The Indiana Fever hit the WNBA All-Star break with an 11-15 record, putting them in the bottom half of the standings and 10 1/2 games behind the league-leading New York Liberty. However, that doesn’t tell nearly the full story of the first half of the Fever’s season — or the impact of superstar rookie Caitlin Clark.
Indiana’s home games have drawn an average of 16,898 fans, which is on pace to break the single-season record of 16,202 set by the 2002 Washington Mystics, according to a report by the Sports Business Journal on Friday. Clark’s impact has been felt across the league, with the Fever’s first 15 road games drawing an average of 15,306 fans — 7,008 fans per game more than non-Fever games.
All 11 other teams have played host to Indiana at least once. The Seattle Storm saw 18,343 fans go through the turnstiles for each of their two home games against Indiana while the other team to host the Fever twice, the Connecticut Sun, saw a pair of sellouts with 8,910 fans at each game.
With the likes of Clark and fellow rookie star Angel Reese joining a core of stars that includes the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and two-time league MVP A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas, the WNBA is enjoying an overall surge in popularity. According to the SBJ report, more than half of the league’s dozen teams are averaging more than 10,000 fans per game at the break. The all-time record for most teams to hit that mark for a full season was in 2002, when the Liberty, Washington Mystics, Los Angeles Sparks and now-defunct Houston Comets each topped the 10,000 average per game.
And for Clark and Fever fans, the immediate future appears bright.
The league front-loaded Indiana’s schedule to maximize national broadcast exposure. Since an 0-5 start that included three double-digit losses, Indiana has posted an 11-10 record. The Fever’s recent stretch includes handing the Liberty one of their four losses on July 6, although they did drop their final game before the All-Star and Olympic break to the 6-19 Dallas Wings on Wednesday. Indiana, third in the Eastern conference behind New York and Connecticut, will return to action Aug. 16 at the Phoenix Mercury.
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