Caitlin Clark playing Lynx at Target Center is a $1 million match

Every seat at Target Center on Sunday will be filled. And everyone knows why.

Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are coming to town to play the Lynx. Some might frown at the way that was worded. And yes, it does bring back memories of way back in 1950, when the marquee at Madison Square Garden, promoting an upcoming game between the Minneapolis Lakers and New York, read: “Geo. Mikan vs. Knicks.”

But is that an exaggeration?

The season is more than halfway through and there are only two cities where Clark, the Fever’s top rookie guard from Iowa, has not yet played: Dallas and, finally, Minneapolis.

How much Hawkeye gold are we going to see on Sunday afternoon? Good luck getting a ticket.

In the week leading up to the game, Lynx President of Business Operations Carley Knox was excited to review the numbers and reports each day, and he saw that ticket sales at the Target Center were nearly through the roof.

“It’s awesome,” Knox said.

As of Friday afternoon, fewer than 1,000 tickets remained. By the time the game starts, the stadium is expected to sell out to 18,978, the largest regular-season crowd in franchise history. The team drew 19,423 for Game 5 of the 2016 WNBA Finals, before renovations when the arena had a slightly larger capacity.

But Sunday will be the day when the proceeds in Lynx history will be the highest: for the first time, ticket revenue will exceed $1 million.

“I get it,” Lynx coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said. “I get the passion for Caitlin Clark, her game, that her fans across the country have for her. I watched it with Steph Curry. And now just Caitlin, the whole rookie class.”

The Clark Effect is well-documented. According to a mid-June report from SportsCasting.com, the average attendance at WNBA games was 15,591 when the Fever were in town, and 7,645 when they weren’t. In a season when league ratings are broken down, nine of the Fever’s 10 most-watched games were in town. An early July game in Las Vegas — which, like many teams, moved its regular season to a larger one — drew 20,366, the fifth-largest crowd in league history and the largest since 1999.

And now we’re going to see it at Target Center. But hey, we’ve seen it before.

If Iowa City was her college home and she’s now based in Indianapolis, Target Center should be as close to a home game as possible for Clark, the 6-foot-3 point guard who was selected with the first pick in the 2024 WNBA draft.

Clark is originally from Des Moines, and her father would take her up north to watch the Lynx games. Clark’s favorite player growing up was Maya Moore. The Lynx won four WNBA titles during Clark’s formative years.

“I grew up loving the Minnesota Lynx,” Clark said during her introductory press conference in Indiana. “I probably shouldn’t say that anymore.”

And then, of course, there’s Target Center, where the Hawkeyes have won the last two Big Ten Conference tournament titles. Remember when Minneapolis was invaded by Iowans who waited in the skyway for hours to get in?

“Winning the Big Ten title last year was one of the most memorable games of my college career,” Clark said. Clark was not available for a one-on-one interview, but answered a few questions about the upcoming game via email. “Looking back and seeing the long line of Iowa fans waiting to get into the arena was a testament to how dedicated our fan base was. It turned out to be one of the best environments we’ve played in outside of Iowa City.”

A mixed reaction?

Has all the attention for the league’s most talked-about rookie irked some?

That’s the perception, at least for some. They point to former star Diana Taurasi who spoke about the learning curve Clark would face if he came to the WNBA. “Reality is coming,” she said.

Much ado was made about a post Reeve made on X as pre-season began, in which he took aim at the league for promoting Clark’s debut by saying there were other teams in the league.

Reeve declined to comment on the post or the response. But anyone who has followed Reeve online for a while knows that she likes to criticize the league on a number of points. The post was clearly more about recognizing the league as a whole than disparaging Clark.

Reeve said she believes the 12-team WNBA has welcomed both Clark and the rookie class and everything they brought to the league from college.

Resentment? “That’s a false narrative,” Reeve said. “Nowadays, false narratives are allowed and they spread like wildfire.”

Reeve said she’s never heard a player say anything disparaging about Clark.

“I can’t tell you how many players I’ve talked to, the way they talk about her,” Reeve said. “The smiles on their faces. They say, ‘Damn, she’s good.’ It’s fun. It’s awesome. And not just Caitlin, the whole rookie class.”

An increase in interest

There’s no doubt that the league has reached a new level of interest. More eyes on the game will lead to more lucrative TV deals, which will lead to higher salaries. It’s easy to connect the dots: A security issue involving Clark and the Fever at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on May 2 was followed shortly thereafter by WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing that charter flights would be coming to the league.

Lynx guard Kayla McBride — who was just named to her fourth All-Star game — is in her 11th season. She’s flown commercial for a decade. Do you think she doesn’t realize where the league is headed?

“This whole story is just weird,” McBride said of the idea of ​​the rookies being cut. “That’s never been the point. It’s never been about us versus them. They came in with their own personalities, personas. They came in with more eyes on them than anyone else. That weighs. But what we’ve been able to do weighs too.”

That may be the crux of the matter. Knox spoke this week, and Reeve has been saying all along that while this season was a turning point, the movement had already begun. The momentum of the league was already building. That Clark, Angel Reese and other first-year players helped put the pedal to the metal?

“It gives us more eyes to see what we’re doing, what we’ve done,” McBride said. “That’s the point of all of this. It’s not us versus them, it’s us versus everybody. It’s about continuing to grow women’s sports.”

That said, there is competition. There are only 144 jobs in the WNBA, and every veteran wants to test every rookie. There can be some pushing, physical play, trash talk.

“But we, as veterans, have been here,” McBride said. “We understand what it was like not to have charters. When I started in this league (in San Antonio) we played where the rodeo was.

“This new wave is going to change everything for everyone. It’s never going back.”

Impressive on the field

McBride said she is impressed with the way the newbies handle the attention and pressure.

Clark? She’s endured a grueling start to the program, is now a favorite for Rookie of the Year and has been under the biggest spotlight.

And that’s been tough at times. Earlier this season, Clark asked people not to use her to push their goals.

“I just try to give myself as much grace as possible and trust in my teammates and my family,” she said. “This year has been a tough start because of the amount of games we’ve played in such a short period of time, but now our team has had time to get to know each other … and I think everyone is seeing the results because we’ve been winning a lot more lately.”

On the court, Clark’s play has steadily improved. She’s averaging 16.7 points and is second in the league in assists (7.6) with 5.9 rebounds. She recently recorded the first rookie triple-double in league history.

As Reeve said, her players support Clark except when they’re playing against her.

McBride, for example, is looking forward to the atmosphere on Sunday and hopes that every match will be as she expects.

“We’re just going to play basketball in front of a group of fans,” she said. “And put on a show. Play a good game. Compete. Sometimes it becomes a lot more for everyone else. We just want to play.”