Getty Image / Caitlin Clark
Even before playing a single minute in the WNBA, I think we all knew that women’s hoops sensation Caitlin Clark was going to break attendance records upon entering the WNBA. After all, she did just that in college in her record-setting career at the University of Iowa.
But, I’m not sure many thought that her reach would be as big as it has been, as it seems like every new city the Indiana Fever guard plays in gets an attendance record. That’s exactly what happened Monday night when the Fever traveled down south to take on the Atlanta Dream.
A record number of fans packed State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta to watch Clark in her first trip to Atlanta as a WNBA player. The Fever won, 84-79, to improve to 14-16
A record 17,608 fans are in attendance for Dream-Fever in Atlanta tonight—the largest home crowd in franchise history. pic.twitter.com/POKjbJO3sq
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) August 27, 2024
That’s a huge crowd. For comparison, the average attendance of the Atlanta Hawks last season was under 17,o00. When you consider that the Dream usually play at an arena that holds 3,500 in the Gateway Center Arena, that really puts that crowd into perspective.
While it wasn’t Caitlin Clark’s best game in her WNBA career, they still saw a solid performance. After tweaking her ankle earlier in the game, she finished with 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists on 6-14 shooting from the field and 4-9 from three-point range.
The real star of the show was Kelsey Mitchell. Clark’s backcourt teammate had 29 points to lead all scorers.
In Fever home games, the team is averaging just under 17,000 fans a game. That number has been pretty consistent in road games, as well, with sellouts galore.
The Fever and Caitlin Clark are almost certainly making the playoffs, too, and while you can’t sell more tickets than a sellout, I can only imagine what those ticket prices will go for. Certainly it will be a WNBA record on the secondary market.