This Sunday’s matchup between Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky would be the third time the WNBA’s two rookie superstars have performed every this season. For Clark and Reese, it’s really the fourth matchup this 12 months, when you embody their assembly within the NCAA match, when Clark’s Iowa defeated Reese’s LSU to advance to the Closing 4 in April.
However simply because followers have seen the matchup play out earlier than doesn’t imply there’s much less demand to see the rivalry’s subsequent chapter.
In truth, Sunday’s matchup between the Fever and Sky is the costliest WNBA recreation on file, in line with TickPick. The net ticketing platform informed Fortune that the typical buy value for tickets to the sport is $271—greater than thrice larger than the Sky’s common buy value for dwelling video games of $88.
Earlier than Reese and Clark had been drafted in April, the most affordable ticket offered for this recreation was $49, mentioned Kyle Zorn, content material technique lead at TickPick. Now, the most affordable seat is roughly 5 occasions that.
“It’s crazy,” he informed Fortune. “I haven’t seen two players in a sport impact a league like this. It’s very Lebron James-esque, to be honest.”
The ‘Caitlin Clark effect’
In 2024, the “Caitlin Clark effect” has grow to be a tangible financial sensation that’s affected each group, league, model and community the 22-year-old level guard has touched. In April, the NCAA championship between the Iowa Hawkeyes and South Carolina Gamecocks drew 19 million viewers, the very best viewership for a ladies’s school basketball recreation ever recorded, and 5 million greater than the boys’s championship between UConn and Purdue the day earlier than, in line with Nielsen.
Shortly after getting drafted by the Fever 1st total within the WNBA draft, Clark reportedly signed an eight-year, $28-million cope with Nike, a contract that features a future shoe deal and can be the most important attire contract of any participant within the league. Across the similar time, Dick’s Sporting Items introduced it could be promoting Clark Fever merchandise in all 724 places, earlier than she had performed a single skilled recreation.
And as soon as she did begin taking part in, the phenomenon continued.
In Could, the WNBA had its highest attended opening month in 26 years, and probably the most watched begin to a season ever throughout all networks. The variety of video games in Could that offered out jumped 156% from 2023, and enviornment capability throughout all WNBA arenas was at nearly 95%.
But as fascinating as Clark has been this season, her star energy has garnered probably the most consideration—and pushed costs highest—when it comes up in opposition to Reese.
Based on TickPick, the “get-in” value—the worth of the most affordable ticket out there—for this Sunday’s recreation is $249. That’s 336% costlier than the “get-in” value of their final matchup in Indiana—$57. The final time Reese and Clark performed one another, June 16, CNN reported that the assembly was the most-watched WNBA recreation on any community in 23 years, peaking with 3 million viewers, in line with CBS.
A part of that, Zorn mentioned, is the market the sport is being performed in. The earlier two video games have each been in Indiana, a far cheaper market than Chicago.
“The bandwidth of the WNBA has picked up significantly as a result of this [draft] class, and these are the two biggest stars in this class, who have a very deep history,” he mentioned. “It’s the first time this season Caitlin has come to Chicago, and I think a lot of Chicago fans are rallying behind their team, and then people want to see Caitlin as well.”
And so they’re not simply beating the WNBA’s previous information. The $271 buy value for Sunday’s matchup is considerably larger than the typical value for Chicago’s males’s sports activities franchises. The Chicago Bulls common buy value final season was simply $117, whereas for the Bears it was $201.
Zorn mentioned he expects the demand for the WNBA to proceed all through the summer season, so long as the narratives across the league’s younger stars keep scorching. It is going to be fascinating to see what occurs in September, he mentioned, when the beginning of the WNBA playoffs overlaps with the opening weeks of the NFL season.
“With sports, the storyline obviously contributes,” Zorn mentioned. “The more it’s covered, the more people take interest in the sport … I think as long as the storylines are there, and there’s coverage, there’s going to be demand. I don’t see things slowing down.”
