‘The Caitlin Clark effect’ is a very real phenomenon.
The term was coined to describe the undeniable economic impact the Indiana Fever star had on women’s basketball, from her time in college right throughout her recent WNBA Rookie of the Year season.
Clark has taken women’s basketball to new heights this seasonGetty
The No. 1 overall pick’s meteoric rise has brought unprecedented levels of interest to women’s basketball.
Ticket and jersey sales, home attendances, social media engagement, and TV viewership went through the roof last season as the ‘Steph Curry of women’s basketball’ rained down 3s and broke record after record.
According to a new study, the WNBA was able to deliver $136 million in sponsor media value during the 2024 regular season — mostly because of Clark.
Brands felt the full benefit of the ‘Caitlin Clark effect’ with 45 per cent of total broadcast value coming from Fever games.
However, the 2024 rookie class as a whole, led by Clark, rival Angel Reese and Los Angeles Sparks star Cameron Brink, drove a 571 per cent increase in WNBA mentions across digital channels.
TikTok saw a 470 per cent increase in engagement per post compared to 2023.
Furthermore, a much higher percentage of WNBA fans are consistently engaging with team-owned content compared to NBA team followers. On TikTok, for example, the average number of engagements per 1,000 followers is 17.07 for the NBA and 272.24 for the WNBA.
Full media value across all team social accounts increased by $49 million due to growth in engagement.
Three brands which earned the highest social media value for the 2024 WNBA season were Nike (more than $30 million), AT&T ($12 million) and Michelob Ultra ($9.3 million)
Additionally, national TV viewership increased by 60 per cent for ABC, 47 per cent for CBS and 156 per cent for ESPN.
Clark and Reese are two of the biggest things to happen to the WNBA in yearsGetty
Brink has also proven to be highly popularGetty
It comes amid a state of flux for the Fever.
They recently announced they had parted ways with head coach Christie Sides.
Sides went 33-47 in her two seasons with the team, and went 20-20 this season as she steered the Fever to the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
However, Clark and the Fever were bounced out of the WNBA postseason in the first round against the Connecticut Sun — and now they’re strongly linked to the Sun’s recently departed head coach, Stephanie White.
The 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year grew up in Indiana, won an NCAA championship at Purdue, played for the Fever and was previously in the Indy hot-seat in 2015 and 2016.
The former pro-turned-coach joined Connecticut in 2023 after five years at the helm at Vanderbilt, and led the Sun to back-to-back trips to the WNBA semifinals.
Sides is leaving the Fever after two years in chargeAP
Fever franchise face Clark was recently asked about White, who also works as an ESPN analyst and covered plenty of Hawkeyes games.
“She’s obviously called a lot of my games all throughout college, and I think she has a really great basketball mind,” Clark said.
“I think she’s done a great job calling college games, it’s been great to see her on NBA games. I think what she’s done is just, she obviously has been a trailblazer, honestly. I think she’s somebody who’s been supportive of my game, and it’s been fun to talk to her at shootarounds throughout my college career and has always been really supportive.
“Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is it’s fun going up against her here now for my first time after her calling a lot of my games. Now I get to play against her, so that’s going to be a lot of fun for the both of us.”
Former Sun head coach White could soon be on the Fever sidelineGetty
White’s appointment would be the latest development in the WNBA’s coaching merry-go-round.
Seven of the league’s teams currently do not have coaches in place.
After letting go of White, the Sun became the seventh team to make a coaching change this offseason, joining Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, and Indiana.
The new WNBA season is set to tip off in May 2025, and could see its regular season expanded to 44 games.
Before that, 30 of the W’s best players will take part in a new, professional three-on-three basketball league called Unrivaled.
The project — spearheaded by 2024 WNBA Finals foes Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier — is set to begin in January in Miami and will be contested by six teams across eight weeks, including the playoffs.
The $100 million, TNT Sports-backed league, which has already recruited stars like Reese, Brittany Griner, and Kelsey Plum, is rumored to be all in for Clark.
League bosses are preparing a ‘Lionel Messi–like’ deal to get Clark on board, although she’s yet to reveal whether she’ll be filling one of the three remaining slots.
