Indianapolis expects to cash in on Iowa star Caitlin Clark

The Hoosier State is now banking on its own Caitlin Clark Effect, as the Indiana Fever is expected to pick the University of Iowa star basketball player during Monday’s WNBA draft.

Dr. Cathy DuBois, dean of the College of Business at Ball State University in Muncie, says Clark is an absolute national phenomenon and the sky’s the limit for the West Des Moines native, wherever she goes.

“Caitlin Clark is big everywhere. It’s not just Iowa,” DuBois says. “She has brought an enthusiasm to the game as never before. She has this larger-than-life influence and it’s really kick-started everybody’s interest in women’s basketball.”

A Ball State study predicts Clark’s addition to the Fever roster will bring another 1,200 fans to each game in the upcoming season, many of whom will be coming from outside the region. That means plenty of dollars spent in hotels, restaurants, and other entertainment venues during their stay.

“It will be a substantial economic impact on the city of Indianapolis,” DuBois says. “The annual attendance that was estimated is 26,000 and additional revenue from that is over $6 million, so this is big. This is really big.”

Clark led the Hawkeyes to two consecutive national championship games, including the match with South Carolina this past Sunday which set a record for television viewers.

“The overall viewership of 18.9 million, that eclipsed the men’s championship viewership of about 14.8 million,” DuBois says. “So she’s not just a flash in the pan or a drop in the bucket. This is something that has an outsized effect that’s never happened before. So there’s no reason to believe that that will end as she enters the pros.”

Clark’s number, 22, was retired during a celebration on Wednesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on the UI campus, after a season during which she racked up a long series of awards and national records. With the new countrywide focus on women’s basketball, DuBois predicts the entire professional league will benefit as Clark joins its ranks.

“Caitlin Clark is in a league of her own, but there are all these senior women who are graduating. They will go into the pros. She’s not going in alone,” DuBois says. “She’s going in with an ever-increasingly skilled group of women and the entire enterprise of the WNBA is in for a ride.”

Another study done in part at Ball State found more than 162-thousand media stories featured Clark during the NCAA tournament, resulting in 177-billion media impressions valued at more than $2.6 billion.