Caitlin Clark, NCAA tournament drive up WNBA ticket prices

Not including taxes and fees, it cost less than $16 for a family of four to watch the Sparks play the Indiana Fever at Crypto.com Arena last July.

Next month those WNBA teams will compete again in the same downtown Los Angeles arena, and this time four tickets will set a family back between $448 to $560.

StubHub has the price of admission to the May 24 Fever-Sparks game at about $112 to $140 per person, and ticket prices have increased due to University of Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark and other standout college players heading to the WNBA after the NCAA women’s basketball tournament ends this weekend.

The Fever are expected to select Clark with the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft on April 15. She’s not only considered the best college player, she’s the top draw.

Fans are tuning in to watch the guard play, evident from the 12.3 million viewers across the United States who saw Clark and the Hawkeyes beat Angel Reese and Louisiana State in the Elite Eight during ESPN’s telecast on Monday.

On Friday, Clark has Iowa in a Final Four matchup against powerhouse Connecticut.

Ticket sales ahead of the highly anticipated start of next month’s WNBA season have shot up over last year and many are pointing to the talent expected to join the league.

It’s no surprise that women’s pro teams are anticipating bigger crowds. Women’s college basketball has exploded in popularity this year.

The 60 women’s tournament games have averaged a viewership of 1.5 million, a 127% increase over last year, according to ESPN.

In-person attendance has varied, as women’s tournament venues had a lot fewer seats than the arenas for the men’s games. That, combined with increased demand, pushed ticket prices for the women’s games higher compared with the men’s tournament.

Higher ticket prices for women’s Final Four games is a continuing trend from last year, according to StubHub.

“Ticket sales for the women’s semifinal has seen the biggest jump in sales for any ticket type among both the men’s and women’s games since Monday, more than doubling sales from last year, showing the continued momentum for women’s basketball,” Adam Budelli, spokesperson for StubHub, told CNN.

“Right now, women’s basketball is a movement,” broadcaster and analyst Isis Young told ESPN. “And the movement is really riding on the back of these players that we’re watching.”

The women’s tournament is generating as much or more enthusiasm than the men’s, and “unlikely sources like crowd sizes, ticket prices and gushing sports announcers prove it,” Susan Shaw, a women’s and gender studies professor at Oregon State University, wrote in Forbes.

The teams’ investment in their rosters and the dedicated fan bases that are flocking to arenas are pushing ticket demand.

Almost immediately after Clark announced her plans to enter the WNBA draft, the Fever ticket offices got busier, the Associated Press reported. The Fever wouldn’t disclose how many…