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The fate of the Indiana Fever’s franchise changed when the team selected former Iowa Hawkeyes superstar Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft.
The most obvious reason for this is that Clark is a generational talent on the court. Her elite sharpshooting, unprecedented playmaking, and ability to make her teammates around her better were guaranteed to make Indiana (who has been a bottom-dweller in the WNBA standings for most of the past decade) into at least an average team.
However, Clark’s impact was not constrained to the court. She was the biggest star in women’s basketball history by the time the Fever selected her (and still is, despite missing much of 2025 due to injury), and brought all that stardom attention to her new team. Ticket sales sold out during all of her rookie season games, Clark jerseys and other Fever merchandise skyrocketed, viewership numbers soared, and the Fever found themselves at the center of sports’ presence in pop culture because of No. 22.
The impacts of this (which has been called the Caitlin Clark Effect) are still unfolding in real time. Not only is Clark’s Fever squad expected to compete for a WNBA championship in 2026 (so long as she stays healthy), but Indiana’s value as a franchise should keep climbing for as long as she’s on their roster.
Caitlin Clark Fuels Fever to Reach New Heights With WNBA Valuation
On December 17, Forbes released its inaugural list of the World’s Most Valuable Women’s Sports Teams in 2025.
The New York Liberty took the No. 1 spot, amassing a $400 million valuation and earning $25 million in revenue.
After New York came the Indiana Fever, who had a $370 million valuation but outpaced the Liberty’s revenue, coming in at $32 million.
See Forbes’ 2025 list of the world’s most valuable women’s sports teams, featuring 25 clubs from the WNBA, the NWSL and European soccer worth a combined $5.6 billion.https://t.co/TOqT84ICLL pic.twitter.com/9mkm20ouVJ
— Forbes SportsMoney (@ForbesSports) December 17, 2025
It would be fair to wonder just how much Caitlin Clark actually factored into the Fever’s $370 million valuation. And a good indication is a June 18, 2024, article from Sports Illustrated’s Madison Williams.
For context, this article was published about two months after the Fever drafted Clark. So while they were surely beginning to feel the Caitlin Clark Effect, it wasn’t in full swing quite yet.
Still, the Fever had a $90 million valuation, which put them at No. 6 in the WNBA (and would have kept them off the top 25 on Forbes’ list if it were published at that time).
In other words, the Fever’s valuation has quadrupled in essentially the time that Clark has been on the team. And that figure is only going to increase as Clark’s career continues (so long as she remains in Indiana).
