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.
The WNBA doesn’t make anything. If you meant make including the NBA subsidy-I’d guess that is the case too.
A fun fact if anyone needs more reason to dislike the NBA-
Starting with Trump-they refuse to play games on Election Day in an effort to drive up Democrat votes.
It kinda reminds me of when Micheal Jordan played minor league baseball for the Birmingham Barons. The year before he joined the team, the Barons drew almost 3000 fans per game. The year he played for them they drew almost 9000 fans per game. That’s a three fold increase in attendance. The next year the attendance dropped to about 3500 per game. The hype will increase attendance, but only in games she plays. The rest of the league will linger a long with the same amount of attendance.
Who’s going to watch the other teams?
Granddaughter plays AAU 16U (plays up). The worst situation is playing a black team with black refs. Played in Tournament in Cincinnati this past weekend, bruises all over. FT attempts 22 them to 3 us
Just ask Ronda Rousey.
Ronda Rousey Shuts Down Women's Soccer Equal Pay Question With Logic
Maybe cause she’s heterosexual white and Christian is the interest? Liberals heads explode.
All lesbos are bitter and angry, especially the fat ones with cats. Doesn’t take much to trigger.
I hope she becomes the Larry Bird of the WNBA.
Of course she will not survive in the Dyke NBA. She is probably one of the best to play, but the ghetto culture in the Dyke’s NBA will make the game unplayable for her.
The WNBA is dead financially, and only exists as a tax on the other ghetto NBA for men.
If women were really as good as the men, we could get rid of the dyke league and incorporate them into the men’s teams... afterall they already identify as Butch.
Caitlin alone cannot save the WNBA.
BINGO. You have the best post in the threat for her to advance her career. Go play in the International league.
I have an old army friend who is black and his daughter went to East Carolina Univ with my son, then she was off to the Isreali team. Since our family lived in Isreal, he was really happy talking about her life with me. Today she is in S. Carolina coaching a girls team.
Female BB players have a short shelf life - maybe 5-6 years before the younger talent is better than them after they peak out around age 28.
In men’s sports if you stay in the pro’s until you are 28 without physical damage you can compete another 5-10 years but for the women age 28 is a curse. It is the point where the decline in performance is noticeable when playing against the younger girls.
This poor girl is too small to try to play against bull dykes looking to physically harm her.
You mean the 2 years he was suspended for gambling?
Wasn’t the Men’s Championship on TBS, which I don’t even get on my streaming service?
“ That’s harsh.”
It is harsh but I think in a harsh way he nailed what’s likely going on . Of course we all need to realize this doesn’t represent all the players and that social media drives and amplifies division and strife.
Likely in the long run the WNBA would probably like the chance to have a more normal fan base and more fans.
They can’t be too harsh to Caitlin if she sells tickets.
For reasons I won’t post, I’m going to see one of her games in July. Not really my thing, but will be interesting to see.
What game? Isn’t she graduating?
WBNA game in July
She isn’t even in the WBNA yet.
You are just assuming that that team’s going to draft her?
“ You are just assuming that that team’s going to draft her?”
From what I understand that’s a given.
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