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In 1996, after the NBA announced the creation of an associated women’s league, the sport’s top female athletes declared: “We got next.”
The slogan, featured in the WNBA’s first marketing campaign, invoked a call commonly heard in pickup games on recreational courts across the country. When the men’s season winded down, the women were set to take over, showing that women’s basketball wasn’t just a fad—it was a phenomenon.
Of course, it didn’t come without growing pains, and the Indiana Fever have had their share. From crowd slumps to surges, empty seats to a WNBA championship, relative anonymity to global recognition.
As Kelly Krauskopf, now president of basketball and business operations for the Fever, told IBJ business of sports reporter Mickey Shuey: “You had to prove that you belonged.”
To understand where the franchise is now, we have to examine where it’s been. In the second episode, available Monday, Shuey takes a deeper look at the history of the Indiana Fever, going back to the start of the WNBA itself, and looks at what it took to make sure women’s basketball couldn’t just survive in Indianapolis—it could thrive.
IBJ’s newest podcast, Beyond Clarkonomics, unpacks how the Fever have soared since Caitlin Clark’s arrival, and how that transformation is shaping downtown revitalization, civic planning and the city’s long-term sports strategy.
Episode 2 includes interviews with Krauskopf, ESPN commentator and former WNBA player Rebecca Lobo, former Fever guard Katie Douglas, former WISH-TV Channel 8 sports reporter Kimberly Harms Robinson and longtime season ticket holder Rachel Isenbarger.
(Note: Interviews for this episode were conducted prior to Clark’s injury and subsequent five-game absence.)
Listen at ibj.com/beyond-clarkonomics or on your favorite podcast app.
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If the Simons had to actually pay Clark she wouldn’t be here. It’s the same story with the Pacers and the reason they’ll never actually win anything at all.