Getty Image
Two-time national player of the year Caitlin Clark is still doing things to change the game, even though she hasn’t played in one since the women’s college basketball national championship.
The latest report is that Clark will be getting more than $20 million in a first of its kind deal where she will get her own signature shoe before ever playing at the pro level.
There is, obviously, good reason for that. Caitlin Clark puts a record number eyeballs on the games she plays (and the WNBA draft), butts in the seats at arenas all over the nation, and dollars in the pockets of anyone who sells her merch.
Clark puts so many butts in seats that earlier this month the two-time defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces announced they would be relocating from the 12,000 seat Michelob Ultra Arena to the 20,000 seat T-Mobile Arena when Clark’s Indiana Fever come to town.
Now, with the WNBA draft in the books, another team, the Washington Mystics, have announced that they will be following the Las Vegas Aces’ lead and moving to a bigger arena when Caitlin Clark visits their city.
We heard you loud and clear! 👂
🚨 June 7th game against the Indiana Fever is being relocated from Entertainment & Sports Arena to @CapitalOneArena. We can't wait to see all of the DMV in the building! Tickets on sale April 23rd
Read more: https://t.co/ogpw63tSH7 pic.twitter.com/iG4n3Bm40J
— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) April 18, 2024
“Due to unprecedented demand, the Washington Mystics announced that the game against the Indiana Fever on Friday, June 7 will now be played at Capital One Arena,” the team wrote in a press release published on Thursday.
The Mystics, strangely, did not mention Caitlin Clark by name in the release.
Cryptically, the Mystics statement only read, “There has been unprecedented demand for the WNBA this season due in large part to the talent of incoming players from this season’s collegiate draft, including Washington’s first round pick Aaliyah Edwards.”
Right.
While Aaliyah Edwards is a special basketball player, it’s not her that is causing the team to move to a larger arena when the Fever come to Washington. If it were, the Mystics would play every game at the 20,000 seat Capital One Arena instead of the Entertainment & Sports Arena, which holds just 4,200 fans.