The Caitlin Clark effect is the impact that American basketball player Caitlin Clark is reported to have on the popularity of women's basketball. Publications have used the term since Clark's collegiate career with the Iowa Hawkeyes, in which she drew unprecedented public interest to the sport. In 2023 and 2024, during her final two seasons at Iowa, her games set several attendance and television viewership records. After Clark was drafted by the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), analysts credited the Caitlin Clark effect for increases in WNBA attendance and viewership.
Background
Clark drew national attention as a junior for Iowa during 2023 NCAA tournament, where she set tournament records in points and three-pointers while helping her team achieve a runner-up finish. USA Today reporter Lindsay Schnell noted that Clark became a "household name" due to her play during the tournament.[1] The 2023 national championship game set the women's college basketball viewership record with 9.9 million viewers.[2]The Athletic writer Richard Deitsch wrote that Clark drew casual viewers to the title game, in part due to her long-range three-point shooting.[3] Entering Clark's senior season in 2023–24, local media attributed increases in Iowa ticket sales to the "Caitlin Clark effect".[4][5] During the 2023–24 season, the term was used by many publications, including BBC News, The Washington Post and USA Today, to describe Clark's general impact on the popularity of women's basketball, as measured by ticket prices, attendance and television viewership, among other factors.[6][7][8]
Television viewership
Clark drove historic levels of television viewership during her final two seasons at Iowa. At the conclusion of her college career, she was proclaimed the "GOAT of TV Ratings" by The Wall Street Journal, which wrote that her impact on television viewership exceeded any other modern athlete.[9] The 2023 national championship game, which featured Clark, was the most-watched women's college basketball game in history, averaging 9.9 million viewers.[2] On March 3, 2024, her game against Ohio State, in which she surpassed Pete Maravich to become the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer, averaged 3.39 million viewers. It was the most-watched women's regular season college basketball game on Fox and on any network since 1999.[10][11] Clark's first three games in the 2024 NCAA tournament each became the most-viewed women's college basketball games prior to the Final Four.[12][13][14] Her Elite Eight game against LSU (12.3 million), which was a rematch of the 2023 national title game, and her Final Four contest against UConn (14.2 million) each broke the women's college basketball viewership record.[15][16] The 2024 national championship game, where Clark played against South Carolina, again set the women's college basketball viewership record with 18.9 million viewers and was the most-watched basketball game since 2019. It was the first NCAA women's basketball title game to outdraw the men's title game.[17][18]
Clark continued to set viewership records upon entering the WNBA. The 2024 WNBA draft, where the Indiana Fever selected Clark with the first overall pick, averaged 2.45 million viewers, the most in WNBA draft history. It was also the most-watched WNBA telecast since 2000.[19] Clark's regular season debut against the Connecticut Sun on May 14, 2024, was the most-watched WNBA game since 2002 and the most-watched ever on ESPN2 or any cable network.[20][21] On May 18, her game against the New York Liberty set the league's ABC viewership record with 1.71 million viewers.[22] In the following week, Clark's games set WNBA viewership marks on ESPN, Ion and NBA TV.[21]
Game attendance
Clark has driven increases in home and away attendance for her games.[23] Entering her senior season, her Iowa team sold out all of its home games for the first time, after previously selling out only three regular season games in program history.[24] On October 15, 2023, Iowa held a preseason exhibition game against DePaul at Kinnick Stadium, which set the women's basketball single-game attendance record at 55,646.[25] Iowa sold out or set an attendance record in all but two regular season games, both at the Gulf Coast Showcase during the Thanksgiving weekend.[26] Her November 9 game against Virginia Tech, held at a neutral site in Charlotte, North Carolina, had the highest attendance (15,196) for any women's college basketball game in state history.[27] Teams that reported attendance records while hosting Iowa included Wisconsin (14,252),[28]Ohio State (18,660),[29] and Nebraska (15,042),[30] and Northwestern recorded its first sellout against the Hawkeyes.[31] Iowa set the Big Ten single-season average attendance record (14,998), surpassing its own mark from the previous season (11,143).[32] Her regular season finale against Ohio State, in which she passed Maravich as the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer, was the most expensive women's college basketball game of all time, with an average ticket price of $408.[33] The 2024 Big Ten tournament, where Clark led her team to the title, sold out for the first time in event history.[34] The Common Sense Institute Iowa, an economic research organization, estimated in March 2024 that the Caitlin Clark effect increased Iowa's gross domestic product by between $14.4 million and $52.3 million, while generating about $82.5 million in consumer spending.[35]
Before Clark's first season with the Indiana Fever, a study led by Michael J. Hicks of Ball State University estimated that Clark would bring over $2.4 million to central Indiana and draw 26,000 more fans to Fever games.[36] During her first month in the WNBA, the Los Angeles Sparks (19,103), New York Liberty (17,735) and Seattle Storm (18,343) each set attendance records while hosting her Fever team.[37][38][39] The Sparks, Las Vegas Aces, Washington Mystics and Atlanta Dream moved home games against the Fever to larger arenas to accommodate public interest in Clark.[40] Her game against the Mystics on June 7, 2024, which was moved to the Capital One Arena, had an attendance of 20,333, the most for a WNBA game since the 2007 WNBA Finals and the fifth-most for a regular season game.[41] The two teams met again at Capital One Arena on September 19, 2024 for the regular-season finale and drew the WNBA's highest-ever attendance for a regular-season game, at 20,711.[42]
Commentary
The role of Clark's identity in the Caitlin Clark effect has drawn scrutiny, suggesting that her record-setting in-game achievements as a player are less important, even suggesting that the fact that she cares about her fans is perhaps a deciding factor.[43][44]The Athletic columnist Jim Trotter wrote that Clark appeals to a wider audience by being white, straight and from the United States heartland, in contrast to many WNBA players.[45]The Atlantic writer Jemele Hill, USA Today reporter Lindsay Schnell and WNBA star A'ja Wilson have also highlighted the racial component of her popularity and the inequity in media coverage of Black female athletes.[43][46][47]USA Today columnist Christine Brennan wrote that Clark's popularity was not media-driven, but rather "grew organically from the heartland to the coasts" due to her style of play.[48]
Clark's ability to attract public interest and connect with fans has been likened to pop singer Taylor Swift.[49][50] Her fans have been nicknamed Clarkies, in reference to Swift's fanbase of Swifties.[23] The Caitlin Clark effect has also been compared to the rivalry between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, which helped popularize men's basketball in the 1980s.[51]
