The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Clark welcomes in a new era this summer
UNCASVILLE — The most anticipated WNBA season yet begins this Tuesday. And it’s starting in Connecticut at Mohegan Sun Arena.
The Connecticut Sun, one of the most experienced and dominant teams in the league, hosts rookie sensation Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever at 7:30 p.m. in Uncasville to kick off the 2024 season.
It marks the professional debut of Clark, who has become of the face of her sport.
It also could be one of the biggest sporting events in Connecticut history. And that’s no exaggeration.
“It’s been a long time coming. It really has,” Sun head coach Stephanie White said. “For me, to see this be like a Final Four event or like an NBA Playoffs event; our players deserve it. Our league deserves it.”
Outside of the game itself already sold out and expected to reach record-breaking viewership, ESPN has plans to broadcast the game (on ESPN 2) as if it was a WNBA Finals game with a multitude of different cameras, player microphones and over 70 production crew members in attendance — almost three times the presence for a regular season WNBA game.
That attention is in large part due to Clark and her star power. But more than just one individual player, women’s basketball is having a moment right now and has been for past few months following the most watched women’s NCAA tournament in history.
Now, all eyes are on the WNBA to see how the 28-yearold league can capitalize on the sport’s skyrocketing growth.
“I feel like there’s just as much, if not more, hype leading into this season than we saw the last time to this degree in 1997,” said Rebecca Lobo, the UConn women’s basketball and WNBA legend and current ESPN analyst. “I think we’re going to see numbers that we haven’t seen since the very early years of the WNBA. … I can’t wait.”
Explosion of college game
Over 12 million people watched the Elite Eight matchup this March between Iowa and LSU. The Tigers looking to repeat as national champions. And the Hawkeyes, led by Clark in her final collegiate season, looking for revenge over LSU after losing the 2023 title game. The two teams’ meeting in 2023 drew nearly 10 million people thanks to Clark and LSU star Angel Reese.
Iowa beat LSU and moved onto the Final Four this April — and its audience grew with it.
The Hawkeyes’ Final Four win over UConn women’s basketball reached 14.2 million viewers — the most watched national semifinal game ever. But it didn’t end there.
Iowa and South Carolina’s meeting in the national championship game drew an even more massive viewership of 18.9 million, peaking at 24.1 million. ESPN’s most watched college basketball game ever and its most-watched basketball (men’s or women’s or col
lege or pro) game since 2017.
The storylines that weekend in Cleveland matched the moment and drew in more fans than ever before. UConn back in the Final Four since its Sweet 16 upset the year prior. Paige Bueckers’ return to March Maddess. NC State’s first trip to the Final Four since 1998. Iowa’s second-straight title game run. South Carolina’s perfect season. Kamilla Cardoso’s dominance in the post. And, of course, Clark. South Carolina ultimately took home the ultimate trophy, yet women’s basketball itself won more than anyone thought possible.
“This year, college basketball killed it,” longtime Sun veteran DeWanna Bonner said. “Angel Reese. Caitlin Clark. Paige (Bueckers). Like all these players, they brought eyes to it. So now it’s our turn to keep that going and keep the game going. And it’s gonna be some exciting basketball this summer. Some really exciting basketball.”
The Caitlin Clark Effect
Clark has captivated basketball fans for the past two years like no one else. Period.
The guard mesmerizes with her half-court logo 3pointers, her sneaky yet smooth passes and her unapologetic commanding confidence. She eggs on crowds raising her arms and shouting after clutch deep shots and visibly voices her in-game frustrations with officials and with herself.
She’s the NCAA all-time leading scorer across both men’s and women’s basketball and is a two-time, backto-back, National Player of the Year. Iowa retired her No. 22 jersey less than a week after her final game in the Hawkeyes’ gold and black.
But Clark’s fame goes so much further than what she does on the court.
The Des Moines, Iowa native reminded people of the warmth that comes with bringing pride to your home state. Clark could have gone anywhere for college. She initially committed to Notre Dame, but de-committed and chose Iowa to remain close to home. And the state bellowed its support of the superstar, especially thanks to Name, Image and Likeness.
Clark’s No. 22 has become iconic. Through her NIL partnerships with Nike, Gatorade and State Farm, her celebrity has reached unprecedented heights for a female athlete. She’s on billboards, promoting her own water bottles and shoe lines, and even made an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Her fame impossible to miss.
While women’s basketball icons — such as Lobo, Diana Taurasi, Tamkia Catchings, Lisa Leslie, Sherly Swoopes, Sue Bird and Candace Parker — have paved the way for all this to be possible; no one has brought as much attention to the sport on such a high, national level as Clark.
