WNBA ratings, attendance still strong despite top stars missing games with injuries
Injuries have kept Caitlin Clark, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier and Angel Reese out, but that hasn’t dampened fan interest in the league.
Injuries have kept Caitlin Clark, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier and Angel Reese out, but that hasn’t dampened fan interest in the league.
Down Clark, Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald, the Fever signed Odyssey Sims to a hardship contract Sunday.
Clark’s continued absence has been complicated by the loss of two other key players who sustained season-ending injuries in Thursday’s loss at Phoenix.
Michael Lewis, 55, was arrested in Indianapolis in mid-January after investigators said he sent numerous threats and sexually explicit messages to Clark via his social media accounts.
The Indiana Fever will be relegated to playing the waiting game as they move forward without the two-time All-Star.
Officiating has become a contentious issue in the league this season, with many players and coaches criticizing referees for inconsistent calls.
Ahead of the November debut of the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things,” the team will don black jerseys inspired by the hit Netflix show for seven games.
The Fever intend to be cautious with Clark, who missed 10 games during the first half of the season with three different muscle injuries.
The game capped off a weekend during which negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement took centerstage. Players wore warmup shirts before the game that said “Pay us what you owe us.”
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert feels optimistic that the league and the players’ union will be able to come to a new collective bargaining agreement at some point, even if it’s after the end of October deadline.
The National Weather Service said meteorologists are tracking a line of showers and storms in western Indiana that are expected to move through the Indianapolis area between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Afraid you missed something? Scroll through our WNBA All-Star Weekend blog to relive the dayslong party.
Indiana’s Miss Basketball, Maya Makalusky, a rising freshman forward for Indiana University, was among the current and former Indiana stars who played in the Legends Game at the Indiana Convention Center.
Nine players from seven teams took part, including former Indiana Miss Basketball Skylar Diggins, former Indiana Fever Erica Wheeler and the Fever’s Lexie Hull
Indianapolis’ big midseason weekend wasn’t supposed to play out this way, with Clark patrolling the sidelines instead of impressing her home fans with more nifty passes or trademark logo 3-pointers.
Meanwhile, tickets for other weekend entertainment options are becoming increasingly difficult to come by.
IBJ reporters and editors captured images of fans enjoying WNBA entertainment zones across downtown on Friday.
As it has been with most of the WNBA’s big moments since early 2024, the spotlight is once again on Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, who was sidelined just a day before All-Star Weekend was set to tip off.
Indianapolis sports-business officials say if they achieve their goal of becoming an epicenter of women’s sports by 2050, they’ll likely look back at this WNBA All-Star Weekend as the spark.
Some 750 volunteers are being deployed throughout the city to help pull off the event. But their work started long ago.