Caitlin Clark appears set to give a boost to the WNBA like she did for the NCAA.
And it appears not only good news for her new pro team, the Indiana Fever, but also for the teams they’ll be facing, which for Atlanta means the Dream.
When the women’s college basketball season ended April 7 with the national championship game, the telecast set a viewership record for women’s basketball with 18.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched women’s basketball game ever.
The game, featuring the Iowa star and her team against the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks, peaked with 24 million viewers, ESPN said.
But even before that game, Clark was already doing her part for a historic season with record viewership. And sporting officials took notice.
The Las Vegas Aces reported earlier this month — even before Monday’s WNBA draft — that the team’s July 2 home game against the Fever would be moved from Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay to the larger T-Mobile Arena. A key reason? The Aces knew that the Fever’s top pick in the draft meant they’d likely be getting Clark.
Need more evidence of the Clark’s star power?
The anticipation of the Fever’s pick was already clear this spring. The WNBA scheduled 36 of the team’s 40 regular season games for national broadcasts or on streaming partners, appearing eight times across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 as well as eight times on ION and twice on CBS.
Last season, the Fever had one game scheduled to be shown on ESPN and no appearances on the other networks.
No official word yet on what the Clark effect means for WNBA fans heading to the games here in Atlanta. The Fever make their first Atlanta appearance this season with a June 21 game in the Dream’s home territory. Single game tickets for the Dream’s upcoming season go on sale next week on April 25.
The Dream play at Gateway Center Arena in College Park, a a multipurpose sports and entertainment venue with 5,000 seats for events such as concerts and 3,500 seats available for basketball games. Meanwhile, State Farm Arena, home to the Atlanta Hawks, seats over 16,000 when it comes to NBA games.
The College Park site was the WNBA’s most sold-out arena in 2023, the Dream reported, and the team is already spotlighting that among its 20 home regular season games it’ll be “featuring WNBA star rookies like Caitlin Clark.”
