MINNEAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark wasn’t here. It will be another 31 hours before she appears in court.
But here they are, as the biggest stars in college sports, wearing the black and gold No. 22 on their backs, carrying pride and enthusiasm and anticipation as men and women, boys and girls, young and old, compete in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament. stood in the round. I approached the stage.
They bought their tickets a long time ago, long before Coach Clark announced that the coming weeks would mark the final day of one of the most exciting and influential careers in women’s basketball history.
They bought tickets for all sessions as early as December, but it was unclear when Clarke was scheduled to play and they didn’t want to risk missing out on the phenomenon firsthand.
For the first time in its 30-year history, the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament has sold all tickets for the (5-day) event.
Last year’s tournament was also held at Target Center and set a record attendance of 47,923. More than 109,000 fans are expected to attend this year’s event.
“I’m so glad I got a ticket,” said Mickey Kostka from Minnesota. “For the kids, it’s so special to come here and see this. One day they’ll look back and think, ‘Oh my god, we were there.’ ”
When Clark made his debut at Iowa, there was virtually no one there as Carver-Hawkeye Arena remained empty due to COVID-19 concerns.
Even during Clark’s sophomore season, after becoming the nation’s leading scorer and leading the Hawkeyes to the Sweet 16, the school was still closing some unsold seats.
Now, millions of people are gathering around the screen to see if Van Gogh will paint “The Starry Night” in real time. They remain fixed even after the paint dries and the camera goes dark.
“I’ve been to almost every one of her games this year, and everywhere I go people wait in line for hours in the cold to see her,” said Clark’s former AAU coach, Dixon Jensen. he said. “After the game, 5,000 people stand there and watch her get interviewed. They don’t want to leave the building until she’s out.”
They come from big cities and small towns. These are die-hards who are grateful for the “Caitlin Clark effect” and the spotlight their sport has long sought.
They are jumping on the bandwagon, unaware that they are facing an unprecedented situation.
They wanted Clark, who leads the nation in scoring (32.3) and assists (8.7), to share where they were when the Hawkeyes were chasing the conference tournament for the third year in a row. He started saying he did it to get it off the list. Championship.
“We just came to see Caitlin,” said Rob Martinek, an Iowa native. “A few years ago she never even watched the women’s games. Before, she didn’t miss the men’s games. Now it’s the other way around. She can’t miss the TV.”
Thanks to Clark, the Iowa State game became the most-watched women’s basketball game in the history of six different networks.
Thanks to her being the sport’s biggest star since Zion Williamson, women’s college basketball games on Fox this season average more viewers than men’s games.
The superstar guard, who helped last year’s national title game set a record with more than 9.9 million viewers, double the previous year’s viewership, drew inspiration from an exhibition game held at Iowa’s football stadium in October. , with 55,646 fans in attendance.
On Sunday, Clark’s final regular-season game was twice the most-watched regular-season women’s basketball game in the last 25 years, peaking at 4.4 million viewers and featuring a nationally televised Warriors-Celtic game. It surpassed the viewer ratings of the Battle of Sus on that day.
In the hours before Clark passed Pete Maravich as the all-time leading scorer in Division I history, hundreds of people waited to enter the newly opened A Bar of Their Own in Minneapolis. It is believed to be the company’s fourth store in the country and its first outside the Pacific Northwest. — Introducing only women’s sports.
“There’s a pizza place across the street, and we joke that it’s our official waiting room,” said bar owner Jillian Hickok. “The craze has exploded so massive that it’s not just Iowa fans anymore. She’s so famous that people come from all over the country to watch her play. Big Ten fans from Colorado and Kansas City are here. There were a few couples planning to go to the tournament, but they had no connection to the team other than wanting to see Caitlin play.
“When she broke the record, it was so intense. The sound was blaring from the speakers. Everyone was cheering. It was a goosebump-inducing moment and we knew we had to shut up and cheer. It was the kind of moment we have always dreamed of being able to share with all the female sports fans out there.”
Tickets for sessions without Clark could be picked up in bulk on secondary ticket sites for $1 this week. Almost all available Iowa tickets are over $100. Some were even sold for four-digit prices.
How do you put a price on something you’ve never seen? About something that may never happen again?
“She’s just crazy to watch,” said teen Emma Martinek. “You’re always like, ‘How did she do that? How on earth did that happen?'”
If you’re lucky, you might get to see Clark play three times in a 40-hour period. They collect anecdotes without deadline. They will experience the rewards of unforgettable hours spent watching sports.
They’ll see her playful side smiling and strutting around. They will feel her intensity through her cries and her gaze. They’re going to see her shoot like Steph, compete like Kobe, and pass like Nash.
They didn’t come to see the show. They came for a show.
“She looks like Taylor Swift,” Donna Cyberson said. “Everyone should see her in person.”
