The WNBA were warned about the “Caitlin Clark Effect,” before the 22-year-old arrived in the league. The Iowa Hawkeyes standout had helped set new viewership records in the NCAA women’s basketball and her star power didn’t diminish when Indiana Fever picked her to represent them in the pro league. Fever quadrupled their ticket sales and most of the highest viewing games in the WNBA this season have involved Clark.

Clark’s arrival in the league changed its landscape. While her on-court rival Angel Reese with Chicago Sky had an impact in driving WNBA’s popularity, Clark’s presence has elevated the league to new heights. To put this into perspective, before this season, no WNBA game had averaged more than 1 million viewers since 2008. But this year saw 23 games cross that figure with Clark featuring in 20 of them. Thus, it was no surprise that Stephen A. Smith yet again praised Clark’s influence on the WNBA while hitting back at her critics.

To his credit, the sportscaster explained that WNBA’s history is filled with athletes who’ve “bust their tails” to help the league rise. But Clark shouldn’t be blamed if hoops fans have simply chosen this current moment to turn their focus on women’s basketball. “The quality of basketball may have been up to snuff, and you had somebody as popular as Cheryl Swoops who had her own signature shoe, had to deal with Nike and all of this other stuff. But the bottom line is very few people gave a damn,” he said on the Stephen A. Smith show.

Smith highlighted that he understood if people want to give credit to those who came before Clark but said “What you have to respect, however, is that the paying customer, the audience, didn’t feel that way. They did not give a damn about the WNBA for years. Is that fair to the ladies? No, it isn’t fair. It’s not right, but they’re the paying customer. You don’t tell them what they want, they tell you what they want.”

With the rise of the popularity of MJ’s ‘Air Jordan’ brand in 1984, Nike saw the potential to invest in hoopers. While it had started coveting NBA stars early, it didn’t reach the WNBA until 1996. Sheryl Swoopes had stood out as a one-of-a-kind player and her potential itself was enough for Nike to fully dive into women’s basketball, launching a series of ‘Air Swoopes’, a first of its kind.

Swoopes went on to record the league’s first triple-double, becoming the first 3-time MVP and WNBA’s first 3-time Defensive Player of the Year. Her 4 championship titles came in the first 4 years of her WNBA career! This, combined with her international success- 3 consecutive Olympic Gold medals with Team USA, had most fans calling her the ‘Female Michael Jordan.’

He concluded his remarks on the Show, stating, “They (fans) really were not feeling the WNBA to the degree that they’re feeling the WNBA now, obviously, because of Caitlin Clark, who’s selling out games and got the Indiana Fever selling out games more than they sell out Pacer games.”

In her rookie season, Clark broke multiple records on the court. She broke the record for the most assists (337) and points (769) in a single WNBA season and became the first rookie in WNBA history to record at least 450 points and 200 assists. She averaged 19.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in the regular season, took home the Rookie of the Year award, and was voted a WNBA All-Star starter in her first year. Her efforts helped the Fever reach their first playoff since 2016. Additionally, Nike signed her to an eight-year $28 million deal back in April. Yet, she has faced criticism.

She has come under fire for her complaining in the games and while some felt the reason she was getting more attention was due to her background. “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin argued that “White privilege” and “pretty privilege” played a role in Clark’s soaring popularity. In fact, Swoopes herself caused a stir during an appearance on Gil’s Arena podcast on September 17.

The former WNBA star said Clark’s season numbers were impressive but believed she wasn’t dominant. She stated, “Those are hell of a numbers. But to me, that’s not dominating.” Swoopes also chose to stand by the claim she made in February when she said Clark wouldn’t immediately replicate her college form in the WNBA. “What I said was I didn’t think Caitlin or Angel would come into the league and dominate immediately, which I don’t think either of them did,” she added. Stephen A. Smith has been a vocal supporter of Clark ever since she came to the WNBA and faced criticism.

He openly called out Swoopes when she failed to mention Clark while talking about the players who have been impactful for the Fever this season. On his show on August 24, he mentioned, “You know basketball. There is no way in hell you just accidentally left Caitlin Clark’s name out of that soliloquy you dropped about the Indiana Fever.”

Earlier as well, when Clark was at the receiving end of some rough on-court challenges at the start of the season, Smith called out those trying to put down Clark and said they should be supporting her for what she has brought to their league. Smith stated, “All of these years trying to uplift this brand that is the WNBA and is women’s professional basketball, and all of their efforts were in vain until this girl comes along and take the league by storm — takes sport by storm — in college and has accomplished in a short period of time what they haven’t been able to.”

Smith clearly has been an avid supporter of Clark, but is there any truth to his claim that she has helped Fever out-sell the Pacers?

Viewership and ticket sales for Caitlin Clark’s Fever- Are they better than the Pacers?

The ‘Caitlin Clark Effect’ was first seen in NCAA with Iowa’s games constantly drawing high viewership numbers and having exceptional ticket sales. When Iowa beat UConn in the Final Four, it drew a viewership of 14.2 million, making it ESPN’s most-watched basketball game. Clark and Iowa drew more fans than the NBA Finals in the last year.

Her magic carried into the WNBA with the Indiana Fever. The franchise’s average attendance of 4,067 last season jumped to 17,000 this season. According to the Indianapolis Star, they became the first team in WNBA history to draw more than 300,000 fans in a season. However, was the popularity she brought to the Indiana women’s side better than what the Indiana Pacers had during the recent season?

Under normal circumstances, the Indiana Pacers would not be the right NBA franchise to use when making a comparison with the Caitlin Clark effect. After all, the franchise valued at $2.9 billion, ranked 29th out of 30 NBA teams in total attendance during the recent season. Despite this, they performed slightly better, as Statista reported the Pacers’ average home attendance to be 16,528. Comparatively, the Fever averaged 17,035 fans per game, so yes Smith’s claim was on point.

In fact, not only Pacers, Indiana Fever’s average attendance was higher than three other NBA franchises- Hornets, Grizzlies, and the Hawks.

Moreover, according to a report by executive Michael Mulvihill, the games featuring Caitlin Clark averaged 1.178 million viewers on television. This is almost 3x higher than the average for other WNBA games, which stands at just 394,000 viewers. So the “Caitlin Clark Effect” has indeed taken over the WNBA and given her performances this season, it is sure to stay for a while at least.

Before leaving, do watch the Dual Threat Show hosted by BG12 where Bulldogs’ Asia Avinger details her experience with Kobe Bryant, her WNBA ROTY picks, and more in the video below.