Indiana Fever top 2023 home attendance total after just 5 games this season

On the heels of drafting arguably the largest faculty sports activities celebrity in latest historical past, the WNBA’s Indiana Fever have already damaged the crew’s total home attendance for all of 2023 — and it took just 5 games this season.

The Fever drew just over 81,000 followers to observe them play at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis over the course of 20 home games final season, in accordance with knowledge from Across the Timeline. It marked the second-lowest attendance in the complete WNBA and was one of many worst seasons for ticket gross sales in franchise historical past.

This season, Fever attendance has already surpassed 82,000 within the crew’s first 5 home games. And it is all thanks to 1 particular person: Caitlin Clark.

From breaking the all-time faculty basketball scoring report, to drawing the best scores for a WNBA recreation in ESPN historical past, there is no denying the indelible affect Clark has made on girls’s sports activities. And the momentum is tangible.

As a two-time nationwide faculty participant of the yr, promoting out arenas was one thing Clark grew accustomed to lengthy earlier than becoming a member of the WNBA. But since being drafted first total by Indiana in this yr’s draft, the hype round girls’s basketball has grown exponentially.

“I’m just grateful for, you already know, clearly the assist, the joy,” Clark stated of the elevated reputation of the WNBA. “I believe, you already know, this is what the league and the gamers in this league have deserved for a very very long time.”

She’s a part of a star rookie class that features massive names like Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and Cameron Brink — all who share credit score within the unprecedented assist for ladies’s basketballas a complete.

“I do not essentially assume that we’re something particular,” Brink stated earlier this yr. “I believe we’re actually good gamers, and I do assume we’re — in the event you have a look at different draft lessons, we’re a very robust class — however I believe it is just been time, and the ladies earlier than us.”

It’s a meteoric rise that WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated is just not just about curiosity, however cash.

“I might’ve stated three years in the past possibly we weren’t prepared for this second, however that is why we raised that capital,” Engelbert stated in an interview with ESPN. “We got here off the pandemic yr, which was powerful for us as a result of that was a reasonably existential time for this league to both survive or go away, and we survived and now we’re thriving.”

Thanks to the elevated consideration and funding, Engelbert introduced in May that the WNBA would commit $50 million to offer full-time constitution flights to all groups over the following two seasons, ending a longstanding frowned-upon custom of gamers flying industrial. She has additionally stated she hopes to develop the league by 4 further groups earlier than the 2028 season.

Scripps Sports is — for a second season — broadcasting WNBA games each Friday night time on ION. Tune in this Friday, June 7, to observe Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever tackle Ariel Atkins and the Washington Mystics at 7:30 p.m. ET. Or catch the Seattle Storm vs. the two-time defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces later that night time at 10 p.m. ET.

ION’s 14-week WNBA schedule is on the market to TV and streaming viewers nationwide and contains 40+ nationwide, regional, or native games that will likely be broadcast by means of Sept. 13.

Click right here to view the complete upcoming WNBA on ION schedule.