It’s not surprising that corporations are lining up like fans along arena railings to get Caitlin Clark’s autograph. The former Iowa star is a transcendent talent who has proven she is as proficient at breaking viewership records as scoring marks, drawing capacity crowds at home and on the road and even attracting 17,000 spectators to an open practice during Final Four weekend. Her WNBA jersey sold out within hours of her being drafted No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever, and multiple teams have moved upcoming games to larger venues to accommodate “unprecedented demand” for Fever games.

So, it makes perfect sense that she has been hired to pitch everything from home and auto insurance to performance drinks, from trading cards to supermarket chains, from automobiles to financial investment firms. She’s not only deserving of every opportunity but also has earned every endorsement deal that’s been placed before her, including a $28 million Nike pact that includes her own signature shoe line, as reported by The Athletic.

GO DEEPER

Caitlin Clark’s whirlwind WNBA Draft week just the start for the in-demand rookie

That being said, we should not delude ourselves into believing her appeal as an influencer is based solely on basketball, because it’s not. Arguing otherwise is…

Reporting by Shams Charania, Mike Vorkunov and Ben Pickman

Indiana Fever rookie phenom Caitlin Clark — the No. 1 pick in Monday’s WNBA draft — is nearing a lucrative, eight-figure endorsement deal with Nike, industry sources tell The Athletic.

Clark is expected to receive a signature Nike shoe as well, those sources said. Under Armour and Adidas also made sizable offers to Clark, two industry sources said.

Clark’s previous deal with Nike ended after the conclusion of the recently finished college basketball season, which allowed her to hit the market at the peak of her popularity. Clark was a supernova at the University of Iowa, breaking records and bringing new fans to college basketball. The women’s NCAA Tournament set viewership records with every game in which Iowa played, culminating in 18.9 million viewers for the Hawkeyes’ national title game loss to South Carolina.

The Fever drafted the 22-year-old Clark first overall in Monday’s draft. Interest in the draft was at an all-time high, and it also set viewership records, with more than four times as many viewers for this year’s draft (2.4 million) compared to last year, blowing away the previous record for the most-watched WNBA draft, set in 2004.

Clark was expected to land one of the most lucrative sneaker…

Caitlin Clark was introduced to Indiana as a member of the Fever for the first time Wednesday, as the No. 1 draft pick joined with general manager Lin Dunn and coach Christie Sides to meet with media at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The reception awaiting Clark dwarfed any crowd that has covered the Fever in recent memory, as will be the case for most of her firsts in the WNBA.

Among the credentialed media in attendance was Gregg Doyel, an award-winning columnist for The Indianapolis Star. When it was his turn to pose a question to Clark, Doyel made a heart gesture with his hands in her direction, which Clark recognized as the signal she gives her family after every game. That gesture has become associated with Clark and was featured in one of her State Farm commercials. When Clark made the association, Doyel responded, “Start doing it to me, and we’ll get along just fine.”

Reporter:

Caitlin Clark: “You like that?”

Reporter: “I like that you’re here.”

Caitlin: “Yeah, I do that at my family after every game.”

Reporter: “Start doing it to me and we’ll get along just fine.”

Caitlin:

(via @IndianaFever / YT)pic.twitter.com/BBjU881K7a

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 17, 2024

The reaction to Doyel’s comments was swift and unfavorable. There was near-universal…

The most anticipated WNBA Draft in recent memory has come and gone. Once again, it was a franchise-changing day for the Indiana Fever, who drafted Caitlin Clark. Meanwhile, several teams made meaningful investments in their futures while others fine-tuned in their pursuit of a championship in the near term.

Let’s take a look at how well each team accomplished its goals in the 2024 WNBA Draft. The grades are a little bit higher across the board than last year, but this was a better pool of players. I’m allowing for some optimism.

Nyadiew Puoch (12), Isabel Borlase (20), Matilde Villa (32)

The Dream made three international selections, all of whom are 19 years old, and none of whom project to play in the WNBA during the 2024 season. As such, it’s hard to say if Atlanta addressed any of its needs because by the time these players come over, the roster could look dramatically different. Big picture, Puoch and Borlase were rated as first-round talents by the general managers The Athletic surveyed, so to pick up both with only one first-round pick is good value. But the Dream have a chance to get better right now with Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray rating among the better perimeter duos in the league, and they punted on a chance for immediate improvement, even if this trio of…

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever GM Lin Dunn knows the Caitlin Clark effect is coming. In fact, it’s already started. More than 6,000 fans turned out for the Fever’s WNBA Draft party at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Monday, more fans than 17 of the team’s 20 home games last season, mainly due to the anticipation of the Iowa star being selected first by the Fever.

This wasn’t a normal turnout, especially for someone who was hundreds of miles away in New York, but Clark isn’t a normal player. She became a rock star at Iowa, and that show will soon continue alongside 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston on an even bigger stage. A stage that now includes championship expectations, according to Dunn.

Dunn, in her third season as the Indiana Fever GM, was the Seattle Storm coach and GM when it drafted Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird with back-to-back No. 1 picks in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Although Dunn resigned from the Storm after the 2002 season, Jackson and Bird eventually led the franchise to two championships in 2004 and 2010. Dunn believes Boston and Clark could have similar title potential as a duo.

