Caitlin Clark effect felt among youth sports trends

Iowans shouldn’t be surprised by the first trend in the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program’s Project Play.

They are calling it the Caitlin Clark effect.

Clark’s rise to fame in the women’s basketball world at the University of Iowa and in the WBNA resulted in the three most-watched women’s games of all-time.

According to Sports Media Watch, before 2024 no WNBA game had averaged more than 1 million viewers since 2008. The league also destroyed its draft and all-star game viewership records with Clark playing.

The Indiana Fever led the WNBA with an average of over 17,000 fans, up from 4,067 per game a year earlier. The team also became the first in league history to draw more than 300,000 fans in a season.

In the final regular season game at the Washington Mystics, the game broke the WNBA’s attendance single-game record with 20,711 fans.

Sports Business Journal reported Clark’s jersey was the top seller in the league, with the Fever reporting a 1,913 percent year-over-year increase in jersey sales.

In Iowa, the Clark effect has seen a rising demand for youth basketball courts. Shay Ijiwoye, a top Arizona prep player and Stanford University commit, said, “I think (Clark is) inspiring a lot of young kids my age, older, younger, that you can have that confidence and do it just as well as any guy could.”

Though difficult to attribute the rise in girls’ participation rates to Clark, Sports & Fitness Industry Association senior adviser Tom Cove believes Clark plays a role in that and has mentioned participation increases also occurred in the 1990s when Mia Hamm broke through in soccer.

During Hamm’s popularity in the Olympics and World Cup, there were few successful professional leagues. Now, pro soccer and basketball are receiving greater attention, with hockey, rugby, wrestling and flag football other sports girls are regularly participating in.

We have spoken often in this column how important playing multiple sports is in the development of youth sports. Clark has mentioned in numerous interviews how her soccer background helped her become better at basketball.

She played on coed teams in soccer and basketball. She also was involved with piano, softball, tennis, track and field and volleyball. Her parents have said how all those activities helped her mentally and physically.

Another trend in youth sports revolves around how climate change is affecting the safety of players. Five high school football players died during the summer of 2024 from suspected heat-related illnesses. Fifty-eight players died from exertional heatstroke between 1992 and 2024, according to the Korey Stringer Institute.

These deaths and illnesses are preventable by knowing the signs and symptoms. Besides limiting outside sports during the hottest hours, some experts have stressed moving traditional sports seasons to cooler months.

“I believe that in 20 years, high school football will be a spring sport and not a fall sport,” Korey Stringer CEO Douglas Casa said in a USA Today article.

The Caitlin Clark effect and climate change are the first two trends reported in the Aspen Institute’s study. More trends will be addressed in future columns, including how private equity investments, the Olympics and the growing support of prosthetics and orthotics which allow more people to play are affecting youth sports.

Nancy Justis is a partner with Justis Creative Communications and the founder of Iowa Youth Sports Initiative. Contact her at najustis120150@gmail.com