Fever’s Still Running: Tickets, Jerseys, and the Caitlin Clark Economy

March Madness has come and gone, the WNBA draft is over, every viewership record has been broken—and it’s still Caitlin Clark’s world. She won’t make her professional debut for several more weeks, but the demand for Clark keeps growing by the day. 

On Thursday, the Washington Mystics announced they are moving their June 7 game against the Indiana Fever six miles down the road to the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena, due to unprecedented demand for tickets. The Mystics normally play home games at Entertainment and Sports Arena, which holds about 4,200 fans. Washington joins the Las Vegas Aces, who already moved their May 25 game against Indiana out of the 12,000-seat Michelob Ultra Arena and into T-Mobile Arena, which has a capacity of 20,000. 

The Caitlin Clark roadshow will likely end up being an expensive one, too. Here’s a snapshot of some median ticket prices for WNBA games with the Fever visiting, according to the secondary marketplace Gametime:

• $615: Minnesota Lynx, July 14
• $600: Chicago Sky, June 23
• $583: Los Angeles Sparks, May 24
• $530: Washington Mystics, June 7 (data pulled before move to Capital One Arena)
• $354: Las Vegas Aces, May 25

Supply and Demand

Beyond being the hottest ticket in every town the Fever visit, Clark is also the biggest story in sports apparel right now. She’s reportedly closing in on a deal with Nike that will pay her at least $10 million and include a signature shoe. But hopefully the Swoosh will have a better rollout plan for that line than it did for its initial batch of Clark’s Fever jerseys, which are already sold out everywhere.

Online, Fanatics says that a standard Clark jersey ordered today “will be shipped no later than Wednesday, August 14, 2024.” And Dick’s Sporting Goods says a Clark jersey will ship “after Fri, Oct 25.” Nike, which manufactures WNBA jerseys, released a statement on Thursday about the high demand: “We planned for a significant number of jerseys to be available for the draft moment and they sold out due to extraordinary demand. More Caitlin Clark jerseys will be available at the start of the WNBA season.”

Can I Help You?

For the Fever, it’s been tricky keeping up with fans wondering about Clark jerseys, tickets, and everything else. The team, like many others in sports, uses an AI chatbot for inquiries on its website. On draft night, Indiana’s service, powered by a company called On, saw a 400% increase in activity compared to what they would typically average in the evenings. During the first two weeks of April, the Fever saw more overall interactions and inquiries than it had seen in the prior two months.