Caitlin Clark left a lasting legacy on women’s college basketball, but as she enters the WNBA, how will she transition and make an impact at the next level? Khristina Williams, founder of “Girls Talk Sports TV ,” and Phoenix Mercury guard Sophie Cunningham weigh in.
Basketball superstar Caitlin Clark has broken another yet another record — her Indiana Fever jersey is the top-selling jersey ever for a draft pick.
The 22-year-old has had quite the year shattering records on the court for the Iowa Hawkeyes and boosting women’s basketball viewership. Earlier this week, it was no surprise when she was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft to the Indiana Fever.
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Her Fever jersey with the number 22 is already the top-earning jersey ever for a draft pick, according to licensed sportswear retailer Fanatics.
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The Fanatics website said Wednesday it was “sold out” of its initial batch of the jersey, but pre-orders were still available and restock is expected to ship in August.
Clark’s star power also set a television milestone — ESPN coverage of the WNBA draft that averaged a record 2.45 million viewers, with viewership peaking at 3.09 million, the network said in a press release. That’s four times the viewership of the 2023 draft that drew an audience of 572,000, ESPN reported, and eclipses the prior draft record of 601,000 in 2004.
The Clark effect has also seen a pick up in ticket sales.
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Even before the draft, soon after Clark announced her plans to enter the WNBA draft, the Fever saw a spike in ticket inquiries, The Associated Press previously reported. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Aces announced their July 2 game against the Fever would move from the 12,000-seat Michelob Ultra Arena to T-Mobile Arena, which seats 18,000 for basketball.
“This is a dream. This is something I wrote down on a piece of paper when I was in like second grade. Get a basketball scholarship. Play in the WNBA,” Clark previously told told NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk.
At Clark’s introductory press conference with the Fever on Wednesday, she said: “I can’t think of a better place to start off my career.”
When asked how she hopes to inspire the next generation she said: “A lot of the reason I am who I am today is that I had this constant confidence in myself. I think that’s a thing a lot of young girls struggle with today.”
“It’s really the support system around them that instills that confidence in them. That’s what I'm so lucky for whether it was youth coaches I had growing up, whether it was high school coaches, whether it was my parents, whether it was my family, they never told me I couldn't achieve something," she said.
"It was always like, 'If you want it you can go get it, you just have to earn it,'" Clark said. "And I think that’s the biggest thing I would tell the younger generation.”
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