Practically 20 years in the past, Conrad Piccirillo attended his first Indiana Fever sport. The WNBA franchise was simply 5 years into its existence and getting ready to its finest yr to this point, however he admittedly was not there for the basketball. His daughters, 10-year-old Caitlyn and 11-year-old Claire, have been members of the Fever Inferno’s youth dance staff, and he was there to cheer them on throughout their performances.
Finally, his daughters aged out of the dance troupe, however by that time, Piccirillo was hooked. He purchased six season tickets and invited associates, reveling within the Fever’s 2012 WNBA championship. But, when the Fever hit laborious instances with constant dropping information for almost a decade, Piccirillo discovered it more durable to persuade associates to affix him at Fever video games in his free courtside seats.
Flash ahead to 2024 and he hasn’t had that drawback once more because of Caitlin Clark. His cohort is a part of the legion of followers who’ve made Fever video games the most well liked ticket within the WNBA. He attended all however one sport at Gainbridge Fieldhouse this season, soaking within the power and atmosphere as he watched waves of followers fall in love with the Fever and the WNBA the identical method he did.
“I believe she’s the right gas on a fireplace that had been actually rising,” Piccirillo mentioned about Clark.
Clark’s rookie season marks a brand new period not just for the Fever franchise, but in addition the town of Indianapolis, the state and the WNBA. Clark was a spectacle at Iowa not like anybody girls’s school basketball has ever seen along with her emblem 3s and aggressive hearth. The WNBA and the Fever — who had the No. 1 draft decide — hoped her dazzle and enchantment would carry over to offer the same spark for the league.
This was a blast! Greatest followers in @WNBA – @GainbridgeFH – FEVER NATION is alive & nicely! @IndianaFever pic.twitter.com/LYrCfGHqCh
— Eddie White (@eddiewhite3) September 16, 2024
Because the playoffs started Sunday — even with a gap loss by the Fever at Connecticut — the payoff of banking on Clark is clear on TV, within the stands and within the market. Earlier than Clark even stepped on the courtroom in a Fever jersey, she surpassed expectations.
Solely as soon as within the 2000s had a WNBA sport garnered 2.4 million viewers on TV, however on draft evening, much more followers tuned in to observe the league commissioner name Clark’s title. Since then, Clark has continued to assist the Fever and WNBA smash tv information.
Six totally different league tv companions set viewership information this yr for its highest considered WNBA sport, and all six included the Fever. ION, which broadcast 43 WNBA video games, skilled a 133 p.c improve in viewership yr over yr, and every of its seven broadcasts that topped 1 million viewers included Fever video games. Per Yahoo Sports activities, NBA TV set its personal WNBA viewership file eight instances this season — every of these a Fever sport.
ESPN, a longtime WNBA associate, had its most profitable yr of broadcasting the league.
The 2024 #WNBA common season on ESPN platforms was the most-watched EVER! 🎉
🏀 1.2M avg. viewers
🏀 WNBA Countdown: 508K avg. viewers pic.twitter.com/FrnWHOp11h— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 11, 2024
The primary regular-season Fever-Sky sport — with Clark and rookie rival Angel Reese taking middle stage — marked the most-viewed WNBA sport in 23 years throughout any community, with 2.35 million viewers. That file was damaged a month later when the WNBA All-Star Recreation introduced in a whopping 3.4 million viewers, making it the third most-watched WNBA sport in historical past.
However it’s at Fever residence video games the place the excitement is palpable.
Attendance in Indianapolis hit a file excessive — 17,036 per residence sport to steer the league in attendance for the primary time. Fever season ticket gross sales have been already on the uptick, however when Clark introduced in February that she was forgoing her fifth season of school eligibility, demand for Fever tickets turned unprecedented.
In response to Throughout the Timeline, the Fever hadn’t been within the prime half of WNBA common attendance since 2016.
Piccirillo, the longtime Fever season ticket holder, now wears earplugs inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and his AppleWatch continuously notifies him throughout video games that the decibels he experiences could possibly be reaching damaging ranges. “It’s like watching Pacers playoff video games — that’s how loud it’s,” he mentioned. “In my thoughts, I believe it’s even louder.”
It wasn’t simply in Indiana the place Clark bumped attendance. Earlier than the season began, 4 Fever opponents — Las Vegas, Atlanta, Washington and Los Angeles — moved at the very least considered one of their residence video games towards Indiana to bigger arenas to accommodate extra followers.
Tamika Catchings, a Corridor of Fame ahead who spent her whole 14-year profession with the Fever, nonetheless lives in Indianapolis. She was excited final season when Indiana, led by 2023 No. 1 decide Aliyah Boston, skilled an eight-win improve. “However final yr to this yr is insane, how a lot power is round,” she mentioned.
She’s seen big-box shops that by no means offered Fever gear now displaying merchandise entrance and middle. Followers enter her native tea store, Tea’s Me Cafe, and ask her about Clark, Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. “(Followers) get excited once they see me as a result of they need to speak concerning the Fever,” she mentioned. “In (previous) years, it is likely to be that they get enthusiastic about seeing me, however that’s it. You possibly can inform there’s a real power and curiosity in: ‘What are your ideas concerning the Indiana Fever?’”
Indianapolis involves life when the Fever play. An government with the town’s tourism division mentioned lodge and leases spiked this summer time when the Fever performed.
In the course of the 2024 girls’s NCAA Match, Brent Drescher, basic supervisor of the downtown Indianapolis bar The District Faucet, mentioned followers started stopping in to observe Iowa girls’s basketball, anticipating Clark’s future arrival to city. Followers of the Pacers, who made a run to the NBA’s Japanese Convention finals, usually frequented his bar, displaying up round 5 p.m. for late tip-offs, Drescher mentioned. Fever followers are much more engaged. “They’re coming in as early as 4,” he mentioned.
