And now wearing number 22 for the Indiana Fever of the WNBA — Tim McGraw.
The country star knew how to connect with the crowd when he played an Indianapolis show on Thursday as the crowd roared its appreciation.
McGraw had worn an Iowa jersey with Clark’s number when he played an Iowa concert last month.
The Fever spread word of the stunt on social media, paraphrasing a line of a McGraw song in the process.
“we like it, we love it,” the team posted on X.
Trending:
we like it, we love it.@TheTimMcGraw came out on stage at @GainbridgeFH wearing a Caitlin Clark jersey 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wlp8G5YR8V
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) April 19, 2024
On April 15, McGraw posted a shout-out to Clark along with a clip of him wearing her Iowa number.
From the NCAA to the WNBA… with a pit stop on SNL in between!! Couldn’t be a bigger fan. Congrats @CaitlinClark22! The @IndianaFever are lucky to have you on the team. #girlpower #WNBADraft pic.twitter.com/wvd8vPZgdt
— Tim McGraw (@TheTimMcGraw) April 15, 2024
“From the NCAA to the WNBA… with a pit stop on SNL in between!! Couldn’t be a bigger fan. Congrats @CaitlinClark22! The @IndianaFever are lucky to have you on the team. #girlpower #WNBADraft,” he posted on X.
Do you listen to Tim McGraw?
As an indication of the impact Clark is having on the WNBA without having yet played a game, the Washington Mystics have announced their June 7 game against the Indiana Fever will be moved to a larger venue because the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Southeast D.C., where the Mystics usually play, is already sold out, according to WRC-TV.
And so the game against the Fever has been moved to the 20,356-capacity Capital One Arena, more than four times the capacity of the 4,200-seat arena where the Mystics usually play.
In an Op-Ed for the Muncie Star Press, Michael Hicks, an economics professor at Ball State University, tried to quantify Clark’s fiscal ripple effect.
“It is a safe bet that almost no one in Indiana knows less about basketball than me, but only a recluse could miss the hype over the Indianapolis Fever’s draft of Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark,” he noted, adding, “By almost any measure, she’s the most dominant player, male or female, to ever enter a professional draft. This makes the economics of Caitlin Clark interesting.”
“Right now, the Caitlin Clark effect on ticket sales and likely game attendance appears to exceed that of any male superstar basketball player of the past four decades. However, the real money, and the real benefit to the WNBA, comes from TV,” he wrote.
“The typical WNBA game receives about a half-million viewers. But, out of a 40-game regular season, only four or five games will likely be televised. For the 2024 season, 36 out of 40 Fever games will be televised across seven networks,” he wrote, noting that on average, a WNBA game draws 1 in 700 Americans while about 1 in 20 Americans watched Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes fall to South Carolina for the NCAA championship.
“Clark benefits from those who went before her, and her presence is already influencing the game for a generation to come. If you doubt me on that issue, try ordering a Clark jersey in girls’ sized small,” he wrote.
