The Indiana Fever of the Women’s National Basketball Association recently published a long report touting the team’s amazing success and notes it has become one of the most popular teams in the league, but somehow forgot to mention Caitlin Clark — the only reason for that success — even one time.
The August press release thrillingly notes the “1,000 percent” rise in merchandise sales, the team’s 800 million online video views, and the fact that it led the league in TV viewership. But what the team does not note is that Clark is the main reason for the amazing jump in popularity.
“Women’s basketball has exploded in popularity, and more fans are tuning in, packing arenas, and engaging in social media to watch their favorite teams and players,” the press release reports. “Indiana in particular has been the epicenter of the sport with fans engaging with the Fever and their young stars in new ways, and the momentum shows no signs of slowing down as the team makes a push to return to the WNBA playoffs this season.”
The team goes on to note that the Fever “lead [sic] the League in attendance for both home and away games.” The press release then helpfully adds that its 186,000 total attendance thus far this season is “a 265 percent increase in attendance from last season.”
Furthermore, the Fever added that single-game sales records have been smashed and sales in the team store are up more than 1,000 percent.
The surge in Fever fandom is just as monumental online.
“The Fever hold the top spots in the League in social media engagement, video views, followers gained, and total followers and since April, the Fever have had more than 800M video views across platforms,” the report explained. “The team is ranked first among teams in the WNBA, NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB in video consumption in that span.”
Again, all these amazing statistics are incredible year-over-year gains. But the one thing the team does not bother to celebrate is the one person responsible for all this: Caitlin Clark.
The main difference between the Fever’s humdrum numbers from 2022 and 2023 and the huge uptick in popularity for this, the 2024 season, is not because the Fever as a whole suddenly became popular by a crazy, accidental roll of the dice. It was because Caitlin Clark came to town.
Indeed, her presence has already been dubbed the “Clark Effect” because everywhere she goes with the Fever in tow, WNBA teams enjoy monstrous attendance, numbers that they have never, ever seen in the WNBA’s nearly thirty-year history.
While it is certainly a team sport, and Caitlin Clark is not the only member of the Indiana Fever finding success and popularity, the fact is that without her, the team would still be laboring as a barely noticed sports franchise. And for the Fever to write a press release to tout the team’s success without acknowledging the key reason for that achievement is disingenuous, if not insulting.
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