Even before college basketball phenom Caitlin Clark becomes a professional, there is a WNBA economy rapidly developing around her. But Clark’s expected team, the Fever, is thus far one of the more publicly restrained participants, marking a significant departure from the business of recent rookie phenoms in other leagues. 

The Fever have the No. 1 pick in Monday night’s WNBA draft, and they are widely expected to select the Iowa superstar. In rising anticipation of that, the league is entering a broad-based inflection point of business growth, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert (above) is aiming to double the league’s media rights, tickets for many opposing teams are soaring on resale markets, and the Fever are slated for national broadcast exposure in 36 of their 40 regular-season games in 2024. 

But what about the Fever franchise itself? The team’s sales strategy thus far has been comparatively muted. Indiana has created a presale of two games per day over a 15-day period leading into Monday. But the team has not yet been marketing Clark by name, hasn’t disclosed any ticket sales metrics, and has only loosely discussed her impact on business operations, only saying there has been a “spike in ticket inquiries.”

“Since we won that first pick in the draft lottery, excitement in the team and interest in tickets has been significant,” Danny Lopez, Pacers Sports & Entertainment vice president, tells Front Office Sports. The company operates both the Fever and NBA’s Pacers. “We continue to field inquiries every day and are excited about the crowds we anticipate for games this season.”

Not So With Wemby, Bedard

The Fever’s approach to date differs from how the NBA’s Spurs operated leading up to their selection last year of Victor Wembanyama, and how the NHL’s Blackhawks did before drafting Connor Bedard. Both of those players, selected No. 1 in those respective drafts, are now leading favorites to win Rookie of the Year awards this year. 

The Spurs openly disclosed their initial season-ticket influx, as well as their organizational excitement, after winning the draft lottery and the right to select Wembanyama. So, too, did the Blackhawks, which sold $5.2 million worth of season-ticket packages in the first 12 hours of winning the 2023 NHL draft lottery.

Regardless of approach, Clark’s arrival is set to elevate the Fever significantly at the gate, where the team averaged 4,067 per game last year, 11th in the 12-team league, and 39% below the league average of 6,615.

Nearly 30 years into its existence, MLS is officially getting a soccer-specific stadium in the largest U.S. city, ending more than a decade of the often-frustrating pursuit and rising questions about whether it could or would ever happen.

NYCFC gained Thursday formal land-use approval for a $780 million, 25,000-seat stadium at Willets Point in Queens, near both Citi Field and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The city council approval follows an initial announcement of the stadium plan in November 2022. An opening is now targeted for ’27. 

“This is just a rich moment of history,” said New York mayor Eric Adams (above). “Just think about how people said it was not possible. Everyone tried before. Willets Point has been an eyesore for so many years. … We scored a major goal for New York City.”

The vote gives a key sense of stability for the team, which since its 2013 debut has played home games at Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and Red Bull Stadium due to not having its own venue, all the while suffering through suboptimal sight lines playing in a baseball facility or competing in the home of its key local rival, the Red Bulls. 

Extra Time for New York

During that time numerous other MLS markets have developed their own soccer-specific facilities, pushing the league forward both on and off the field. Among the key points in the long and winding road toward the new NYCFC stadium:

• 2011: Even before MLS formally awarded New York a second franchise to join the Red Bulls, the league looks at building at Pier 40 in Manhattan, but it runs into local opposition.
• 2012: The league looks at placing an “NY2” franchise at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, also in Queens. Again, area resistance scuttles the effort, with objections focused on building on existing parkland.
• 2013: A nine-acre complex in the Bronx, near Yankee Stadium, is proposed. This site is considered for nearly two years, and actually nears a formal agreement under then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. But Bloomberg’s successor, Bill de Blasio, was far less enthusiastic.
• 2015: Soon after the demise of the Bronx plan, NYCFC turns its attention back to Manhattan, and looks at Columbia University’s Baker Athletics Complex. 
• 2017: A site adjacent to Belmont Park, just outside city limits in Nassau County, is considered. Later that year, a competing bid from the NHL’s Islanders for the land prevails, and the site is used for what is now UBS Arena.
• 2018: The team looks again at the South Bronx, with separate parcels at the Harlem River Yards and Bronx Terminal Market considered. Community support again proves to be an issue, as are development specifics such as parking. 
• 2022: NYCFC unveils the Willets Point stadium plan, including a 49-year lease and a $4 million annual payment by the team to the city. 

MLS, however, has been no stranger to such elongated stadium efforts, and Audi Field in Washington, D.C., similarly required more than a decade from original proposals to formal opening. 

“The approval of a new world-class stadium for NYCFC is a historic step for MLS and soccer in our country,” MLS commissioner Don Garber posted on X. “As a native New Yorker, I couldn’t be prouder to bring more of our soccer to your doorstep.”