Caitlin Clark's effect leads Iowa women's basketball to soar to top 5 nationally with $3.8M in operating revenues
Caitlin Clark has moved on to the big leagues and currently leads the Rookie of the Year race in the WNBA. However, her impact on the Iowa Hawkeyes remains. The program is no longer witnessing a surge that increased fan attendance to over 300,000 and even saw packed road games. Nevertheless, Clark’s rise still pits the Hawkeyes program as one of the major attractions.
According to Hawkeyes Wire's Josh Helmer, Iowa is now the nation’s fourth-best operating revenue system in college athletics. Its women’s basketball was totaled $3,804,580 in 2022-23 and saw an increase of $2,110,993 with an overall revenue of $151,483,092 last year.
During her time with the Hawkeyes, Caitlin Clark shattered numerous records, including the all-time NCAA Division I scoring by surpassing Kelsey Plum and Pete Maravich to top both men's and women’s basketball. Her high-arcing Stephen Curry-like long rangers sold Iowa’s season tickets in August, months before the first game was played in November.
Moreover, for the first time in history, more viewership came to the women’s NCAA finals than the men’s competition (18.9 million) as Clark's Iowa battled Dawn Staley’s South Carolina. Connecticut’s back-to-back championship run garnered 14.8 million viewers.
Moreover, the Caitlin Clark effect translated to the WNBA as well. The 2024 draft saw 2.45 million spectators, making it the most-watched WNBA event in over two decades. In contrast, the 2023 draft saw just 512,000 tuned in.
Caitlin Clark's presence has also impacted the state of Iowa
According to research conducted by the Common Sense Institute Iowa earlier this year, Caitlin Clark is responsible for adding $82.5 million to the state’s overall economy, nearly double of the collected state revenue from the 2021 Iowa State Fair.
Clark’s contribution comes through the masses at her games, inspiring young women and bringing massive attention to the university alongside the consumer spending that with it in the last three years.
As per the report from the Common Sense Institute Iowa, with that amount, the state could invest in nearly 5,000 acres of cropland, a year’s tuition for more than 4,000 children at the University of Iowa and much more for the public welfare.