Fan interest, jersey sales, and wins: How Caitlin Clark changes everything

Fever head coach Christie Sides: "I've called everybody to ask about what this is going to be like, and the answer I get is, ‘Chris, I don't have anything for you with this. It's different.'"

In the days leading up to the WNBA Draft on Monday, over 17,000 free tickets were claimed by fans. That’s almost as many seats as there are inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the Pacers and Fever.

Then on draft night, over 6,000 fans spent their evening inside the arena to see what the world already knew was going to happen.

The Indiana Fever selected Iowa guard Caitlin Clark with the top overall pick in the WNBA Draft in what became the most-watched league event on TV.

An estimated 2.5 million viewers tuned into ESPN’s telecast of the draft, over a million more than the highest-rated WNBA event. It’s more than four times as large as the audience for 2023 (572,000).

That’s the Caitlin Clark Effect.

We all knew what was going to happen and yet, we all wanted to see it anyway.

“It's amazing,” Fever GM Lin Dunn said. “I cannot believe that many people are here for just for the draft party. It's such an exciting moment.”

Clark officially declared for the WNBA Draft on Feb. 29, almost three months before the start of the season.

“We wondered if she would declare and the night she declared, somebody text me and I about fell out of my couch to tell you the truth,” Dunn said. “I didn't know she would come out. I thought it was 50/50.”

Clark’s official announcement sparked a flood of Fever ticket sales.

By then, some had already made the gamble and purchased season tickets anyway. After her declaration, it was on for basketball fans in Indiana.

“That's unheard of,” Dunn continued. “And so from the business side, she's already had a great impact on the excitement in this city. You can't underestimate what she's accomplished in college with breaking all these records. With every record she broke, the media got more excited about it and more visibility.”

Everyone wants in on the movement. And much like Taylor Swift, they just want to be in her orbit.