The WNBA has reportedly been plotting to capitalize on the success and popularity of the Indiana Fever-- namely the stardom of Caitlin Clark.
Sports Illustrated published an article Monday that reported the WNBA's plan to take the Fever overseas as a way to take advantage of Clark's "Q-Rating." A Q-Rating, according to Merriam-Webster, is a scale measuring the popularity of a person or thing typically based on dividing an assessment of familiarity by an assessment of favorable opinion.
Basically, high Q-Ratings mean you are very popular and beloved. Low Q-Ratings mean you are less popular.
The article goes on to report that the WNBA is, privately, planning to market the Indiana Fever as "America's Team," which they already seem to be. The hope is that Clark's Q-Rating can be leveraged for more league interest, which has already begun to happen. None of this is news, but the big takeaway is that the Fever will hopefully be scheduled for overseas events in the near future.
You do not need to look at the numbers to realize how popular Caitlin Clark is-- she has been at the center of the sports world for the past two calendar years. But when you do finally look at those numbers that have followed Clark her entire career, you understand the full scope on her impact on women's sports.
The NCAA Women's Tournament National Championship game between UConn and South Carolina in 2022 attracted 4.85 million viewers, the highest mark in the championship game since 2004. 2023's matchup between Iowa and LSU shattered that number-- 9.915 million viewers, the most ever recorded in a women's basketball game. Just one year later in 2024, Iowa participated in three straight basketball games-- the Elite Eight, Final Four, and National Championship-- that broke and reset the record each time.
Clark's fame continued well after college
In the WNBA, the popularity surged. Clark's Fever averaged about 1.19 million viewers per game, competing with this year's NBA average of 1.4 million. The Fever also set a WNBA record with an average of 17,305 in-arena attendees for home games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. On the road, Fever games were also a popular draw-- the Washington Mystics even had to move its home matchups with Indiana to Capital One Arena to accommodate the larger crowd.
Mike Breen stated in November that Caitlin Clark was doing for the WNBA what Michael Jordan did for the NBA. One of Jordan's biggest impacts, from a marketing standpoint, was popularizing the sport of basketball globally by travelling with the Chicago Bulls abroad for offseason events. Clark, it seems, will have the same opportunity.
The WNBA has been to Canada, England, and Mexico for preseason games and other events. If the WNBA were to take "America's Team" to bigger basketball countries, like China, Australia, and across Europe, the hope is that Clark's draw will also help boost the league's popularity.
More league popularity means more aspiring WNBA players, more aspiring players means better overseas competition in women's basketball, so on and so forth until the "Michael Jordan Effect" and the "Caitlin Clark Effect" become synonymous.
It was not specified when these events will take place, but Clark and the Fever are seemingly headed to the world stage very soon.