Please Come Back Soon, Caitlin Clark — Signed, the WNBA
With the normally-indestructible star on the sidelines, the W may badly miss the benefits of the Clark Effect.
A year after Caitlin Clark helped drive a record-setting WNBA season in just about every measure of popularity and interest — from TV ratings and attendance to merchandise sales — the league was banking on its most bankable star to take things to an even higher level in 2025. With a new expansion team added (the Golden State Valkyries) and a new 44-game regular season schedule (10 more than what the usual season length had been from 2003-2019), everything about the WNBA in 2025 was focused on being bigger and better than ever, with Clark as the centerpiece of it all.
That plan was working, too, early this season. The season-opening showdown between Clark’s Indiana Fever and her college rival Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky was the most-watched WNBA regular season game in 25 years, reportedly drawing a peak of 3.1 million viewers and an average of 2.7 million. But the plan only works if Clark stays healthy — a premise thrown into disarray with Monday’s news that she would miss at least two weeks with a left quad strain. Now, the W faces a test: Can the surge continue without its biggest driver propelling things forward?
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