Caitlin Clark and Indiana Fever set WNBA attendance record

During the game, Clark also set the WNBA rookie record for three-pointers made, finishing the night with 88 three-pointers on the year. She had 19 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win.

After a slow start to the year, the Fever are now just one game under .500, with a big game coming up Friday night against Angel Reese and the 11-19 Chicago Sky. The cheapest ticket on Ticketmaster for the game at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena was about $150 as of Thursday morning.

The Fever set the regular season attendance record with nine games to go, thanks in part to some opponents moving their games to larger stadiums. In July, the defending champion Las Vegas Aces drew 20,366 fans to T-Mobile Arena – the largest WNBA crowd in 25 years – when Clark came to town. In May, the New York Liberty set the WNBA record with $2 million in ticket revenue for a game against the Fever.

According to an analysis conducted in July, attendance at WNBA games excluding Fever games has also increased by nearly 20% this year.

“I think the excitement and the attention that Caitlin has brought from Iowa to the WNBA now is going to be a collective win for everyone,” Liberty star and reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart said at the time. “And now that she’s part of our league … even though we compete against each other, we’re making sure that we continue to move this league forward together. And I think that’s the most important thing.”

The Fever have also broken television viewership records. Saturday’s game against the Lynx saw the team set the NBA TV record for WNBA games with an average of 569,000 viewers, and Friday’s game against the Sky will likely match that. Clark’s All-Star debut averaged 3.44 million viewers on ABC, nearly 150% more than the network’s previous record set in 2003.

In June Sport valued the Indiana Fever at $90 million, making it the sixth-most valuable WNBA franchise, with revenue of $9.1 million in 2023. Before new national TV contracts take effect, most team revenue is generated locally, with tickets making up a large portion of that revenue. Last year, the Fever had the second-lowest average home attendance in the WNBA, with 4,067 tickets sold per game. The team released a financial report earlier this month detailing its success in 2024.

Indiana finishes the season on September 19 in Washington. That game has already been moved to Capital One Arena, where 20,333 fans came to see the newcomer in June, the largest crowd since 2007.

“I’m just a kid playing basketball and having a lot of fun,” Clark said after Wednesday’s game. “And when I get into these arenas and this environment, I look around and it’s unbelievable. It really is.”