Former Iowa women’s basketball star point guard Caitlin Clark was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft on Monday night. It didn’t take long for her to make an impact on the WNBA.
According to Darren Rovell on X, Clark’s Indiana Fever jerseys have already sold out on Fanatics. It took just one hour for Fanatics to sell out the extra small, medium, large, extra large and extra, extra large jersey sizes.
Clark has been a leading catalyst behind a sudden rise in women’s basketball. At Iowa, Clark became the NCAA DI’s all-time leading scorer with 3,951 points, and was a four-time AP All-American, two-time AP Player of the Year, two-time Wooden Award winner, two-time Naismith Award winner and led Iowa to two National Championship appearances.
Clark’s Hawkeyes were by far the most watched team in college basketball last year. Their Final Four matchup against UConn drew 14.2 million viewers, shattering ESPN records for basketball.
That record didn’t last long, though.
Iowa’s championship game against South Carolina drew a record 18.7 million average viewers, and peaked at 24.1 million. That was more than any basketball game, NBA included, in the last five years.
While Clark helped facilitate a massive increase in viewership in NCAA women’s basketball, she’s already expected to do the same in the WNBA.
The Fever, who were fortunate enough to draft Clark, will have 36 of their 40 games nationally televised this season. Last season, they only had 22 games on television, and had some of their games only available via the Fever’s Facebook page. Their 36 national television games surpass those of the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, who will have 35 games on national TV.
Speaking of the Aces, they decided to preemptively move their game against the Fever to the T-Mobile Arena, as opposed to playing at their normal Michelob ULTRA Arena.
The reason?
T-Mobile Arena holds around 20,000 people, while their normal home arena holds about 12,000.
Clark appears well on her way to helping increase viewership in the WNBA the same way she was able to do it in college. She, of course, won’t be doing it alone, though, as there’s a very talented draft class joining her in the WNBA this season, including Stanford’s Cameron Brink, who was drafted No. 2 overall by the Los Angeles Sparks, and South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso, who was picked No. 3 overall by the Chicago Sky. The Sky also drafted former LSU star Angel Reese with the No. 7 pick.
When is Caitlin Clark’s WNBA Debut?
Clark and the Fever open their season on May 14 against the Connecticut Sun. Her first home game is two days later, on May 16, against the New York Liberty. That will be her first matchup with WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu, who could be her teammate at the NBA’s All-Star weekend festivities in 2025.
Uncommon Knowledge
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