How Caitlin Clark’s rookie season has been ‘the perfect fuel on a fire’ for a new WNBA era

Nearly 20 years ago, Conrad Piccirillo attended his first Indiana Fever game. The WNBA franchise was just five years into its existence and on the brink of its best year to date, but he admittedly was not there for the basketball. His daughters, 10-year-old Caitlyn and 11-year-old Claire, were members of the Fever Inferno’s youth dance team, and he was there to cheer them on during their performances.

Eventually, his daughters aged out of the dance troupe, but by that point, Piccirillo was hooked. He bought six season tickets and invited friends, reveling in the Fever’s 2012 WNBA championship. Yet, when the Fever hit hard times with consistent losing records for nearly a decade, Piccirillo found it harder to convince friends to join him at Fever games in his free courtside seats.

Flash forward to 2024 and he hasn’t had that problem again thanks to Caitlin Clark. His cohort is part of the legion of fans who have made Fever games the hottest ticket in the WNBA. He attended all but one game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse this season, soaking in the energy and environment as he watched waves of fans fall in love with the Fever and the WNBA the same way he did.

“I think she’s the perfect fuel on a fire that had been really growing,” Piccirillo said about Clark.

Clark’s rookie…