Fans Showed Up for Caitlin Clark—and Stayed for Something More

Even in the Fever’s final game of the regular season when nothing was on the line, a WNBA attendance record was set in D.C. as fans wanted to catch the rookie sensation.

There was nothing particularly spectacular about the Sept. 19 game between the Fever and Mystics in Washington, D.C. It had no real stakes. This was the last game of the WNBA regular season for these two teams: Indiana had locked up its playoff spot and Washington had lost its ability to control its playoff destiny. Most of the starters played limited minutes. There was no tension. But the crowd felt befitting of something far greater. It set the regular-season record for WNBA attendance at 20,711, more than any other game since the league began play in 1997.

It was both incredible and not. On the one hand, you had the aforementioned low stakes for a game between two unexceptional teams, along with the fact that it was a Thursday. It was not exactly a recipe for a record crowd. On the other hand, you had Caitlin Clark, who had proven herself big enough to cancel out all of the above. It should not have been surprising which of those factors won out.

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King Arthur

Like anyone who spent the last few years covering women’s basketball, I’d watched Clark draw remarkable crowds across the country, including several in places that were not exactly basketball hotbeds. At the Sweet 16 this spring in Albany, N.Y., I looked into the stands and saw a lady waving a sign that claimed she had flown in for the game from Kuwait. How many people have a presence that can motivate someone to leave Kuwait for a weekend in Albany? (Certainly not any Governor of New York.) And yet this felt completely normal in the context of Clark, where screaming fans, overwhelming demand and high prices had already been established as the norm.

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever celebrates in the second half of a game against the Seattle Storm at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on August 18, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. | Photo by Chet White/Getty Images