Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark has admitted that the astonishing growth of the women’s basketball in recent times was put “in perspective” when the NCAA womens championship game had a bigger viewership than the men’s Final Four.
The point guard sensation has been central to the exponential increase in the popularity of the women’s game both in the NCAA and the WNBA. During her collegiate days with Iowa, Clark’s box office bankability was demonstrated after 18.9 million viewers tuned in to watch the Hawkeyes face Angel Reese’s LSU Tigers for the NCAA Division I championship in 2023.
Reflecting on this, the the 22-year-old told ESPN: “It’s fascinating, you don’t always appreciate how many people 18 million is. You see that number against a college football game or the Masters or whatever it is as far as the biggest sporting events in our country and it puts it in perspective. We outdrew the men’s Final Four.”
The youngster built on her success after she was drafted by the Fever in 2024, delivering on her billing as No. 1 overall pick. During a memorable maiden professional campaign, set a host of new records including for assists in a single season en route to being named Rookie of the Year.
Her brilliance on the floor inspired a major upsurge in ratings for the league too – with a new high of 54 million unique viewers tuning in to watch action in the WNBA last season. That increase was mirrored in arenas around the country as well, with attendances hitting the 2.4 million mark – the highest total in over two decades.
Now, Clark has looked back over an incredible year, as she expressed her gratitude towards her teammates for their role in helping her make the successful transition to the professional game. She continued: “I’m thankful for the people I got to do it with. A year ago I was still in the early part of my senior year in college. … How fast things change, and now I can see how great a college season it was.”
“For me it’s still really fun. Whether it’s 15 seconds or 10 seconds or 5 seconds can be very impactful in a young girl and young boy’s life. Seeing the fans going crazy an hour before tipoff, I never take that for granted. That’s super cool, and I never want that to go away.”
In the same report, Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton paid tribute to Clark for how she has handled the pressures of fame during her first season in the WNBA. He said: “You’d be remiss not to acknowledge how crazy her fan base is and the eyes she gets with everything she does.”
“It’s a different type of popularity; she’s one of the most popular athletes in the world. It’s not just women’s sports anymore. It’s really cool to see and she just handles it with such grace.”
Meanwhile, Fever teammate Kelsey Mitchell said in her Players Tribune piece: “We obviously had a new spotlight on us, with Caitlin being drafted, who Im proud to call a teammate.
“That was exciting in its own way, with the fans it brought to the arena, and the opportunity it gave our squad. But I think, in a weird way, the outside noise kind of made people forget sometimes that were still human, if that makes sense?”
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