WNBA All-Star Game Sells Out As Caitlin Clark Helps Double Attendance Over Last Year

[RandySF]

Remember that when Clark faced the Las Vegas Aces in a regular season game early this month, the team moved the game to T-Mobile Arena and sold out all 20,000+ seats.

Last year's game represented the usual procedure for the WNBA All-Star events. The 2022 version was held in Chicago at Wintrust Arena, which
holds 10,000 people. That game did not sell out, either.

This year, though, the league is holding the game at Footprint Center in Phoenix, which is the home of the NBA's Suns and holds over 17,000 people.

As expected, every ticket has already been sold. Not only that, but the only tickets left for Friday night – which is when the WNBA holds its skills competition and three-point shootout – are standing-room only.






https://www.outkick.com/sports/wnba-all-star-game-sell-out-caitlin-clark-phoenix

[AZSkiffyGeek]

1. My wife is taking our niece to the shoot out on Friday

Tickets were pretty cheap - I believe $35 after fees.
She also went to see Clark play against the Phoenix Mercury a few weeks ago. Most Mercury games tickets are only sold for lower level, and are $20-$50. For the Clark game they sold the entire arena, and my wife's nosebleed seats were $75 - still a deal compared to the NBA, but definitely more expensive than other regular season games.

[justgamma]

7. Too bad Clark chose not to be in the shoot out.

Would have loved to see her shoot, but I'll be watching anyway.

[moniss]

2. That reprehensible coach from the Lynx

said she didn't give a "s**t" about the additional fans before the game in Minnesota on Sunday. What a great management administration of a team. So if you're the team owner you've lost money every single year and had to be propped up financially by the NBA as a sanctioning body. Along comes this opportunity to have a massive increase in ticket revenue etc. and your coach says she doesn't care. Brilliant. Especially after coaches and players complaining for the last years about not enough money.

But apparently the coach might have received some "counseling" from the GM or owner before she came out for the post-game press conference because then she spoke about how the increased attendance is a good thing that the league needs to capitalize on. Substantially different from "I don't give two s**ts" from just a couple of hours before. At least we would hope the talk took place.

But the stupidity and inept management doesn't just apply to this coach etc. It also applies to the Fever team itself and the WNBA/NBA management. The Caitlin Clark All Star Jersey went up for sale on the Fever store site on Friday morning and was completely sold out in under 20 minutes. Fans were, and still are, highly pissed off that the Fever stated there would be no plan for restocking the jersey. Management brilliance like this is truly something to behold. You couldn't possibly mismanage a situation worse and the WNBA/NBA Commissioners and Fever ownership/management end up demonstrating gross incompetence to plan for backup production delivery. It is not a small matter as you piss people off, demonstrate you can't manage your way out of a wet paper bag and basically give the middle finger to millions and millions of dollars all while complaining about not making a profit.

[RandySF]

3. I don't know Reeve's backstory

but she comes across to me like an abgry, bitter person. As for the jersey, the Aces had the same issue with Kate Martin's black No. 20 shirt.

[moniss]

4. I lay the overarching blame on the league

commissioners both WNBA/NBA since one is on life support from the other. They've got 12 struggling, money losing franchises who have demonstrated before that they are poor at business management. So when you have the opportunity of a lifetime you as the commissioners need to ride herd and make sure things are handled. It is not acceptable to stand back and say "it's up to the teams".

I know from my time in upper management over the years if I so badly mishandled something so basic as a back up plan for production on something that is a game changer for the company I would be told to clean my desk immediately and I would deserve it. I would do the same if I were CEO etc. This isn't baseball and you don't get 3 strikes. If I'm running the company I'm not interested in hearing "oophs" while millions of dollars go passing us by and we now get to deal with millions of pissed off people around the world who I now get to go face and try to tell them why they should love what we're doing and part with their money.

The CC jersey was selling for $130.00. Given the millions of fans around the world, she has a huge international fan base, it is likely this cost the Fever, and the league coffers if they get a split, many millions of dollars. It's also not like they weren't forewarned or didn't have empirical data to predict demand. When drafted by the Fever her jersey likewise sold out in minutes. Her popularity has only increased since then and marketing people could have given the Fever/WNBA/NBA all of the metrics necessary about social media numbers etc. to be able to predict demand and schedule production. Even a month or so ago her jersey was the #1 jersey in sales for any athlete in the entire world for any sport including soccer and the NFL. To not have at least several days of supply rather than, according to some accounts less than 10 minutes, is gross incompetence and mismanagement.

[RandySF]

5. Is this what you're looking for?

https://wnbastore.nba.com/wnba-gear/jerseys/unisex-caitlin-clark-gameday-greats-black-2024-wnba-all-star-game-lightweight-replica-jersey/t-14100285+d-4583628527+f-5712952093+z-9-947357647?utm_medium=cse&_s=ak1944wnba-pla&sku=206704174&gad_source=4&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIycai1t2qhwMV_gGtBh1KQwQREAQYASABEgJtsfD_BwE

[moniss]

6. No that's a generic. The official team

All Star Jerseys are the AT&T ones shown in this video. These were the ones people wanted. I believe her red jersey is available but not the one you see her wearing here.