Regardless of by no means truly utilizing her title, the Indiana Fever lately put out a report that each one however places a shining highlight on their star rookie, Caitlin Clark.
The official release got here out Aug. 14 and boldly boasted about how the group’s “Followers Are Participating with the Indiana Fever in File Numbers.”
The Fever bragged about quite a lot of group milestones because it returned from the Olympics break (the place quite a lot of WNBA gamers — although none from the Fever — gained the gold medal in girls’s basketball).
“Ladies’s basketball has exploded in popularity, and extra followers are tuning in, packing arenas, and interesting in social media to look at their favourite groups and gamers,” the Fever said. “Indiana specifically has been the epicenter of the game with followers partaking with the Fever and their younger stars in new methods, and the momentum reveals no indicators of slowing down because the group makes a push to return to the WNBA playoffs this season.”
Whereas by no means mentioning her by title, it’s fairly notable that one of many key variations between the Fever final yr and this yr is the presence of Clark — whose nuclear superstardom has already generated fairly a bit of jealousy and a tinge of racial animus within the league.
However these aren’t the one issues Clark has helped generate.
“The Fever lead the League in attendance for each house and away video games with greater than 186,000 followers attending a Fever house recreation for the reason that season tipped off in Could, the very best complete in franchise historical past and a 265 % improve in attendance from final season,” the Fever launch said.
It added: “4 Fever house video games this season have set single-game information for gross sales on the Gainbridge Fieldhouse Staff Retailer, and the Staff Retailer has skilled a soar of greater than 1,000 % in web gross sales.”
Maybe simply as impressively, the Fever boasted about the way it was hanging with a lot larger, way more profitable sports activities leagues in sure arenas.
“The Fever maintain the highest spots within the League in social media engagement, video views, followers gained, and complete followers and since April, the Fever have had greater than 800M video views throughout platforms,” the discharge mentioned. “The group is ranked first amongst groups within the WNBA, NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB in video consumption in that span.”
All of this buzz was sufficient for Sportico, an outlet centered on sports activities enterprise extra so than sports activities itself, to outright name these enormous numbers a direct results of the “Caitlin Clark effect.”
And, once more, that description is difficult to argue with.
Clark’s arrival has been a veritable boon for the WNBA, and her on-court rivalries with the likes of Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese and (apparently) your complete Phoenix Mercury squad has ignited real curiosity in a product that had been struggling to take care of any type of foothold with sports activities followers through the years.
It does have to be famous that Clark could be very deserving of this adulation and these accolades.
Not like a few of her extra shameless friends, Clark’s recreation is definitely environment friendly and expert.
Sure, her turnovers are a difficulty, and sure, she’s not a lockdown defender, however her offensive brilliance (historic offensive brilliance, by the best way) is uncommon for anybody — not to mention a precocious 22-year-old — to have in basketball.
For all of the aforementioned good buzz, nonetheless, Clark and the Fever are scrapping for one of many remaining few playoff spots.
Indiana will subsequent look to maintain these playoff hopes alive on Monday, when the group travels to Atlanta to face the Dream.
This text appeared initially on The Western Journal.
