The Caitlin Clark effect reached a fever pitch in 2024–25. During the Indiana Fever phenom’s rookie season, WNBA attendance jumped 54 percent; viewership nearly tripled to 1.32 million; and merchandise sales—led by Clark’s bestselling No. 22 jersey—increased 601 percent. Veteran sportswriter Christine Brennan, who spent six weeks on the road with Clark and the Fever for her new book, On Her Game, joined Betsy Fischer Martin, SPA/BA ’92, SOC/MA ’96, executive director of the Women and Politics Institute, in September to talk about how the meteoric rise of “Captain Clark” has elevated the entire sport.
Q. What makes Caitlin Clark so special?
A. She’s an entertainer. When she’s chucking it from the parking lot—as she did when she came back from an injury in June, scoring three three-pointers [in 38 seconds]—it brings far more people into the game than, say, [Dallas Wings guard] Paige Bueckers, who is a fantastic player, maybe even a better overall player than Caitlin Clark, but she doesn’t move the needle at all in the WNBA. Caitlin Clark sold out 17,000 seats every night in Indiana last year, and the Fever’s average home attendance was higher than the average home attendance of five NBA teams.
Caitlin Clark is in a different solar system from those players in terms of every way to quantify it: TV ratings, attendance, marketability, merch. I never thought in my lifetime I would see a female team sport athlete this popular. Serena, Venus, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles—amazing. [But] it’s always been individual sports; women have never gotten their due as team sport athletes. Now, Caitlin Clark is not only one of the most famous athletes in the country; she’s also one of the most famous people in the country.
Q. How much does race factor into Clark’s popularity, and how has that inflamed tensions within the WNBA?
A. Caitlin Clark is a white woman in a league that is 74 percent Black. There is no doubt that her race makes her more appealing to a segment of our population. It is too bad that this didn’t happen for the WNBA when the great Maya Moore was playing or Lisa Leslie or Candace Parker. They’re big names, but if we asked 10 people on the street to name a female basketball player, 10 out of 10 would probably say Caitlin Clark. Is racism involved? For sure.
[But] here’s what’s happening: The spotlight shining on Caitlin Clark is finally now shining on [Las Vegas Aces center] A’ja Wilson. You can tell by the All-Star votes and the endorsements. I daresay 1 percent of people in the country knew who [Fever guard] Kelsey Mitchell was. She is now getting endorsement deals too.
I interviewed the great civil rights leader Harry Edwards for the book; he was the impetus for the Black Power salute by the two sprinters at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Harry, who loves to watch Caitlin play, said that the WNBA failed the players. [The league] should’ve seen this [backlash] coming.
It’s so unusual to see a league lifted up by one person who is so different, so we can understand how the players were not prepared for this. I blame the WNBA [for its] lack of leadership. We are now two years into the biggest thing to ever happen in women’s team sports—the Caitlin Clark era—and they still are absolutely missing in action as leaders at this crucial moment.
Q. How has Clark helped broaden the WNBA’s appeal?
A. More and more men—guys who would have never given the time of day to women’s sports, who would have laughed at it 20 years ago—are wearing the No. 22 jersey, not just to the game, but to the grocery store and the gas station. And they’re wearing it along with their daughters and sons. We cannot underestimate how big a deal that is.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.