reportedly among the front-runners. Suitors from Nashville, Philadelphia, Portland, and South Florida have also expressed interest.
Clark coming to the Hoosier State is just what the doctor ordered.
Since the Fever won the WNBA championship in 2012, their 13th season in the WNBA, they have been the worst major professional team in Indy and one of the worst major professional teams in all of North American sports. The franchise is 127-241 with just one winning season during that time and haven’t reached the playoffs since 2016. They only mustered five wins in 2022, a franchise low. The last time they had a winning record was in 2015, nearly 10 years ago. In 2016, they were a .500 team. Since then, they only managed to win more than 10 games twice, finishing well under .500 each year.
In Indiana, Clark will join forces with reigning Rookie of the Year center Aliyah Boston, third-year forward NaLyssa Smith, veteran forward Katie Lou Samuelson, and 2023 All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell.
Clark fills an immediate need for the Fever: a legitimate three-point shooter. Clark shot 37% from three-point land with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Her signature behind-the-back and no-look passes she perfected with Iowa center Monika Czinano will be an additional boon to a Fever team trying to rebuild.
Mitchell, the Fever's guard, was the only player to shoot over 100 3-pointers last season.
The ball is now in the Fever’s court. Let’s hope the West Des Moines native and the rest of her blossoming team rise to the occasion.
--Bill Lucey
[email protected]
April 28, 2024
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The “Caitlin Clark Effect”: Google Searches
• Searches for Caitlin Clark jersey sales spiked 2,550% in the U.S. over the past week.
• It was reported that Clark sold more jerseys following the WNBA Draft than the Dallas Cowboys did all last season.
• Searches for Caitlin Clark Nike shoes spiked 1,500% in the U.S. over the past week.
• Caitlin Clark is the top trending basketball player in the U.S. in 2024.
• Searches for Caitlin Clark spiked more than any other basketball player regardless of gender or league in 2024 in the U.S.
• Searches for Caitlin Clark's first WNBA game spiked 550% in the U.S. over the past week.
• The top three trending sports matchups in the U.S. over the past month all featured Caitlin Clark (Iowa vs LSU, Iowa vs UConn, South Carolina vs Iowa).
Source: Google Press Office
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Additional Resources
• Caitlin Clark Bio/Stats/Overview: Hawkeye Sports
• Caitlin Clark: Career Highlights: Hawkeye Sports
• Caitlin Clark: College Stats (Sports-Reference)
• Caitlin Clark: WNBA Stats (Basketball Reference)
• Everything You Need to Know About Caitlin Clark (The Cut-New York Magazine).
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