The Caitlin Clark Effect has had a profound impact on women's basketball in many ways.
The easiest aspect of this to prove is the massive rise in attendance, ticket prices, viewership, merchandise sales, and just about every other quantifiable statistic that shows the gigantic growth the WNBA (and all of women's basketball) experienced during the 2024 season.
But the eye test at any Iowa Hawkeyes or Indiana Fever game indicates a less quantifiable side effect of the Caitlin Clark Effect: Her impact on a younger generation of female athletes.
While it might be harder to turn the excited pleas young fans make for Clark to autograph whatever merchandise they're holding and their happy tears when she does so into a statistic, a report from the Aspen Institute’s National State of Play 2024 that was released on Tuesday does show the Fever superstar's rise appears to coincide with an increase in young women playing sports.
"Overall sports participation rates for girls have increased in recent years during Clark’s time at Iowa and now in the WNBA. Although it’s difficult to quantify that directly to Clark, Sports & Fitness Industry Association senior advisor Tom Cove believes she plays a role and notes that participation increases among girls also occurred in the 1990s when Mia Hamm burst onto the soccer scene," the study wrote.
"During Hamm’s explosion on the Olympic and World Cup scene, women’s sports lacked successful pro leagues and media exposure for younger girls to dream of playing too. Today, the NWSL and WNBA receive greater attention, and hockey, rugby, wrestling and flag football are examples of sports that girls now regularly play.
"Can Clark’s popularity inspire growth in high school girls basketball participation, which significantly declined in recent decades?" the study continued. "More girls turning to volleyball and early-sport specialization are among the factors that have impacted high school basketball. Can she inspire girls to play other sports as well?"
While it might be too early in Clark's career to tell the true impact she has had on the next generation of women's basketball players, in a decade we'll probably be seeing many female sharpshooters wearing No. 22 on the court.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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