Caitlin Clark Is Fixing America’s Major Problem as Sue Bird Sheds Light on Fever Star’s $11 Million Earnings
The WNBA is experiencing rapid growth right now, but it hasn’t always been this way. When the league officially tipped off in 1997, it started with just eight teams—four in the Eastern Conference and four in the Western Conference. Today, only three of those original franchises still exist. Recognizing the challenges of having a women’s league in the U.S., Sue Bird, a key player in the league’s journey, has some insightful thoughts to share.
In the latest edition of the ‘A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe’ podcast released on December 10, the former Seattle Storm player teamed up with her wife to dive into a few topics surrounding the WNBA. “I look at this from a league perspective, and I think the biggest challenge for women’s sports in our country has been finding a league that can really take off,” she mentioned.
“We’ve had various leagues in women’s basketball—obviously the WNBA included—and honestly, I lose track of the acronyms! There have just been so many leagues.”
The 22-year-old Iowa native made waves when she joined the Indiana Fever as the No. 1 overall pick, injecting new energy into the league. From the beginning, Clark’s dominance both on and off the court has been evident. Just a few months into the season, arenas were filling up to 94%, a clear sign of the league’s growing popularity.
You might wonder how she’s driving this growth. Well, she’s responsible for a staggering 26.5% of the WNBA’s economic activity including attendance, merchandise sales and television. Unfortunately, though, most of her income has come from off-court endorsements. But that certainly doesn’t dim Clark’s influence, which is something even Bird heavily agreed with…
“For a league to be successful…have longevity and now to see for a player in a league to be able to garner money off the court. In this way, some of it is just because it’s Caitlin Clark. Like you can’t remove that from the equation. She’s also a little bit of a catalyst because now that you’re seeing brands invest in her, they know that she’s going to be seen in the WNBA. And so those brands are now also going to invest in the WNBA.”
“It’s going to just break the door open for all this investment to come in. And that’s ultimately how the league will grow. We’ve already got the media deal. However the CBA negotiation ends up, odds are salaries go up and that ultimately is what we all want. Because when the league is successful in our country, that to me, is when we’ve really broken through in a different way,” Bird concluded.
This comes days after Clark debuted on Sportico’s world’s highest paid female athletes at No. 10 with a massive $11.1 million annual payday. You’d be surprised to know that in that figure, a staggering $11 million came from endorsements alone—she has deals with Nike, State Farm, Gatorade, Panini, Wilson, Hy-Vee, Xfinity, Gainbridge and Lilly. Her WNBA rookie base salary ($76,535) and bonus add up to be a measly $100,000.
The Indiana Fever rookie was also named as TIME Magazine’s 2024 Athlete of the Year. An achievement that will certainly bolster hike conversations manifold.
Talking about the achievement, Clark had, as expected, brought the attention over what mattered: Women’s sports. “I’ve been able to captivate so many people that have never watched women’s sports, let alone women’s basketball, and turn them into fans.”
via Imago
Notably, Clark is the first WNBA player to receive the award and just the second individual woman athlete, joining 2021 honoree Simone Biles. In light of this, let’s look at…
Clark has been credited with selling one out of every six tickets in WNBA arenas during the 2024 season, and the impact doesn’t stop there. Just taking the Fever games into account, she has significantly boosted the league’s broadcasting value, accounting for 45% of it. What was once a struggling team is now breaking records in viewership.
But her impact had been felt well before her professional debut. Case in point: As per reports, her college championship game between Iowa and South Carolina on April 7 this year, averaged 18.9 million viewers and peaked at 24.1 million, becoming the second most watched women’s sporting event, outside the Olympic Games, in the history of U.S. television. That’s a 90 percent increase from the 2023 title game and a 289 percent increase from 2022.
In fact, Clark has skyrocketed WNBA TV viewership by an astonishing 300%. Why is that?
She’s been playing like an absolute legend. Even as a newcomer to the league, she currently holds impressive records in scoring, assists, and triple-doubles. Leading the league with an average of 8.4 assists per game isn’t an easy feat, but she’s making it look effortless.
This surge in performance has also led to a jump in attendance for the Fever, with an average of 17,036 fans (leading the league in attendance for the first time) showing up per home game since Clark’s arrival. On top of that, her regular-season games are pulling in around 1.2 million viewers as opposed to 394,000 viewers in the games without her—that’s about a 199% difference if you’re wondering.
This is how Caitlin Clark elevated the WNBA to new heights, especially when women’s leagues often go overlooked.
