If you thought the popularity of Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes had diminished since their National Championship game loss earlier this year, you will be shockingly mistaken.
Over the last year, women’s college basketball has seemingly taken a major leap forward in interest. This past edition of women’s “March Madness” delivered some of the best ratings in the tournament’s history and pulled in record crowds for the Final Four matchups in the spring.
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Part of that was due to the impressive interest in 2022 Player of the Year Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes teammates. Some thought that fascination might dwindle a bit after they came up short to LSU in the title game earlier this year. However, with Clark back in 2023 it seems the attention they are getting has only grown.
Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder had an epiphany a few months back when the team was able to get 9,000 fans for a campus celebration in April. It made her wonder if her team could lure that many fans just at the campus, what could they do for a highly advertised event inside the school’s football stadium? She found out they could do amazingly well.
Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team sells over 55,000 tickets for preseason game
On Sunday, the Iowa Hawkeyes beat the DePaul Blue Demons in an exhibition matchup 94-72. The “Crossover at Kinnick” took place inside Kinnick Stadium and fans showed out in force as a record 55,646 fans watched the team’s win and a triple-double performance from Clark.
The game now holds the record for the largest attendance for a women’s college basketball game ever. The previous record game was in 2002 when 29,619 attended that year’s NCAA Championship game between Connecticut and Oklahoma at San Antonio’s Alamodome.
“You know, you can have an idea and it could fall flat if nobody shows up,” Bluder said after the game. “But, man, Hawk fans showed up today. Fifty-five thousand, breaking the record, getting to play outside. … It was a dream. It really was. It was just fabulous.”
The team’s regular season NCAA schedule begins on Nov. 6 when they play Fairleigh Dickinson.