“It doesn’t happen very often, and so when it does happen and you can look back historically, it usually means that it leads to championships,” Dunn said. “I think this is the…

NEW YORK — Caitlin Clark was anxious moments before WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert voiced the most predictable news of Monday night’s 2024 WNBA Draft. With the first pick, the Indiana Fever selected Clark, the Iowa superstar who amassed one of the greatest careers in women’s college basketball history. Fever general manager Lin Dunn said it took “20 seconds, maybe 15” to make Clark the choice. The celebration for Clark lasted far longer than that inside the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As she embraced her family, throngs of fans wearing No. 22 Iowa T-shirts rose to their feet in delight.

Eventually, everyone sat down, but not before a franchise had been changed.

“I can’t imagine a more perfect fit, a better place for me to start my professional career, an organization that really just believes in women’s basketball and wants to do everything the right way,” Clark said.

SEE YOU SOON CAITLIN!! pic.twitter.com/ImbApa6wuC

— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) April 16, 2024

It’s been a whirlwind week for Clark, the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer. In the span of eight days, she walked off the court at the national championship game, appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and shuffled in and out of meetings with league and player association officials in New…

NEW YORK — The WNBA is looking to continue growing in the next few years. The league intends to reach 16 teams by 2028, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said before the draft, confirming The Athletic report from earlier Monday.

The league announced earlier this year that the Bay Area would receive an expansion team for a 13th league franchise, which is expected to start playing the 2025 season. The WNBA is looking at the 2026 season for its 14th team, Engelbert said. She named Philadelphia; Toronto; Portland, Ore.; Denver; Nashville, Tenn.; and South Florida as places the league is exploring as options. Charlotte, N.C., is also in consideration for the next team, sources with knowledge of the league’s plans told The Athletic.

“We’re talking to a lot of different cities,” Engelbert said. “I think I’ve thrown out names before. It’s complex because you need an arena and a practice facility and player housing and all the things, you need committed long-term ownership groups. The nice thing is we’re getting a lot of calls.”

The WNBA was close to bringing a team to Portland. The city was in strong consideration this fall, but those plans fell through during talks with the prospective ownership group.

Engelbert didn’t put a timeline on when the league would decide on…

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Eight days after completing one of the greatest collegiate basketball careers ever recorded, Caitlin Clark was selected with the No. 1 pick in Monday’s WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever.

Clark is poised to not only help the Fever return to the postseason for the first time since 2016, but also use her star power to jolt the WNBA at a critical juncture in its history.

“I think more than anything I’m just really excited,” Clark told NBC News this past weekend.

Clark achieved historic levels of success over her four seasons at Iowa. She scored 3,951 points — the most ever in NCAA men’s or women’s Division I history. She also broke the record for 3-pointers in a single season, made two national championship appearances and twice was named the National Player of the Year.

Those are just some of her accolades from a career that was so prolific that Iowa announced last week — not even a week after her college career ended — it will retire her No. 22 jersey.

Clark often performed in front of sellout crowds and her games shattered television viewing records. South Carolina’s win over Iowa in the 2024 national championship was seen on ABC by 18.9 million viewers, with a peak audience of 24.1 million — a 90 percent increase from the 2023 title game and…

So what now?

That’s the big, media-centric question for women’s college basketball. Where does the sport go after the head-spinning viewership figures for the national championship game? South Carolina’s 87-75 win over Iowa on April 7 averaged 18.9 million viewers, the most-viewed women’s college basketball game ever and the most-viewed college basketball game (men’s or women’s) on record for an ESPN platform. The audience was up 90 percent over the 2023 national championship (9.9 million for LSU’s win over Iowa) and 289 percent from 2022 (4.9 million viewers for South Carolina’s win over UConn). The game peaked at 24 million viewers on ABC and ESPN during the final 15 minutes.

The 2024 NCAA Women’s Final Four was the most-viewed on record, averaging 13.8 million viewers. Those numbers included 14.4 million viewers for Iowa-UConn (the second-most-watched women’s college game on record) and 7.2 million viewers for N.C. State and South Carolina. The tournament overall (57 games) across ESPN platforms averaged 2.2 million viewers, up 121 percent from 2023. It’s the most-watched women’s NCAA Tournament since ESPN acquired exclusive rights in 1996.

To put the South Carolina-Iowa viewership in perspective, the game topped:

• Every World Series game since Game…

Just eight days after playing for an NCAA national championship, Caitlin Clark is poised to become the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft and burst into the professional ranks with the star power to jolt the league at a pivotal moment in its trajectory.

Throngs of fans are expected to tune in for Monday night’s national broadcast when the Iowa star is all but certain to be selected by the Indiana Fever. From the moment her name is called and Clark takes center stage, she will become the WNBA’s most anticipated rookie in years. A popularity boost similar to the effect she had in women’s college basketball could follow her with every logo 3-pointer she makes and each pin-point pass she throws.

At Iowa, Clark’s impact was even greater than her resumé, which itself was outstanding with three conference tournament titles, two national championship appearances, and dozens of broken records, including the NCAA Division I all-time scoring mark. When Clark played, every game was appointment-viewing. Arenas sold out and television ratings records shattered.

The WNBA has already been on an ascent over the last few seasons with increases in nationally broadcast games, greater attendance and more media coverage. But Clark, who even South Carolina coach Dawn Staley described as “one of…