Hours after Caitlin Clark became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer in women’s basketball on Feb. 15, the NCAA proclaimed the University of Iowa senior “a must-watch performer” who has “amplified an already upward trend of fan interest in women’s basketball.”
Want proof? The total attendance record for NCAA Division I women’s basketball was broken during the 2022-23 season with 8,784,401 fans, which surpassed the previous record by more than 150,000. And a tournament-record 357,542 spectators attended the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.
“Throughout the buildup to the historic [all-time scoring] feat, Clark’s generational talent brought more eyeballs to broadcasts, fans to arenas and all-around attention to the game,” cites the NCAA statement released the night Clark surpassed Washington alum Kelsey Plum’s previous mark of 3,527 points. “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).”
Additionally, Clark is the first Division I player — man or woman — to top 3,000 points, 1,000 assists and 800 rebounds. And she has 59 career games with at least 25 points, five assists and five rebounds, which is another NCAA record.
She is an “unprecedented tsunami of impact and influence,” Mary Jo Kane, professor emeritus and founding director at the University of Minnesota Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, told NPR.org.
“A lot of that is timing — she is riding the crest of all of the advancements that have been made 50 years plus in the wake of Title IX,” she said. “We have gone from young girls hoping that there is a team to young girls hoping that they make the team,” Kane said. “For the first time ever in our history, young girls today grow up with a sense of entitlement to sports.”
Technology also is playing a huge role in the so-called “Caitlin Clark Effect.”
“Clark is part of a new generation of stars that fans can easily and constantly see, through highlights on social media and games available on a whole host of networks and streaming services,” according to FoxSports.com. “Back when Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Sheryl Swoopes were dominating the game, it was harder to see them play. Twitter and Instagram weren’t around — YouTube was launched in 2005 — and players weren’t allowed to star in national commercial campaigns like Clark is doing with State Farm and Nike.”
And young girls are traveling with their families to see Clark's games, boosting economic impact to the point that the phenomenon is being called "Clarkonomics." For example, travel to Bloomington, Indiana to see Clark play, said Front Office Sports, resulted in the following: "Weeknight stays in Bloomington were busier than usual. The Courtyard by Marriott in Bloomington, one of the more popular hotels, was completely sold out, according to Expedia. There was limited availability in other places, with rates for the on-campus hotel, The Graduate, $97 higher per night than normal."
Which may also explain why girls’ high school basketball participation has been jumping. It remained the most popular high school sport during the 2022-23 academic year, with nearly 18,000 participating schools, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. And while outdoor track and field and volleyball stayed in the top two spots for individual girls’ participation, girls’ basketball reclaimed the third position from soccer, jumping 3.5 percent and adding 12,896 participants in 2022-23.
Nobody should be surprised if basketball participation continues to climb, beginning at the youth level.
“It’s just been amazing to see the effect she’s had on the game,” Kristin Meyer, who coached Clark at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, told WeAreIowa.com, a local NBC-TV affiliate. “Drawing fans in to watch women’s sports, especially little kids watching and idolizing her and the attention she brought to the University of Iowa and the state of Iowa, it is really amazing to see.”
“She influences us every day, motivates us to work hard in everything we do,” added Ellie Olson, a junior on Dowling Catholic’s current team. “I just think it’s so cool to know she’s come from Dowling Catholic and to not only see the impact she’s had on us but on younger girls.”
Simply put, as the National Organization for Women recently noted. “Caitlin Clark is a catalyst for the advancement of women’s equality in the athletic sphere. Not only is she promoting women’s basketball, but she’s also setting the stage to bring all women’s sports to the table. The University of Nebraska’s volleyball team has been increasingly popular this year, and this is in part due to the media attention on women’s college athletics. This increase in viewership is so important for female athletes and just women across the board because it brings female sports to the conversation. Who knows where [Clark’s] impact will lead?”
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