“Nobody’s been under a stronger spotlight, a bigger microscope in the women’s game, probably in the history of the game, than Caitlin Clark was,” Lobo said. “And she continually lived up to the moment every single time.”
WNBA up next
The transition from the college game to the WNBA is not only an adjustment for players but also fans.
No longer the player they cheered and rooted for four years is as accessible. They get drafted to an out-ofstate team and games are that much harder to watch on TV.
But with Clark making her debut in the league this summer all that is expected to, and has already begun, to change.
“The last time I can think of this much hype leading into a WNBA season was 1997, because it was the first one,” Lobo said. “People were eager to see, what does professional women’s basketball look like? What’s a league backed by David Stern and the league look like? There was a lot of interest going into that season.”
Clark was selected No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA Draft. A record 2.45 million people tuned in to watch the broadcast. The WNBA opened 1,000 seats for fans to watch the draft live in person in Brooklyn — marking the first-time fans attended a WNBA Draft since 2016. The 1,000 seats sold out in 15 minutes.
Five days before the draft even happened, the WNBA announced 36 of the Fever’s 40 regular season games would be broadcast on national platforms. All across the league teams have moved their regular-scheduled home games against the Fever to bigger venues anticipating large, capacityfilled crowds for when Clark comes to town.
“That’s what we’ve been fighting to get,” Bonner said. “We’ve been begging people to come out to the games and now, it’s like hard to get a ticket. That’s crazy, right?”
The Sun’s season opener against the Fever is soldout at over 10,000 people. Tickets began flying off the shelf once Clark announced she was declaring for the draft back in early March.
“The storyline of how she’s going to adjust and impact through her play at the WNBA level is very intriguing to a lot of fans whether they were W fans or not,” CT Sun president and former UConn star Jennifer Rizzotti told CT Insider. “… I don’t know that anybody’s afraid to admit that she is bringing attention to women’s basketball at a level that we’ve never seen before.”
But the Clark mayhem reaches further than just Indiana thanks to a rookie class that also includes Reese, Cardoso, Aaliyah Edwards, Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson. All young professionals who have grown their fame through NIL and their dominance on the court in high-profiled college programs.
“The impact of this class is going to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” Lobo said.
Because of the newfound spotlight on women’s basketball, WNBA teams have seen large growths in their season ticket sales. The Sun have doubled their normal season ticket amount for the 2024 season while the Las Vegas Aces became the first W team in league history to sell out their allotted season tickets (about 8,600 seats).
Even during last week’s preseason exhibition games, fans vocally expressed their frustration with most of the games not being televised. Over 200,000 people jumped on a live stream from a random fan’s cellphone on their personal X account during the Chicago-Minnesota preseason game.
With the league’s popularity currently booming, the WNBA has begun to take advantage of the moment and made strides in expanding the league and its safety.
WNBA teams have mainly flown commercial since its inception in 1997. Just last year, the league allowed teams to use private, charter flights in the case of back-to-back games and for the entirety of the playoffs for the first time ever. Flying commercial not only posses the risk of major delays, cramped seats and rushed recovery days, but is also a major safety concern.
Phoenix star Brittney Griner was harassed in an airport last year while traveling with the Mercury mid-season. And last week, during the Fever’s travel to Dallas for a preseason game, viral photos showed Clark having to walk through crowded airports behind a handful of security guards just to get through.
On May 9, the league announced it will institute a full, league-wide charter program starting with the 2024 season. While there’s no details as to when exactly teams will be able to begin using charters, it’s a groundbreaking milestone.
“When you look at the cadence of a WNBA season and the amount of games, whether it’s sometimes five in eight days or three in five days or whatever it is, and much of that includes traveling, I think we’re certainly going to see a positive impact in terms of the play on the court as a result of the charters,” Lobo said.
Especially with the addition of a 13th team next season and another new team in 2026.
San Franciso will kick off its first season in the league next summer. The team (currently unnamed but for now known as WNBA Golden State) opens up 12 more spots for players in the WNBA and will go through an expansion draft likely next winter. And while the WNBA has yet to officially announce it, Shireen Ahmed from CBC Canada reported Toronto has been awarded a WNBA team to begin play in 2026.
But for now, all eyes are on the league and how it handles this unprecedented season.
Just how big will it become with Clark in the fold? Will its longtime vets also get the national recognition they’ve long deserved? What about its predominately Black women superstars? Will they get just as much attention? And how will in-game and travel safety measures better support players? Can the league maintain its growth not only through an Olympic year but also for years to come?
“The WNBA is certainly ready for this,” Lobo said. “The players and the product on the court has been ready for it the last decade, I’d say.”
It all begins Tuesday night in Uncasville, Connecticut.