WNBA Reportedly Planning Around Indiana Fever as 'America's Team'
There's no question that the Indiana Fever blossomed into becoming the WNBA's most popular basketball team during the 2024 regular season.
This is shown by the attendance records that they set during both home and road games, ticket prices, merchandise sales, and just about any other metric that can be used to assess a team's acclaim.
Former Iowa Hawkeyes sensation Caitlin Clark — who is already arguably the biggest star in women's basketball history despite being 22 years old and having played one season of professional basketball — is the driving reason for Indiana's popularity.
And in a December 23 article, Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal conveyed that the WNBA is already trying to leverage Clark and the Fever's popularity toward a global audience.
"The WNBA is not oblivious [to Clark's stardom] and, according to sources, eventually will schedule a Fever game overseas to capitalize on her Q rating," Friend wrote.
A Q rating (or Q score) is, according to Wikipedia, "a measurement of the familiarity and appeal of a brand, celebrity, company, or entertainment product (e.g., television show) used in the United States."
Friend continued, writing, "Privately, the plan is to market the Fever like they’re 'America’s Team.'"
Finally Caitlin will play an overseas game! pic.twitter.com/U4U1c7aCAW
— correlation (@nosyone4) December 23, 2024
While the WNBA has played games outside of the United States before (the 2023 and 2024 WNBA Canada Games were held in Toronto and Edmonton, the Atlanta Dream played a preseason game against the Great Britain Women’s National Team in Manchester, England in 2011, and another WNBA preseason game was played in Monterrey, Mexico in 2004), Clark and the Fever playing overseas would surely attract much more attention than any previous international contests.
The Dream and Seattle Storm are slated to play a Third WNBA Canada Game (the first regular season game outside the U.S.) on August 15, 2025.
It will be fascinating to see which country the WNBA decides to bring the Fever to if (and when) this reported overseas game actually takes place.
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.