Caitlin Clark, Fever Generated Nearly 50% of WNBA Broadcast Value, Per Finance Expert
It's no secret that Caitlin Clark was a massive draw during her rookie season in the WNBA.
Check any objective metric that can assess attention generated — such as ticket sales, merchandise sold, and TV ratings, to name a few — with Clark compared to without her and it's clear that she's at another level compared to her peers.
This isn't anything new. However, a December 3 article from Dana Hunsinger Benbow of the Indianapolis Star showcased some new findings from "renowned valuation guru in the field of finance" Dr. Ryan Brewer — whose expertise is "estimating something or someone's worth" — that put Clark's impact into an entirely new light.
"Total TV viewership due to Clark is up 300% and 45% of total broadcast value came from Fever games," Brewer said in the article. "The league's merchandise sales catapulted 500%, with Clark ranking No. 1 followed by the Chicago Sky's Angel Reese, another rookie."
The fact that Clark and the Fever made for nearly 50% of the WNBA's total broadcast value is staggering, to say the least. And that metric is likely to increase as Clark's career progresses.
Benbow also added in the article, "The most astonishing number of all is Clark's economic impact on the city of Indianapolis, which Brewer says is upwards of $36 million. Not as big as the NBA All-Star game's $400 million financial boost to the city in February, but a respectable 10% of that."
"Now, let's take a breath for a minute and think about this," said Brewer. "That's for one year. We're talking about one player."
Earlier on in the article, Benbow wrote, "One of every six tickets sold at a WNBA arena can be attributed to Clark."
The numbers are so staggering they don't seem real. But this? Caitlin Clark alone had a $36M economic impact on Indy.
— Dana HunsingerBenbow (@DanaBenbow) December 3, 2024
“Now let's take a breath for a minute and think about this," said Dr. Ryan Brewer. "That's for one year. We're talking about one player." https://t.co/KFl5D6LoTD
It's safe to say that the Indiana Fever — and the WNBA as a whole — won the lottery with Clark.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.