It’s no secret that Caitlin Clark has led to massive, record ratings for the WNBA. But she’s also led to record crowd sizes, and Tuesday night was no exception.
The Indiana Fever took on the defending champion Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday night, and a whopping 20,366 fans packed the arena to watch it. That attendance number is the largest WNBA crowd in 25 years, the fifth largest of all time, and the largest crowd in Las Vegas Aces history.
That last point is key. Remember, the Aces are the defending champs. They’re a good team, and they have the league’s best player, A’ja Wilson. When did they set their franchise attendance record? When Caitlin Clark came to town.
Similar to what happened in Atlanta, when the Dream had to move from their normal stadium to a larger NBA arena to accommodate the massive crowds Clark attracts, the Aces had to switch from the Michelob Ultra Arena (12,000 seats), where they usually play, to the T-Mobile Arena (20,000+ seats).
Clark put on a show for the Vegas crowd, scoring 13 points along with 11 assists. However, Aces stars Kelsey Plum and A’Ja Wilson scored 34 and 28 points, respectively, giving Vegas an 88-69 victory over the Fever.
Clark did get a win in another sense on Tuesday night; she learned that she won a spot on the WNBA All-Star team with a massive 700,735 votes, more than any other player.
