The Caitlin Clark Revolution Means Everything To Women — Especially Young Women originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

SEATTLE — When you stepped into Climate Pledge Arena for Tuesday night’s game between the Indiana Fever and the Seattle Storm, it came as no surprise that Caitlin Clark shirts and jerseys among the fanbase matched or outnumbered Storm apparel. Everybody knows how much Clark has elevated awareness of the WNBA, women’s basketball, and women’s sports in general, but when you see it in a road arena up close, it really comes into sharp effect. 

Speaking with some of the fans wearing Clark gear in alleged enemy territory brought the Clark effect into a different light. Clark is by far the WNBA’s most prominent name, and the way that’s making a difference for women — especially young women — is pretty remarkable. 

Walking around the concourse, I spoke with Adam, who brought his 11-year-old daughter to the game. Both Adam and his daughter were decked out in Caitlin Clark jersey shirts, and Adam was happy to speak about what Clark had done for his daughter, who has become a dedicated basketball player herself in Whatcom County, near Seattle.

“She’s down there trying to get an autograph right now,” Adam told me. “Yeah, she loves it. She’s always wanting to practice. I enjoy it where she’s like, ‘Hey, dad, let’s go practice versus, you know, the parents saying, “Hey, let’s go do something.” So I really appreciate it, and I love spending time with her.”

Adam also said that while his daughter appreciates the Storm, she doesn’t have any favorite players on that side of things.

“It’s all about Caitlin,” he concluded. 

Callie and Laura came to this game from Kansas City, where they work together, though Callie took a detour through Montana. For Callie, who brought her nine-year-old daughter to the game, Clark has brought a new level of excitement — even for someone like her, who has watched the WNBA for years. 

“It’s just gotten way more exciting for someone to score 30 points a game, almost every game,” she said. “I love being a part of all these people. I just talked to a guy who’s just became a fan years ago, aso it’s just cool that she’s just bringing new fans to the game.”

Callie’s daughter started getting more into the game during the most recent March Madness tournament, and the Clark Factor has just amplified her interest.

“Anytime we have a Fever game on, it’s like a big deal in our house.”

Laura has six nieces and nephews, and “they all have Clark T shirts and everything we have. They love watching. It’s Must-See TV.”

I asked Laura why Clark is able to draw such interest to the game.

“She’s just unapologetic in the way that she plays. Shooting from distance and everything like that. There’s no shot for her that’s a bad shot, in my opinion. So she just makes it, I don’t know, just unapologetic in the way she plays. And the way she does everything. She makes it fun to watch.”

As to the “Hack-a-Shaq” treatment Clark has been receiving of late, Laura had a ready answer for that. 

“I think she’s the best player in the world, and when you’re the best player, you’re going to draw some extra attention. That’s going to be a part of it, and everybody’s going to be a little bit more physical with you and she’s going to fight it off as best she can. 

“Yeah, it’s what you get for being the best.”

Don and Tara are both locals now, but Tara comes from Indiana, and she got Don into Clark and the WNBA. It wasn’t a hard sell. 

‘She’s the best thing to come out of Iowa,” Tara said. ‘[People] say that not a lot a lot of exciting because out of Iowa. And so she just really just united the state. Like, we were just into Iowa women’s basketball. And I actually brought him into it because he can cannot believe that he actually watches women’s basketball right now. It’s because of Caitlin. She’s just exciting. There’s something about her that just, I don’t know. The last two years of her college career, I was watching more women’s NCAA games than men’s NCAA games.”

There’s a lot of that going around.

Pretty packed house for a Tuesday night. pic.twitter.com/4kNzokwZVq

— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) June 25, 2025

“It’s kind of carried over to the WNBA,” Tara said. “I mean, I’m kind of a little disappointed about how she’s being treated so far in the WNBA. I hope that fixes itself, but I’m really happy to see the effect she’s having on the younger generation. I mean, we’re down in Row 3, and the overwhelming response from the young girls down there is just amazing. Trying to get their autographs.”

For Don, the Clark effect on kids of all kinds of kids is something that has really stood out to him.

“It’s so great for the younger generation, because, I mean, you know, sports, basketball, tennis, football, whatever it is, there’s something that grows. In school, they can learn in sports about teens, sports, and discipline. I think that that’s an important lesson in school, along with reading, writing, and arithmetic. So Caitlin is bringing that to them at this level. She did at the college level, and I hope she can continue to do that. I hope she doesn’t get frustrated here.”

Well, as with the Jordan Rules and the aforementioned Hack-a-Shaq, that will happen when you’re at the top of the mountain.

“She’s just getting beaten up, and she keeps persevering,” Tara said. “And she does it with grace, too. She never seems terribly irritated, at least personally, towards people. I mean, yes, she shows up passion on the support, which, you know, I would you. But she just takes it all the annoying stuff as a role model, and she just takes it very gracefully.”

Just as much as Caitlin Clark has brought a sense of toughness and resolve to young women, it’s given people like Tara another reason to be proud of where they’re from.

“I just love coming from the Midwest, you know, people kind of look down on us a little bit. ‘Oh, you’re from the Midwest.’ But the support that she gets from the state, and from her people. She stayed with Iowa, she didn’t go somewhere else. She stayed there. and it’s just, we love for people to see, like, look, we’ve got this girl, we are going to stand behind her, no matter what.”

And yes, it’s gotten to the point where the demonstration of Caitlin Clark apparel support is completely understood in the Emerald City. Try wearing a Matthew Stafford or a Brock Purdy jersey on a Seahawks gameday downtown, and you’ll learn that it’s not a common occurrence. 

We went to the bar across the street, and I was like, I don’t know. I’m a little nervous going in there,'” Tara said. “And we sat with a whole row of Fever fans. One was from New Zealand. Another guy was from Boston. And so it’s like, oh my God, it’s universal. We spoke to some Storm fans on the monorail and they’re like, hey, we get it, we get it. You know, she’s fun to watch. She’s from the Midwest, you know, great roots, and they appreciated her. 

“And she’s bringing so many new people to a game. I’ve never seen anything like it. A lot of new eyes to the game. People standing out there with signs saying that they need a ticket. And I’m like, did you ever think you’d see that for a WNBA games? People out there with the signs looking for tickets? This can only be good for the WNBA, but you need to keep embracing it.”

The world has embraced Caitlin Clark, and while that embrace can be a bit… constricting on the court at times, the effect she’s having on people overall and women especially this far from home is truly transcendent to what you expect outside of sports’ most prominent stars. 

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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 25, 2025, where it first appeared.