Caitlin Clark's Court: Iowa's Phenom Draws Record Crowd.

Before Iowa’s women’s basketball team played DePaul in a practice game at Kinnick Stadium, 55,646 fans, many of them young children, chanted for Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes. What Big Ten Network expert Christy Winters-Scott said is so apt for now, when women’s sports are booming and taking over the whole world of sports.

“For these little girls,” Winters-Scott said as the camera moved to a group of girls wearing jackets and Clark jerseys. “This is normal.”

Winters-Scott plays basketball for Maryland and did so from 1986 to 1990. He must know that it’s not normal to play basketball in a football field in November when it’s 54 degrees and the wind is blowing 14 miles per hour. It wasn’t always like that.

But in Iowa, which has been a hub for women’s basketball for a long time, football stadiums full of hoops fans are either normal or not surprising. Fans are still interested in the game because Clark is the current national player of the year, the star of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, and the best shooter in college basketball for both men and women. Last season, Iowa had the second most women attend, only behind South Carolina and the house Dawn Staley built.

It’s not just Clark, though; lots of people do it too.

It’s becoming more normal for women’s sports events to be sold out, whether they’re at Kinnick or somewhere else, like Barclays Center, where Game 3 of the WNBA Finals was going on at the same time as Iowa-DePaul. The New York Liberty beat the Las Vegas Aces in Brooklyn in front of 17,143 hungry fans. It was their first playoff win since 1999.

It’s not just crowded places, though: That’s the energy in those places. There are crazy fans waving big pictures of their favorite players, both men and women wearing women’s shirts, and little kids demanding that more women’s players get their own signature shoe. In Las Vegas last week, at least one young fan offered to trade her sister for a pair of signature shoes.

If you look at the worst parts of social media, you might think “no one cares about women’s sports.” The trolls say that anyway, and they say it over and over. But the facts just don’t support that tired, old argument, no matter how loud they shout.

Two crazy groups came from two very different parts of the country on Sunday to cheer for their favorite women sports. It was an NFL Sunday, people. The previous all-time record for women’s basketball attendance was 29,619, set in the 2002 NCAA Tournament. With 55,656 fans, Iowa broke that record, and the Hawkeyes won 94–72 thanks to Clark’s 34 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Clark was recently the first college athlete to sign a NIL deal with State Farm.

At the same time, Brooklyn and its sold-out crowd gave the Liberty a much-needed 87–73 win in the Finals, which kept them from being eliminated for at least three more days.

It’s only been six weeks since Nebraska, a big name in NCAA women’s volleyball, held an outdoor match at its football stadium. There, 92,003 screaming fans set the US record for the most people ever to watch a women’s sports event.

Not only games played on the court draw crowds, though: A lot of people were planning to watch the NWSL regular season finales on Sunday, when playoff spots were set.

People who play, teach, or work in women’s sports will tell you that these crowds need to become normal, they need to become important. People are beginning to expect and demand them. Women’s sports have been ignored for decades, which is not only unfair but also bad for business. But now, people are finally realizing the power and appeal of female players.

Breanna Stewart, the 2023 WNBA MVP, walked into the press conference after Sunday’s win holding Ruby, her 2-year-old daughter who had been the center of attention and hearts all season. Stewart talked about how important it was to her to be an example for Ruby in her MVP award speech a few weeks ago. She said, “It keeps me going.”

Stewart joked, “I don’t know” when asked why so many people are finally getting behind women’s basketball. Stewart scored 20 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and dished out 4 assists in New York’s win. All along, we’ve told them to follow us.

She still remembers the moment, even though it took everyone else a while to catch up.

Stewart said, “Seeing people show up is unbelievable.” “We’re going to keep being great examples and asking for more.” It’s just that we keep showing young kids and a lot of other people how this could become normal.Ruby is used to seeing this crowd every time she walks into a WNBA stadium… Ruby will see everything we do, and I hope all of these other kids do too. We will make sure that the bar keeps going up.”

Depending on which WNBA draft she declares for in the next year or two, Clark will bring even more fans to the league, which will grow in 2025. It couldn’t have come at a better time for her, for women’s basketball, or for the thousands of women players who worked hard for decades, often in stadiums that were empty. It’s great that finally someone is paying attention to women’s sports and giving them a chance to show what many women and some men have known for years: these players and games are worth your time.

Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder thanked the crowd after Iowa’s win by saying, “This could only happen at the University of Iowa.”

That might be true for now. Or maybe another school saw what happened in Iowa City and thought, “We can do better than that.” Maybe it won’t be long before it’s normal for women’s sports stadiums and basketball courts all over the country to set crowd records. This could happen at Iowa and everywhere else.

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