The 2024 draft for the WNBA won’t take place until 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday. But Caitlin Clark’s impact on the league is already being felt in a big way. Clark was inescapable during the NCAA tournament. With the draft, the phenomenally talented Iowa Guard, who is the all-time leading scorer in college basketball, is a sure bet to be drafted by the Indiana Fever. The certainty of that draft pick is having big ripple effects. Ticket prices for the team, for instance, are surging. While single game ticket sales don’t start until 4 p.m. this afternoon, the secondary market is already active. Floor seats on StubHub are going for as much as $515. And the average resale price for the 2024 season is triple what it was a year ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. Clark’s arrival is benefitting other teams as well. Ticket sales for matchups with the Fever are prompting some changes. The Las Vegas Aces, for instance, are moving their July 2 matchup against Indiana to T-Mobile Arena, which will open up another 7,100 seats for fans to fill. And despite the fact that the Fever had the worst record in the Eastern Conference last year (coming in at an abysmal 13-27, giving them first pick in this year’s draft), the team is going to be everywhere soon. Some 36 of the 40 Fever games will be broadcast nationally or carried on streaming services this year, more than any other team. ESPN is poised to benefit from Caitlin Clark’s celebrity as well. The channel (and its offshoots) will broadcast eight Fever games this year—and it’s also the television home of the WNBA Draft (also streaming on ESPN+, SlingTV, and FuboTV.) Last year saw a record viewership of 572,000 for that kickoff event and is likely to hit a new high today. Amazon (with four Fever games on its schedule), ABC and CBS could also see ratings bumps. The big winner, though, could be NBA TV, which will show a substantial number of Fever games, more than any other service. A League Pass subscription starts at $15 per month (after a seven-day free trial). And Clark’s arrival could spur more people to sign up. Expect to see Caitlin Clark’s face in even more places, as well, as she signs more sponsorship deals. Thanks to NCAA rule changes allowing athletes to profit while still in school, she already has deals with Nike and State Farm Insurance, giving her annual earnings of $818,000. Should her celebrity continue to grow as she plays in the league, that figure will only grow. Clark is the headliner of this year’s draft, and perhaps this season. She’s already a pop culture force, even showing up on Saturday Night Live‘s “Weekend Update” this past week to humble Michael Che for his jokes about women’s basketball. However, she’s hardly the only star who will be drafted this evening. LSU’s Angel Reese is a lock for a Top 10 draft pick, with most forecasters expecting she’ll be picked up by the Chicago Sky. A long-time rival of Clark, she led LSU to an NCAA championship last year, due in part to her outstanding rebound skills. South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso, meanwhile, is widely expected to go to the Los Angeles Sparks as the number four pick. What makes the draft so exciting, though, whether it’s the WNBA or NFL, is things don’t always go how the experts are predicting. While no one is willing to bet on Clark being anything but the immediate first pick, the opponents she will face once she moves into the pro world might not be the ones she expects.

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