Fever See Increase in Ticket Demand Ahead of Caitlin Clark's Expected Selection in WNBA Draft, per Report

Apr 7, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark (22) reacts against the South
Apr 7, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark (22) reacts against the South / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
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Caitlin Clark is box office.

The Iowa star, who helped women's college basketball television ratings skyrocket during the 2023-24 season and the NCAA tournament, is already drawing a national audience to the Indiana Fever, who hold the first pick in the upcoming WNBA draft and will almost certainly be selecting Clark.

After drawing just 22 nationally-televised games in 2023, the Fever received 36 such contests out of a possible 40 for the 2024 season in preparation for Clark's arrival.

But that's not all.

The Fever are seeing a "spike" in ticket demand and ticket prices, according to Stephen Holder of ESPN.

Indiana, which ranked second-to-last in home attendance in the WNBA this past season while winning just 13 games, is now pre-selling single game tickets to a pair of games per day over about a two-week stretch, Holder reports.

This surge in WNBA ticket demand comes on the heels of Clark's Hawkeyes drawing a record, 18.9 million TV viewers in their national title game loss to the Gamecocks.

Clark, who scored the most career points in Division I history among men and women, seems poised to be just as impactful for the WNBA as she was for the NCAA.

The 2024 WNBA draft will take place on April 15 at 7:30 p.m. ET at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, Ny.


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Tim Capurso
TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.