On Tuesday, ESPN’s Holly Rowe tossed in her thoughts about Caitlin Clark’s impact on WNBA viewership and attendance. Rowe said on the “Show Me Something” podcast that Clark took the league’s popularity to “a new level.” However, Rowe added that the league was “rising” before Clark’s arrival.
Rowe’s statement earned reactions from fans. One fan wrote:
“They were shutting down in Covid Year if they didn’t play. Lol.”
Another fan added:
“LMAO… the league was still ready to collapse in 2016.”
One more fan continued:
“Hmmm. Yikes. The data says a very different story.”
Another fan commented:
“Complete garbage, Holly. Just look at the attendance and TV ratings from 2016 thru 2023.”
One fan tweeted:
Sit this one out, Holly. Cause you damn well know that’s not true.”
Rowe specifically mentioned the 2016 championship series between the LA Sparks and the Minnesota Timberwolves as the moment she thought the WNBA had turned a corner. She mentioned multiple players, such as Candace Parker and Maya Moore, as the stars who highlighted the league.
However, “Across The Timeline” in-arena attendance data show that from 2016 to 2019, the numbers fluctuated between 9,000 to 11,000. Without games during the 2020 season, the league struggled even more the following year. The Phoenix Mercury topped teams in home attendance, averaging 5,849.06 per game in 2021.
Without the COVID restrictions in 2022, the WNBA reached its usual in-arena and viewership numbers. In 2023, both figures dropped, the same trend that happened before the COVID shutdown.
It wasn’t until Caitlin Clark’s arrival in 2024 that everything spiked. The Fever went No. 1 in home attendance that year, averaging 17,035.75. According to the Sports Business Journal, “Fever games averaged 1.19 million viewers,” which were “199% better than 394,000 other games.”
The hordes of fans that followed Clark in Iowa continued to watch her in the WNBA. In 2024, the “Sports Business Journal reported:
“The WNBA averaged 657,000 viewers for the historic 2024 regular season, its best mark in 24 years and fueled by huge numbers for Caitlin Clark’s rookie season with the Indiana Fever.”
Holly Rowe thought 2016 was the turning point of the WNBA’s rise, but the numbers show it wasn’t until Caitlin Clark played that the league took off.
“I Have Never Seen Anything Like This”: Holly Rowe on Covering Caitlin Clark in College
Holly Rowe was the sideline reporter when Caitlin Clark became the NCAA’s all-time scoring leader in early March 2024. She broke Pete Maravich’s 3,667 points in the first half by draining two free throws.
Before the game, Rowe appeared on the “Dan Patrick Show” and opened up about her experience covering the then-Iowa superstar:
“I’ve been covering women’s college basketball for 30 years; I have seen a lot. I have seen the height of UConn’s greatness. I’ve seen Maya Moore, Candace Parker. … I just have never seen anything like this.”
Rowe added that the sight of children and families holding up Caitlin Clark’s No. 22 jerseys was “precious” and “amazing.”
When Dan Patrick said that Clark’s popularity was similar to that of boy bands, Rowe responded that Clark is “Taylor Swift,” whom Rowe called the “hottest person in fandom.”
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