Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese made huge contributions to the WNBA, setting television ratings records and selling out arenas with their on-court play during their rookie seasons.
Now you can add increasing product sales to that list.
WNBA Retail Partners, An enthusiastic fan told TMZ The company announced Tuesday that sales for the first half of the season were up 500 percent and that player-specific sales were up 1,000 percent from last year.
Not surprisingly, Clarke and Reese are the No. 1 and No. 2 players, respectively, in terms of player merchandise sales.
The two WNBA superstars have garnered attention and hype wherever they go this season, and the rivalry between the two rookies has also fueled interest in the league.
“Fan merchandise sales through the first half of the season are the highest in league history,” Fanatics told TMZ.
While Clark and Reese have avoided fuelling any perception of a rivalry in the media, matches between the two have become must-watch events for sports fans.
The two played together during last weekend’s WNBA All-Star Game celebration in Phoenix, with Clark thrilling fans with a no-look pass to Reese in the fourth quarter.
Reese was asked about the chance to play alongside Clark during ESPN’s coverage of the game.
“It’s pretty cool. When she gets the ball, I’m running to get the ball because I know she’s going to throw it to me,” Reese said. “So it’s awesome to play with her. I mean, we’re going to be playing together a lot in the future. Hopefully, in four years we’ll be Olympians together.”
These two superstars are also the leading candidates for WNBA Rookie of the Year.
Among other players who had the strongest merchandise sales this season, Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu was the third-best-selling player.
The merchandising news comes after the WNBA signed the framework for new 11-year media rights deals worth $2.2 billion with Amazon, Disney and NBC.
The second half of the WNBA season begins on August 15th.
