By Corbin McGuire
Women’s basketball has seen a rocketlike rise in popularity in recent years, and Iowa senior Caitlin Clark — now the NCAA women’s all-time leading scorer — has provided a lot of the fuel.
Excitement has escalated throughout Clark’s run to becoming the No. 1 career scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history. The Iowa superstar accomplished the feat Thursday against Michigan, passing Washington alum Kelsey Plum’s mark of 3,527 points.
Throughout the buildup to the historic feat, Clark’s generational talent brought more eyeballs to broadcasts, fans to arenas and all-around attention to the game. Leading the country in scoring and assists this season, Clark has been described as a “combination of Steph Curry and Pete Maravich,” superstars from different eras in the men’s game. A dynamic scorer with artistic creativity on the court, Clark is also on track to surpass Maravich’s all-time scoring record (3,667 points), as well as former Kansas basketball standout Lynette Woodard’s Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women scoring record (3,649).
Clark is the first Division I player to top 3,000 points, 1,000 assists and 800 rebounds. She's also the first Division I player to record 3,000 points and 1,000 assists in a career. She has 59 career games with at least 25 points, five assists and five rebounds — an NCAA record.
Simply put: She’s a must-watch performer.
The attendance numbers speak for themselves.
- Before the 2023-24 season even officially started, Iowa broke the women’s basketball all-time attendance record for a single game with 55,646 on hand for its exhibition game against DePaul in Kinnick Stadium, home to Iowa’s football team.
- Seventeen of Iowa women’s basketball’s 19 all-time sellout crowds inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena have occurred during the past three seasons, with the other two coming in 1985 and 1988.
- Away from Iowa City, the Hawkeyes have helped sell out or break an attendance record in 30 of 32 games this season. The lone exceptions? The first round and the championship game of the Gulf Coast Showcase on a neutral court in Florida in November.
- On average, schools that have hosted Iowa have seen an attendance increase over 150% compared with their other home games, the AP reported.
- This season, Iowa faced sold-out road crowds at Northern Iowa (first time in school history), Iowa State, Wisconsin (program attendance record), Rutgers (first since 2006), Purdue (fourth sellout in program history), Ohio State, Northwestern (first time in program history), Maryland (first since 2016) and Nebraska (first in program history).
- Vivid Seats released data recently showing that the top five most in-demand NCAA women’s games this year have featured Iowa, the average price of tickets for the Hawkeyes since Clark joined the team in 2020 is up 224%, and the average distance traveled by a fan to watch Iowa play is up 34% from last season.
Clark’s impact has amplified an already upward trend of fan interest in women’s basketball.
The total attendance record for Division I women’s basketball was broken in the 2022-23 season at 8,784,401, which surpassed the previous record by more than 150,000. At the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, a tournament-record 357,542 fans attended. This was capped by a sellout crowd of 19,482 at the championship game between Iowa and LSU.
“The spotlight she has put on this sport is amazing,” Northwestern senior captain Jasmine McWilliams said. “Going to the Elite Eight, Final Four, all that last year was first of all great for the Big Ten and showcasing how great our teams are here, but also just showing how great women's basketball is. And the fact that she's selling out all these stadiums everywhere she goes is amazing.”
It’s no coincidence that these historic numbers also included Clark setting the record for the most points in an NCAA tournament (191). She also broke the tournament record for the most made 3-pointers (32).
Those who can’t witness a Clark show in person — or are unable to pay for the skyrocketing secondary market ticket prices — have tuned into the Iowa broadcasts in high numbers.
The 2023 national championship game, which featured a star-studded LSU squad against Clark and the Hawkeyes, drew an average of nearly 10 million viewers. This represented a 103% increase from the 2022 women’s championship. The 2023 title game also shattered the ratings record for a women’s college basketball game, besting the 5.7 million viewers for UConn vs. Oklahoma that had held the record since 2002.
This year, Iowa has played games on NBC, Fox and ESPN. An overtime loss at Ohio State on NBC averaged 1.93 million viewers across the network and Peacock, peaking at 3.9 million during overtime. It was the most watched regular-season women’s basketball game on any network since 2010.
Again, Clark’s impact is significant, but those viewership numbers are not a complete outlier. The battle between then-No. 9 LSU and No. 1 South Carolina in late January drew 1.56 million viewers, besting the NBA’s Boston Celtics-Miami Heat matchup in the same window. On Super Bowl Sunday, Iowa-Nebraska drew 1.77 million viewers on Fox - a network record for the sport - while South Carolina-UConn averaged 1.05 million viewers on ESPN. The sport’s rising viewership numbers made it a coveted part of ESPN’s new eight-year media rights deal with the NCAA for 40 championships. With the significant increase in value of the new agreement, NCAA members will explore revenue distribution units for the women’s basketball tournament.
Still, there’s no doubting the unique impact Clark is having.
The gravity of Clark’s stardom has pulled several notable athletes, media and celebrities into the women’s basketball space. Women’s sports icon Billie Jean King and first lady Jill Biden attended the 2023 championship game in Dallas. Actor Jason Sudeikis, star of the show “Ted Lasso,” attended an Iowa game this season alongside WNBA legend Sue Bird. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs has praised what Clark — a Chiefs fan — is doing to elevate the game multiple times. Several notable WNBA and NBA players have shared their admiration, as well.
Clark also became the first college athlete to appear on the ManningCast, an alternate viewing experience for ESPN’s Monday Night Football games hosted by brothers Peyton and Eli Manning.
All the attention is not only elevating the status of the women’s game overall but also inspiring young girls in the process. Clark regularly signs autographs for young girls after games, many of whom create posters calling out their admiration of the star they travel hours to see play.
“I was that same kid a few years ago,” Clark said. “I remember going to games like this. I remember wanting to high-five, wanting an autograph, wanting to catch a T-shirt. It does make (their) whole week, and it really takes a second out of your day. That’s how I was raised, to go out of your way to show kindness to somebody else.”
When Iowa took on Maryland on Fox this month, 1.6 million watched and broke a then-network record for the sport. Even more, Fox unveiled a Caitlin Clark Cam, an alternate viewing experience available on TikTok, for the Maryland game. It attracted more than 800,000 viewers.
“She’s the face of college basketball, men and women,” Dan Patrick, national sportscaster and radio personality, said on his radio show.
