Clark brings back million viewers for WNBA during push

Text | Han Yino

Caitlin Clark has always been the focus of the WNBA, but the recent headlines related to her are not her return to the arena after recovering from injury, but a recent physical conflict on the court. The fuse of the

event was that Suns player Sheldon's cutting ball in a big move hit Clark's face. And as Marina Mabrey, the former player of the same team, knocked Clark, who was arguing with Sheldon, to the ground, the conflict escalated again.

However, this is not over. With less than one minute left in the game, Sophie Cunningham of the fanatic team made a strong pull-and-pull-and-pull-shot foul on Sheldon's fast break, which eventually led to the expulsion of three of the two teams. Cunningham's actions were widely interpreted by the outside world as "exciting anger for the unfair judgment encountered by Clark", and she was fined $400 for this.

But soon, as the incident further spreads on the Internet with the broadcasting screen, an unexpected trend occurred - Cunningham's jersey was sold out overnight, not only was it called Clark's "Sword Guard", but its personal social media popularity soared by more than 800,000. Many fans even joked in the relevant news comment section that "this $400 may be the most 'favorite' fine on the professional basketball court."

Indeed, although the conflict and subsequent fermentation attract attention, it also makes us ignore an event that is more worthy of review and thinking - what is the WNBA that lost Clark for a short time before?

"National TV ratings fell by 55%, more than half of the game."

This is the WNBA's ratings performance when the tide called the "Clark Effect" recedes.

This goes back to the announcement issued by the Fanatics after the four rounds of the WNBA: "Defender Caitlyn Clark will be out for at least 2 weeks due to a left thigh strain."

Source: The Sport News

The injury of a second-year player can actually halve the ratings of the entire league - the WNBA is facing an intriguing situation.

There may be some other objective reasons behind this: during Clark's injury, it was a critical stage for the Pacers to compete with the Thunder for the NBA championship. On the other hand, the NHL Finals were also staged at the same time. Another major viewer guarantee for the WNBA this season - the new No. 1 pick Page Bux, who triggered the concussion protection agreement, was also missing many games since the end of last month, which is even worse.

But even so, most views and data still tacitly point to the primary factor - "no Clark".

Specifically, in the two weeks when Clark was injured, the broadcast ratings of the Fanatics' five games fell by 53% year-on-year, reducing about 950,000 viewers;

The Fanatics' average ticket price at home dropped from $137 to $80, a drop of more than 40%.

The Chicago Sky "visited" Clark to move to a larger venue. But according to Yahoo Sports: Within 48 hours after the Fanatics announced that Clark would be injured, the average ticket price of the Sky's home game against Fanatics plummeted 70% - the original $125 upper stand ticket could be won for only $20.

The original "Clark and Angel Rees showdown" attracted more than 20,000 viewers to buy tickets; source: WNBA

Clark's last injury dates back to 2017 and her second year in high school.

After that severe ankle sprain, she has played 185 games in the past eight years, including a full-time rookie season (40 regular season games + 2 playoff games).

This left thigh strain was the first time she had in her career as a professional basketball player.

It is also the first time that the world has seen the WNBA without Clark after 2024.

Source: FB

2.2 million, peak 2.8 million people - this is the broadcast ratings of Clark's first comeback game on the 15th of this month.

ranked third highest ever on ESPN broadcasting WNBA games on ABC.

In this game, Clark scored 9 points in three consecutive three-pointers in 38 seconds, a professional high of 7 three-pointers, a quasi-triple double-double performance of 32 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists - announcing her return with a perfect answer that combines both viewing and competitiveness.

The last single athlete had such a great impact on the entire event league, perhaps Michael Jordan was to the NBA and Tiger Woods was to the PGA.

Source: ESPN

So, correspondingly, how does Clark exist to the WNBA?

Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University who specializes in valuation, analyzed that Caitlyn Clark participated in 26.5% of the WNBA's economic activity last year (including commodity sales, ticket sales and television revenue), and by establishing a predictive model, comparing the growth rate of Clark's previous WNBA participation: About 60% of the WNBA's audience growth last season may be attributed to Clark..

Behind this, there are more specific data:

6 WNBA teams moved to a larger gymnasium to accommodate more spectators due to the visit of Clark and Fanatics;

24 WNBA games exceeded one million, and 21 of them were Caitlyn Clark; sales of WNBA peripheral products sold on the Fanatics platform soared by more than 500% compared with the previous year;

...

Source: Sport Media Watch

When a player becomes a rating guarantee, box office guarantee and commercial engine at the same time - this is not only a rare opportunity in the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the WNBA, but also a dependence that needs to be gradually removed from in the future.

The tide will eventually fade away. Perhaps Clark's significance to the WNBA is: with the help of the east wind she brought, more players will be promoted from "one branch to one flower blooming".