Jeff Metson, basic supervisor of Taxman CityWay, notices the same buzz. A brew pub with a beer backyard and solely 4 TVs inside, it isn’t a typical sports activities bar, however as a result of it’s on the identical block because the Fever’s area, it’s turn out to be a pregame vacation spot — to the purpose that he’s usually needed to double his employees. Throughout Fever residence video games, he mentioned, the Taxman welcomes as many as 400 patrons in comparison with about 250 on a typical Friday or Saturday evening.
“Not solely can we replenish your entire restaurant pregame, however like clockwork, two hours after the sport begins we’ve folks beginning to stroll down the road, proper in entrance of us,” he mentioned. “Not like the others — Pacers and Colts video games — our postgame crowd fills the restaurant once more. The opposite sports activities don’t do this.”
Jaden Brown and his fiancee had by no means purchased season tickets for any sport earlier than shopping for them for the Fever this yr. They have been shocked to see even a small pizza shock filled with followers earlier than the Fever’s first preseason sport.
“You simply see this flood of Fever, Clark, Iowa jerseys,” Brown mentioned. “It’s like a pregame with strangers. However they’re not strangers since you’re all there supporting the identical staff.”
Nonetheless, it’s not simply bars and eating places within the Indy space which have seen the Caitlin Clark Impact up shut. Portland’s The Sports activities Bra — a bar that has created buzz by displaying solely girls’s sports activities on its TVs since opening in 2022 — is greater than 2,000 miles away from Indianapolis and in a metropolis at present with no WNBA staff. When the Fever play, proprietor Jenny Nguyen mentioned, there’s a 56 p.c improve within the variety of bar payments and a 52 p.c improve in income.
A framed Clark No. 22 Iowa jersey, subsequent to photographs of Serena Williams and Diana Taurasi, hangs on a wall on the bar. However that’s not shocking, contemplating Clark attire could be discovered wherever.
The legal guidelines of provide and demand are evident round Fever video games. Followers didn’t flinch to shell out cash regardless of important ticket worth will increase for Fever video games.
Heading into the playoffs, the get-in worth for the Fever-Solar sport as of Saturday was considerably larger on TicketMaster at $89 than the league’s different three Sunday video games, which averaged $15 per sport. This follows a season-long pattern. The 5 highest common ticket costs this season all featured the Fever.
Hottest WNBA tickets of 2024
| Indiana Fever @ | Common offered worth | Date |
|---|---|---|
|
$346 |
June 23 |
|
|
$286 |
Aug. 30 |
|
|
$269 |
Sept. 1 |
|
|
$262 |
July 17 |
|
|
$217 |
Sept. 19 |
These numbers alone are spectacular, however evaluate them to the identical matchups from final season. The typical worth when the Fever visited the Sky in June 2023 was $45. When Indiana traveled to Washington twice in July 2023, tickets went for $59 on common in July 2023 when the Mystics hosted the Fever, and so they offered for $55 when Indiana performed at Dallas final September. The most well liked ticket for any sport final season was $120 for a regular-season sport between the Aces and the Dream.
Throughout the board, WNBA ticket pricing adopted go well with — leaping from $62 per sport in 2023 to $109 per sport in 2024 (by way of mid-September), based on Vivid Seats. However no staff skilled fairly as drastic a bounce because the Fever, whose residence sport tickets averaged $110 this season, in comparison with the remainder of the W, which averaged $79 per residence sport.
Regardless of the upper worth level, much more tickets have been offered this yr.
“The followers in Indiana love basketball, and I’m glad to see them again within the seats, particularly for the Fever,” mentioned Briann January, who performed the primary 9 seasons of her profession with the Fever and is now an assistant coach with the Solar. “For that staff to be acknowledged and supported the best way they need to be makes me so pleased.”
In the course of the first week of the season, the WNBA mentioned it noticed a 236 p.c improve yr over yr in merchandise gross sales, with jerseys for Clark, Reese and Cameron Brink all within the prime 5. By means of the primary two months of the season, 4 Fever residence video games set single-game gross sales information on the area’s staff retailer, based on the Fever. Complete objects offered grew 694 p.c yr over yr, and the shop’s internet gross sales elevated greater than 1,000 p.c. Jersey gross sales have been up 1,193 p.c heading into the All-Star break.
Clark collectibles have been in excessive demand as nicely. Her signature Wilson basketball offered out in 40 minutes earlier this month, prompting a restock for the newest drop on Monday. A one-of-a-kind autographed Clark WNBA Draft card — the primary displaying her in a Fever jersey — offered at public sale for $84,000.
The sense one thing massive was coming in Indianapolis was looming for months. Earlier than Clark’s Fever debut, the town hung a 150-foot banner of her on a constructing close to Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Clark’s picture appears to be staring throughout the town.
Now, for the primary time in eight years, the Fever are again within the playoffs. Indy’s previous greats already can acknowledge and respect her affect. “Taking part in basketball in Indiana is totally different, whether or not it’s in Indianapolis or one of many smaller cities, basketball is bred in a different way,” Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller mentioned in an e-mail. “So watching the thrill the Fever have dropped at the town and state has been enjoyable to witness.”
A Fever highway win over the Solar on Wednesday would assure a series-clinching Recreation 3 in Indianapolis. Catchings predicts a crazed crowd displaying as much as watch Clark attempt to lead the Fever to their first semifinals since 2015.
“It’s like Fever basketball and girls’s basketball has been rejuvenated,” Catchings mentioned. “Particularly right here in Indy.”
(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Visible information: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photographs: Luke Hales / Getty Photos, G Fiume / Getty Photos, Brian Spurlock / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos)