number of viewers for WNBA games that Kaylee Clark is not in is like three to four million. When she’s in the game, when it’s her game playing, it’s like 17 million. Yeah. Well, I I also look at the attendance in the arena. Yes. It’s 8 to 10,000 everywhere else. Kane Clark 17 18,000. It’s not looking good as the WNBA struggles to go past the semifinals and championship games without Kane Clark.
Growth of the game speaks for itself, but it’s also in the numbers. Just look at the difference in all-star votes compared to last year. Asia Wilson led with just under a 100,000 votes. And this year, Caitlyn Clark is leading with a little over 700,000. What a difference a year made. Which don’t have Caitlyn Clark have a far smaller viewership, which indicates that the WNBA is now suffering greatly and is finally recognizing the Caitlyn Clark effect.
Caitlyn’s departure. Do we think that these new WNBA fans are going to stick around for the rest of the playoffs? The Liberty Aces series might be one that draws some numbers. The disparity between 1.8 8 million and around 400,000 is wild, especially with football season being in full swing. Fans are refusing to watch games because it’s not the same as watching Caitlyn Clark. Take a look at this.
The WNBA wouldn’t have encountered this kind of issue if they had been smarter and wouldn’t have permitted referees to ambush her. [Applause] [Music] Clark proceeded to play golf. And judging on the number of spectators, it’s safe to assume that the WNBA would have grown significantly if Caitlyn had been in the playoffs at the time.

All the women that have been calling for the equality. And now that there is the chance for them to start getting paid more cuz the exposure is up because it’s her. You have people like what’s her name? Jamilia Hill or what? I can’t stand her. You got these women who are coming on here and they’re saying it’s because she’s throughout her season.
Caitlyn encountered some difficulties from fans, the media, and analysts who tried their hardest to undermine her. But instead, she consistently supported her composer in press conferences and on the field in a hostile setting. Caitlyn dominated the league and experts and fans looked like this using every justification they could.
In an attempt to document this generational talent, I simply don’t know if I’m going to put Kayen Clark on the USA team. If we put Kayen Clark on the roster, we’re going to get tens or even hundreds of millions of fans to watch our game. And we sell out every game, even our exhibition game. Those things just don’t matter. Women’s basketball has never been about millions of people watching or selling out arenas.
Come on now, give me some good reasons. Caitlyn Clark just scored 30 points, eight rebounds, six assists in front of 20,000 people. And in that game, she tied the rookie record with seven made three points. I just don’t see all those stats are important. I mean, she missed USA triyouts in April. Yeah, that’s cuz she was playing for a college national championship.
She couldn’t do anything about that. That’s not her fault. I’m just saying she could have been at USA Triouts if she actually took known for her scoring explosions and long three-point shooting. Caitlyn Clark made an indelible impression on the WNBA. She had already enthralled the entire basketball world during her time as a student at the University of Iowa.
Her performances in the WNBA weren’t just remarkable, they were revolutionary, redefining the standards of collegiate basketball. Clark frequently gave incredible performances that stunned fans, coaches, and analysts. But now that Caitlyn Clark is out, and again, like I said, she brought a whole new fan base.

And I’m not going to say it was one race or another or one type of person. I believe that all different types of people really started embracing Caitlyn Clark. Female, male, black, white, young, old. Caitlyn Clark is just a superstar. That’s what happens when you have a star in Fans who had followed Caitlyn from Iowa were eager to see how her game would translate to the professional level when she entered the League of Stars.
And they weren’t let down every time she took the court because she gave a performance that lived up to all the excitement that had surrounded her entry into the WNBA. This season, they were the most watched team in the league. An average of viewership, 1.1 million viewers each game in the regular season.
Other games, listen to this, pald in comparison, drawing just about 394,000 viewers on average. Beyond the figures, it’s one thing for a player to dominate on her own, but what really made Caitlyn stand out was her ability to improve her teammates. Her court vision allowed her to create opportunities that many other players simply wouldn’t see, and her leadership on the floor helped lead the team to several crucial wins throughout the season.
Even as a rookie, Caitlyn Clark was frequently the player her team looked to in clutch moments, and she almost always delivered. It became evident that Caitlyn Clark wasn’t just a fantastic young player. She was already one of the most influential players in the WNBA. The amount of attention she brought to her games from fans and the media was unparalleled, and the WNBA soon realized that Clark had the potential to become the league’s face.

Okay, since Caitlyn has joined the WNBA, we’ve now earned enough money for every single team to fly private. So, if we put her on the team, we’re going to be able to fly private all the way to Paris and back. We have been fighting for private flights for so many years in women’s basketball, but I mean, we can go back to commercial.
That’s something the league has been asking for for so long, and now Caitlin has literally given that to us. All right, I made my decision. Okay, good. So, you’re going to put her on the team? The world’s going to be so excited. Caitlyn Clark has brought us millions of fans, hundreds of millions of dollars, and private flights, but at the end of the day, that’s just not enough.
The Indiana Fever appeared to be a team on the rise for a large portion of the season. With Clark leading the team, their fan base, which had increased dramatically throughout the season, was optimistic that the Fever would be able to establish themselves in the playoffs. The team had all the ingredients for a deep playoff run.
Hey, I just like to say congratulations to Kar, number one player on the planet right now. Let’s go ahead and do this game today. You got you got your hands full. probably nervous because it’s senior day. It’s the last one here, but this crowd’s going to carry you through. So, just keep focused.
I know soon as you drop that first three, it’s going to be all over. Though the Fever had a chance to win the series format left little room for error. Those hopes were swiftly dashed by the best of three format in the first round of the playoffs. They were pitted against the Connecticut Sun, a formidable opponent with more playoff experience.
They lost because of the best of three playoff rule and Caitlyn left early. Talked to the gym in Connecticut and I said, “Darius, let’s go back to let’s have one game at Indian.” He said, “There is no way I’m going to do anything to allow my team to get out of this arena.” And I said, “Well, I’ll tell you.
” I said, “Because we will have 19,000 people ready for you.” And he said, “I don’t want to go back to Union, but our players deserved a chance to play.” The absence of a home game was especially devastating for the Fever, who had one of the most devoted and passionate fan bases in the WNBA, frequently packing arenas with close to 20,000 spectators.
That kind of homecourt advantage can make all the difference in a playoff series, especially for a young team like the Fever. In the end, the series felt like a missed opportunity, not only for the Fever, but also for the WNBA as a whole. The league had lost one of its biggest stars far too early and the rest of the playoffs would suffer as a result.
The use of a best of three format in the first round of the playoffs has been widely criticized in the wake of the Fever’s elimination and the WNBA, which has been working to expand its fan base and boost viewership, missed a vital chance to feature one of its brightest stars on the biggest stage. The 2023 season, the WNBA had grown by 40% viewership from 2022 to 2023.
But with Caitlyn Clark’s arrival, it’s grown by 400% in viewership. What that means is if the WNBA were continue to grow at the rate it grew from 22 to 23, it would take until 2028 to do what Caitlin Clark did. The NBA’s shorter playoff series, on the other hand, don’t permit that same kind of dramatic buildup.
A best of three series can end before it truly begins, which is precisely what happened with The Fever. The NBA, for instance, uses a best of five format in the first round of its playoffs, giving teams more time to adjust, recover from early life losses, and create drama throughout a series. The Fever might have had the opportunity to turn things around and return to Indiana to play in front of their home crowd and to continue the Caitlyn Clark show for a few more games, but they were eliminated in just two games, taking a sizable chunk of the
WNBA’s playoff viewership with them. The WNBA is still working to secure a larger share of the sports landscape. So, it’s crucial to create as many marquee moments as possible in a longer series. Things that this group accomplished that, you know, a lot of people probably didn’t think was possible one to start the season and two after the start we had to the season.
So, um yeah, it’ll it’ll definitely be probably a little weird for me over the course of the first couple weeks and then I’m sure I’ll get bored and pick up a basketball again. No, Caitlyn Clark’s exit from the playoffs had an immediate impact on the WNBA’s viewership numbers during the regular season.
In large part, this was due to Clark’s performances, which made her the main draw for many casual viewers who may not have followed the league before. However, once the fever subsided, those viewers started to tune out and the numbers showed that even marquee matchups with other stars like AIA Wilson and Brianna Stewart couldn’t sustain the same level of fan interest they were watching for Caitlyn Clark.
And their interest waned without her. Ways that I don’t really listen to, honestly. Uh because I’m in season, I have other things that we need to worry about than what other people have to say. I have a scout. I have 11 other minds on my team in my locker room that we got to make sure that we’re on the same mindset.
Uh so I really can’t give you the best answer on that uh because I really don’t pay any attention. The WNBA has long struggled to compete with other major sports leagues in terms of television ratings and media attention and Clark had given the league a muchneeded boost with her onc court performances and growing media presence. However, with her out of the picture, the WNBA was once again confronted with the reality of its smaller niche audience.
The decline in viewership after her departure is a wakeup call for the league. Hey, I just like to say congratulations to Caitlyn Clark, number one player on the planet right now. Let’s go ahead and do this game today. You got you got your hands full. You’re probably nervous because it’s senior day. It’s the last one here, but this crowd going to carry you through. So, just keep keep focused.
And I know as soon as you drop that first three, it’s going to be all over. The WNBA had been making progress in recent years, gradually growing its fan base and garnering more media attention, but the abrupt loss of one of its biggest stars and the ensuing decline in fan interest has demonstrated just how delicate that momentum can be.
This decline in viewership isn’t just about losing one player. It’s also about losing the momentum that Clark had built throughout the season. I feel like after the break, I I still I still don’t think she’s dominating, but she’s a different player than she was in the first half of the season. When Caitlyn Clark was on the court, viewers tuned in to watch her play, and social media was ablaze with clips of her highlights.
However, when she wasn’t playing, the difference was stark. The media and the WNBA itself didn’t fully realize the significance of the Caitlyn Clark effect until she was eliminated from the playoffs. Caitlyn Clark is box office. She is a star. But you’ve known they were coming for you when you were waving your hands in your face to mock Caitlyn Clark when you were beating up her for the national championship.
And so you knew they were going to come for you. You had to know that. The media soon realized that Clark’s absence had a discernable effect on league viewing and started investigating how crucial she had become to the WNBA success. There were still many great players in the postseason, chief among being AA, but Caitlyn Clark’s elimination from the playoffs was definitely a blow to the WNBA.
Wilson, a two-time MVP winner and one of the league’s most dominant players, had guided the Las Vegas Aces to the playoffs once more and was hoping to add another championship to her already impressive resume. However, despite her extraordinary talent and leadership, Wilson was unable to duplicate the same level of viewership and fan engagement that Clark had brought to the league.
This isn’t a slight on Wilson. She is still regarded as one of the best players in the world and is adored by WNBA fans, but rather illustrates how special Clark’s appeal had become. At that point, some of us felt like maybe she hadn’t proved it in the WNBA, but at this point, she certainly. Even though Wilson was playing at an elite level, the excitement surrounding the playoffs wasn’t as high as it had been when Clark was still in the running.
This illustrates the variety of appeal that players can have. Even though Wilson has long been one of the NBA’s marquee players, and her performances in the playoffs were nothing short of spectacular, few players ever have a negative effect on the league, and Clark had a way of enthalling both diehard basketball fans and casual spectators.
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