Fans all across the country have been coming out to get a glimpse of new WNBA star Caitlin Clark.
The Indiana Fever have already set their home season attendance record, and road venues are shattering records left and right when Clark comes to town.
The same thing happened at IU a year ago.
Indiana drew a then record home crowd for Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2023, with more than 13,000 fans.
Just a few months ago when Clark came to Bloomington, IU recorded their second all-time sellout for a women’s game, and ticket prices soared on the secondary market.
But Clark says the big road crowds aren’t what you’d typically expect for an opposing player. By and large, the fans aren’t coming out in droves to root against Clark. They’re coming to see and cheer for her.
She’s enjoying road environments few get to experience.
“There aren’t many cheering against us and that certainly helps,” Clark told the assembled media on Friday evening after the the Fever and Dream drew a record 17,575 fans at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
As was the case in Bloomington, Clark says she’s grown accustomed to playing in front of big crowds from her days as a star at Iowa.
But there was one place where she never felt the love from the road crowd.
“For me, a lot of that (friendly road crowd) was the same in college, other than the IU fans,” Clark said. “They were pretty crazy.”
Backed by the massive crowds, Indiana defeated Clark’s Hawkeyes each of the last two times they played in Bloomington. The Hoosiers won at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall 86-69 in February, and 87-78 in 2023. She made just 6-of-27 (22.2%) threes in those games.
After coming up short at IU a few months ago, Clark credited the partisan IU crowd.
“This is a great environment to come and play basketball. Their crowd is incredible,” she said. “They were tenacious. It helps when there’s 17,000 people screaming for you.”
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