On Sunday, every seat at Target Center will be filled. And everyone knows why.
Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are coming to town to take on the Lynx. Some might raise an eyebrow at the way that phrase was phrased. And yes, it brings back memories of 1950, when the Madison Square Garden marquee, promoting an upcoming game between the Minneapolis Lakers and New York, read “Geo. Mikan vs. Knicks.”
But is this an exaggeration?
The season is already halfway over, and there are only two cities where Clark, the Fever’s standout rookie guard from Iowa, has yet to play: Dallas and, finally, Minneapolis.
How many Hawkeye gold coins will we see Sunday afternoon? Good luck buying a ticket.
In the week leading up to the game, Carley Knox, the Lynx’s president of business operations, was thrilled to wake up each day and see the numbers, check the reports, watch ticket sales explode nearly to the roof of Target Center.
“It’s awesome,” Knox said.
As of noon Friday, there were fewer than 1,000 tickets left. By game time, the crowd is expected to be 18,978, the largest regular-season attendance in franchise history. The team drew 19,423 for Game 5 of the 2016 WNBA Finals, before the renovation, when the arena’s capacity was slightly larger.
But Sunday will mark the Lynx’s most lucrative day in history: the first time box office receipts have topped $1 million.
“I get it,” said Cheryl Reeve, the Lynx coach and president of basketball operations. “I get the passion for Caitlin Clark, her game, that her fans have for her all over the country. I watched the team with Steph Curry. And now it’s just Caitlin, the whole recruiting class.”
The Clark effect is well documented. According to a SportsCasting.com report from mid-June, the average attendance for WNBA games was 15,591 when the Fever were in town, and 7,645 when they weren’t. In a season where league viewership records are being broken, nine of the top 10 most-watched games involved the Fever. An early July game in Las Vegas—which, like many teams, moved the game from its home stadium to a larger one—drew 20,366, the fifth-largest crowd in league history and the largest since 1999.
And now we’ll see it at Target Center. But we’ve seen it before.
If Iowa City was her college town and she now works in Indianapolis, Target Center has to be as close as possible to a home game for Clark, the 6-0 point guard selected with the first pick in the 2024 WNBA draft.
A native of Des Moines, Clark’s father used to take her up north to watch Lynx games. Clark’s favorite player growing up was Maya Moore. The Lynx won four WNBA titles during Clark’s formative years.
“I grew up loving the Minnesota Lynx,” Clark said at his introductory news conference in Indiana. “I probably shouldn’t say that anymore.”
And then, of course, Target Center is where the Hawkeyes have won the last two Big Ten titles. Remember when Minneapolis was overrun with Iowans waiting in line for hours in the skyway to get in?
“Winning the Big Ten title last year was one of the most memorable games of my college career,” Clark said. Unavailable for a one-on-one interview, Clark answered a few questions about the upcoming game via email. “Looking back and seeing the long line of Iowa fans waiting to get into the arena, we proved how dedicated our fan base is. It turned out to be one of the best environments we’ve played in outside of Iowa City.”
A mixed reaction?
Has all the attention on the league’s hottest rookie irritated some?
That’s what some have perceived, at least. They cite former longtime star Diana Taurasi, who spoke of the learning curve Clark would face upon arriving in the WNBA. “Reality sets in,” she said.
Much was made of a post by Reeve on X as the preseason began, teasing the league for promoting Clark’s debut by noting that there are other teams in the league.
Reeve wouldn’t comment on the post or the reaction. But anyone who has followed Reeve online for any length of time knows his penchant for criticizing the league on a number of issues. The post was clearly more about acknowledging the league as a whole than disparaging Clark.
In fact, Reeve said she believes the 12-team WNBA has embraced both Clark and the rookie class and everything they’ve brought to the league since college.
Resentment? “It’s a false narrative,” Reeve said. “These days, false narratives are allowed and they spread like wildfire.”
Reeve said she never heard a player say anything derogatory about Clark.
“I can’t tell you how many players I’ve met, the way they talk about her,” Reeve said. “The smile on their faces. They’re like, ‘Damn, she’s good.’ It’s fun. It’s awesome. And not just Caitlin, the whole rookie class.”
A resurgence of interest
There’s no doubt that the league has reached a new level of interest. The more eyes on the game, the more lucrative the TV deals will be, and therefore the higher the salaries. It’s easy to connect the dots: A security incident with Clark and the Fever at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on May 2 was followed shortly thereafter by WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s announcement that charter flights would be coming to the league.
Lynx guard Kayla McBride, who was just named to her fourth All-Star game, is in her 11th season. She spent a decade flying commercial airlines. Think she doesn’t like the direction the league is going?
“The whole narrative is just bizarre,” McBride said of the idea that recruits are being frowned upon. “It was never about that. It was never about us versus them. They came in with their own personalities, their own characters. They came in with more attention on them than anybody else. That carries weight. But what we’ve already been able to do carries weight.”
That may be the crux of the matter. Knox spoke this week and Reeve has consistently said that while this season was an inflection point, the momentum had already begun. The momentum of the league was already building. Did Clark, Angel Reese and other first-year players help put the pedal to the metal?
“It gives us more eyes to see what we’re doing, what we’ve done,” McBride said. “That’s what this is all about. It’s not us versus them, it’s us versus everybody. It’s about continuing to grow women’s sports.”
That said, there is competition. There are only 144 positions in the WNBA, and every veteran is going to want to test every rookie. There may be pressure, physical play, insults.
“But us veterans have been there,” McBride said. “We know what it was like not to have charters. When I first started in this league (in San Antonio), we played where the rodeo was.
“This new wave is going to change everything for everyone. There will never be a way back.”
Impressive on the pitch
McBride said she was impressed with how the recruits handled the attention and pressure.
Clark? She’s had a tough start to the season, emerged as the frontrunner for rookie of the year and played under the hottest spotlight.
And it’s been difficult at times. Earlier in the season, Clark asked people not to use him to advance their causes.
“I’m just trying to give myself as much latitude as possible and rely on my teammates and my family,” she said. “This year has been a tough start because of the number of games we’ve played in a very short period of time, but now our team has had time to get to know each other … and I think everyone is seeing the results for themselves because we’ve started winning a lot more recently.”
On the court, Clark has steadily improved. She is averaging 16.7 points and ranks second in the league in assists (7.6) and rebounds (5.9). She recently recorded the first triple-double in league history by a rookie.
As Reeve said, his players support Clark, except when they’re playing against her.
McBride, for her part, is looking forward to Sunday’s atmosphere, hoping every game is what she expects.
“We’re just going to play basketball in front of a group of fans,” she said. “And put on a show. Play a good game. Compete. Sometimes it becomes a lot more important to everybody. We just want to play.”