It’s no secret that the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star Caitlin Clark is a big sell when it comes to viewership and ticket sales. When she is playing, interest rises. But this season, she had persisting injuries that caused her to stay off the court for a significant amount of time.
When it was announced on Sept. 4 that Clark was going to be out for the remainder of the season after setbacks in her recovery process from her right groin injury caused her a bone bruise, many believed that the WNBA would take a large hit without Clark. Yes, it did affect some aspects. For example, during WNBA All-Star Weekend, ticket prices dropped 48% the day of the competition when it was announced she would not play.
The Clark effect took the league by storm her rookie year, leading to more eyes and ticket sales. It put a lot of new eyes on the league that’s been growing since the 90s.
With Clark missing the rest of the season, it was suspected that there would be issues getting fans to tune into games when she wasn’t playing. But ESPN just had its best viewership numbers for the regular season in the history of the WNBA. They averaged a record 1.3 million viewers over the 25 regular season games they aired. These numbers are up about 6% from last season, which recorded 1.2 million viewers for 24 games.
Clark did play a very large role in those numbers. Nine of the 10 most-viewed games this season involved the Indiana Fever. But there were still record numbers for the other 14 games, including the other game in the top 10 that showcased the New York Liberty vs. the Las Vegas Aces.
Even on shows like ESPN’s WNBA Countdown pregame, the viewership rose over 7%. Fans are very interested in the product, with or without Clark. When it comes to attendance, the WNBA’s 13 franchises had over 2.5 million fans over 226 total games.
A good example of the rise of the WNBA’s interest is with the Golden State Valkyries, a brand new expansion team, which averaged a league best 18,064 fans a game this season.
Golden State set a record for expansion teams with 397,408 total fans selling out all of their 22 home games. It shows the number of fans excited to watch the WNBA, especially one in their home city.
There seems to be no fear that the WNBA won’t be able to maintain their fans without Clark. If that was the case, they wouldn’t have been able to broker a new 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal last year, with three different networks willing to pay as the value rises because of the historic interest in the WNBA.
The WNBA will be fine without Clark for now. The same thing might be said about the Fever. Of course, losing your number one superstar is not easy for any team. But they have real chemistry that helped them make a push for the playoffs.
Indiana closed the season winning six of their last 10 games and went 24-22 on the season. The Fever are not just without Clark; they are also without Sophie Cunningham, who was ruled out on Aug. 19 after getting surgery for her torn MCL.
The weight of this team is now all on other players, including Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston and Natasha Howard. They have cemented themselves as the backbone of the team with Clark and Cunningham out.
But the Fever have been able to maintain their playoff positioning due to the team being built on a next woman up mentality. Now, with Clark and Cunningham out, they remain in contention for the playoffs.
Clark has a lot to do with the rise and the success of her team and the interest in the WNBA. But the other stars have helped to maintain it, keeping fans hooked even though Clark will not see the floor for the remainder of the season.