Caitlin Clark fever has already struck the WNBA.
Shortly after the Indiana Fever selected her with the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft on Monday, most sizes of Clark’s jersey were sold out on Fanatics within an hour. It’s unknown how many Clark jerseys Fanatics sold, but extra small, medium, large, extra large and double-extra large jerseys were unavailable to purchase on the website not long after they became available for sale.
Clark’s immediate impact on the WNBA isn’t much of a surprise. As her college career at Iowa progressed, Clark brought extra attention to women’s college basketball. Iowa‘s home and road games were constantly sold out during Clark’s senior season, which saw her break the all-time Division I scoring record, men’s or women’s.
The Clark effect also translated to record-setting television ratings for women’s college basketball. Her final regular-season game at Iowa was the most-watched women’s college basketball regular-season game since 1999. Iowa’s final three games in the 2024 NCAA Tournament broke the record for the most-watched games in women’s college basketball history. In fact, Iowa’s loss to South Carolina in the women’s title game drew a larger audience (18.9 million) than the men’s national title game (14.8 million), marking the first time…
