It’s no secret that former Iowa Hawkeye Caitlin Clark has been the biggest name in women’s sports the past few years. Her domination on the basketball court has drawn numerous new fans to women’s basketball, both professional and collegiate. It also has drawn a lot of revenue to her organizations.
The WNBA’s Indiana Fever had the highest average attendance in the league during Clark’s rookie season, averaging over 17,000 fans per home game, more than 4,000 higher than the next closest team – the New York Liberty. For perspective, the year before Clark’s arrival, the Fever averaged 4,066 fans per home game.
If Clark’s sheer presence could do such wonders for a WNBA franchise, imagine her impact for her alma mater, the University of Iowa. As a Hawkeye, Clark brought the organization to new heights, reaching the NCAA Tournament finals each of her final two years, the furthest the Hawkeyes have ever reached. However, the university’s 2024 fiscal-year statement shows that her biggest contribution came in the millions of dollars she brought to the school.
The report showed that Iowa women’s basketball revenue exceeded that of the men’s team for the first time. Here are the most notable findings, per The Des Moines Register’s Chad Leistikow.
The impact of the Crossover at Kinnick
The women’s basketball outdoor exhibition game against DePaul, held at Kinnick Field, on Oct. 15, 2024 did wonders for the team’s popularity. In that game alone, Iowa drew 55,646 fans, a national record for women’s basketball. While much of the proceeds for the game (approximately $250,000) were donated to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, at $10 a ticket for adults and $5 for fans 18 and under, the university still made massive profits from the event.
Ticket sales rose by over 400% in two years
During Clark’s sophomore season at Iowa, the Hawkeyes women’s basketball team generated $767,069 in ticket revenue. By Clark’s senior season, they were generating $3,260,451, more than four times their totals from two seasons prior.
While this success was obviously tremendous for the university, it did come at a minor cost to the men’s basketball team, which saw its ticket revenue fall by 14.6% from $3,471,938 to $2,965,969 in that same two-year span.
The interest in women’s basketball has seemingly carried into the 2024-25 season as well. General public seating for the season sold out in late September 2024, possibly making Iowa women’s basketball the most popular women’s basketball program in the country even without Clark.
Clark’s popularity didn’t come without its costs
With Clark drawing fans to games hours before tipoff, additional security and staff needed to be hired. All in all, the university spent $1,709,387 to stage women’s basketball games, more than six times what the defending national champions, LSU, spent for the same purpose ($258,000), and nearly three times more than the defending men’s champions, UConn ($610,000).
The Crossover at Kinnick alone cost the university six figures to stage the contest. While it wasn’t as much as a football game, which cost Iowa an average of $421,212, it was still a costly expenditure compared to every other athletics department.