With Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever returning from the WNBA’s Olympic break this week, the franchise will be hoping to maintain the momentum it had leading up to last month’s All-Star Game both on and off the court.
This season, the Fever’s home game attendance was a record 186,000 fans, a 265% increase from 2023. The team has won three of its last five games to climb to seventh in the WNBA standings with an 11-15 record. Online, though, Indiana is unmatched in the Clark era.
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According to a report released Wednesday, the team leads the league in social media engagement, video views, followers gained and total followers. Between April 15 and July 19, it even beat all other teams in the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB in team-produced video consumption with 800 million views, the Fever said. Only MLS’s Inter Miami performed better among U.S. teams. The Fever also now has the most team sponsors in the league, with Eli Lilly becoming Indiana’s jersey sponsor in May.
During the July All-Star Game, Fever stars Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston and Clark helped Team WNBA defeat the 12-player U.S. Olympic squad 117-109 in front of a record 3.44 million viewers.
Although Clark wasn’t invited to Paris, she spent some of her free time wearing a custom jersey for a New York Yankees game. “It was fun to see how many of our guys who were just starstruck were there with her,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said afterward.
Each of Clark’s remaining 14 games in the 2024 regular season will be televised nationally, beginning with a rematch against Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on Ion. On Sunday, the Fever play the Seattle Storm at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
There will undoubtedly be plenty of Clark jerseys in the stands at those games, as the team claims to have seen a 1,193% increase in jersey sales compared to last year.
Notably, unlike the NBA, WNBA players have generally not received compensation for such purchases, as Aces guard and 2022 Olympian Kelsey Plum explained.
“I don’t think I have to do what LeBron did, but [I want the same] percentage for sweaters,” she said on The Residency Podcast. “I see mine at Mandalay Bay … and I don’t get a dollar.” Under the current CBA, which the WNBPA can opt out of in November, revenue sharing with players kicks in when the league’s revenue reaches certain thresholds, though Plum and others have advocated for a new system.
Under the current agreement, Clark earns $76,535 of the standard rookie base salary structure. However, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said that Clark could receive as much as $500,000 in WNBA earnings this season when additional player marketing agreements with the league and her team are taken into account, not to mention her own branding deals with companies like State Farm and Nike. Her All-Star appearance reportedly earned her $2,575 in cash.
If Clark keeps up her game on the court — she currently leads the league with 8.2 assists per game — she’ll earn even more. A spot on the All-WNBA Rookie Team is worth $1,500, while the WNBA Rookie of the Year award carries a $5,150 bonus.
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