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The Chicago Sky are moving two games against the Indiana Fever to the United Center this summer, the team announced Friday.
Teams around the WNBA moved their games against the Fever last season to their city’s larger venues to accommodate the army of Caitlin Clark fans coming to see the eventual Rookie of the Year. But the Sky, whose Wintrust Arena holds close to 10,400 fans, never made the move to the United Center.
The home of the Bulls and Blackhawks is one of the largest indoor arenas in U.S. sports, seating close to 21,000 fans for basketball sellouts. These games will mark the first time in the Sky’s 20-year history that the team will play in the United Center. The current franchise attendance record is 16,444 fans at the Sky’s former home, Allstate Arena, in 2016.
The WNBA set a record for the most-attended games in decades when the Washington Mystics moved their Fever games to Capital One Arena, drawing 20,711 fans. It was the largest crowd in WNBA history since two Finals games at the old Palace of Auburn Hills in the early 2000s, which both eclipsed the 22,000-fan mark, according to Across the Timeline. (The Mystics announced earlier this week they will host the Fever twice and Sky and Aces once in Baltimore rather than Capital One Arena.)
Sky-Fever matchups were some of the most-watched games of the season last year, largely thanks to the rematch between Clark and Chicago rookies Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, who beat Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2023 and 2024 national championships, respectively. The June 16 game between the two teams brought in 2.25 million viewers on CBS, which is slightly more than what Game 5 of the WNBA Finals drew on ESPN.
The immense interest in the rivalry, Chicago being a major market, and the proximity to Clark faithful in Iowa and Indiana, means the United Center games are poised to break the Capital One Arena records from last year.
The June 7 and July 27 (moved from July 26) games go on sale March 11, the same day all Sky regular-season tickets open.
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