Posted on 04/11/2024 8:25:13 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Caitlin Clark is having a significant impact on the WNBA even before her arrival.
Clark, the transcendent Iowa star and presumptive first overall pick in Monday's WNBA draft, is driving an uptick in interest and ticket prices to see the Indiana Fever, which holds the No. 1 overall selection.
The Fever, second-to-last in WNBA home attendance last season (averaging 4,067 fans), would only confirm a "spike" in ticket interest, declining to comment on specifics. But the team is responding to the surge of interest by taking the unprecedented step of pre-selling single-game tickets to two games per day over a 15-day stretch heading into Monday.
The presale tickets have been selling briskly. By Thursday afternoon, only a handful of seats outside the balcony level remained from the batch of tickets made available earlier in the day for games against the Seattle Storm and Dallas Wings. Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where the Fever and Indiana Pacers play home games, has a capacity of more than 18,000.
Meanwhile, ticket marketplace Vivid Seats reports the team's regular-season opener -- a May 14 road game against the Connecticut Sun -- has seen a price increase of 91% since Clark declared for the draft. The Fever's home opener, on May 16 against the New York Liberty, has seen a 50% price increase since Clark declared, Vivid Seats reported.
At ticket platform SeakGeek, the average Fever resale price for home games is currently $182 -- a 136% increase from 2023. That kind of shift is typically only seen in the NBA, coming as the result of a player like LeBron James changing teams.
"This is definitely the most significant example I can think of on the women's side," said Chris Leyden, director of growth marketing at SeatGeek.
"Three things drive demand for tickets," he added. "It's one, how popular the team is overall ... Two, it's how good the team is. Winning teams always drive up demand. Three, to me, is the star player factor. And this just absolutely checks the box."
The interest in Clark is not limited to Fever home games.
The Las Vegas Aces recently moved their July 2 game against Indiana from Michelob ULTRA Arena to the larger T-Mobile Arena as a direct result of heightened demand for tickets, according to a team spokesman. The team has played several games at T-Mobile Arena in the past, but those were the result of scheduling conflicts, the team said.
This change was different.
"The demand for the July 2 game against Indiana was particularly high, and the decision was made to move that game to T-Mobile Arena," spokesman John Maxwell said.
Meanwhile, the Storm recently made a five-game ticket mini-plan available, with two of the five games featuring matchups with the Fever. Secondary market prices for road games featuring the Fever could likely exceed those for home games, Leyden said, because of the limited opportunities to see her play in those cities.
The interest in Clark has already had a significant impact on the Fever's national visibility. The WNBA announced earlier this week that the team will have 36 of its 40 games this season shown by national broadcast or streaming partners. Eight of those games will be broadcast on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.
I don’t understand all the hate. I watched the Women’s NCAA Championship game and it was good entertaining basketball. I was stunned when I later read that its viewership was larger than the men’s championship game.
Women’s professional basketball player salaries are gonna soar. Forget the hate…enjoy the ride.
The WNBA has been around for going on 30yrs?
and exactly one team turns a profit.
‘nuff said?
Cause she's WHITE.
Because she’s White, straight, Catholic, and doesn’t go out of her way to spout off woke nonsense.
And she’s making more money from endorsements before she plays one minute of WNBA ball than anyone who ever played in that league for their whole career.
No wonder the nappy-headed dykes are bitter.
That’s harsh.
Really? Which team?
It seems like all current and former WNBA players intensely hate her.
Pent-up jealous rage. People are sick of having to be tolerate of their wild asses but then we have to put up with their jealous rage.
They’re filled with hate because of their jealousy. Why else would they just go off on white people for nothing? We see it happen far too much.
They hide this stuff now. My information is slightly dated-one other team may or may not be profitable depending on who one wants to believe.
The NBA subsidizes this league or it absolutely, positively would not exist.
The team in Connecticut.
Who’s popularity stems from the UCONN Lady Huskies and their immense success.
The team that she will be drafted by drew 4,000_ fans according to the above-one can only imagine how much money they were losing.
Of the draft-it’s tough to imagine a more unAmerican thing than dictating to Clarke that she has to work for that one team that could only draw 4,000 fans.
She is obviously gold to this league and should be able to sell her services to the highest bidder. Which would largely be the largest market insuring her ability to capitalize endorsements, popularity etc.....
If the league actually operated like any old business-
these players would realize that she means money in their own pockets.
but they know the NBA will never allow the league to fail.
They know that they’re getting paid as if they were a subsidized league and not on their own merits-and voila they hate the goose that will be laying the golden eggs-because their not going to see any of the gold-it gets swallowed up by the cumulative losses of the league.
Since the summer of 1997...the WNBA has been ‘waiting’. Nothing came in the 25-year period to get fans into the arenas or get national TV interest.
Having watched a WNBA game back a dozen years ago...I saw marginal play.
This past season of NCAA ladies basketball...was actually thrilling and and I suspect there’s five NCAA teams capable of taking on any of the WNBA teams and beating them. Indiana Fever has the first pick....Clark will go there, and their fan average will double. The Fieldhouse used for the Fever...has a max capacity of 18,000. My bet is that most games for the next season will be sold-out.
That will probably never ever happen again.
And basketball can be an especially ROUGH sport. I expect her to get beaten up on the court frequently (via rough fouls, or other things that aren’t blatantly fighting). All that rage has to go SOMEWHERE.
She will not move the needle much for interest in the WNBA. Average pay is $75,000 and very mediocre facilities, etc.. For whatever reason she will be demeaned, treated shabbily and hated by her team mates and everyone else in the league.
WNBA has never made any money at all and the TV rights can really be had on the cheap for about $50 Million. The NBA subsidizes this league and if they quit doing so it goes belly up real fast. They have had 27 years to build an audience and failed.
If I were Clark I would not play in the WNBA, go overseas and play where you might be appreciated. Unless you get some really good endorsements you will not make very much at all.
I doubt Angel Reese will be well liked either.
And she has no Tats.
They do not have the money to pay big contracts and never have. TV rights are coming up for renewal and nobody really wants them except ESPN and reality is they are only worth about $50 Million at that.
I will take that bet and say no they will not be consistently sold out.
I think LeBron James makes several times what the entire WNBA does each year.
I agree with you about her not being a savior.
The ESPN is all BS money too-the games draw lint like ratings.
If they were dependent on the ad revenue, they’d never be on TV.
The entire endeavor fr soup to nuts is socialist. They’re blowing useful resource for the sake of social cause to the tune of endless millions and millions of dollars.
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