Ticket sales for the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament reflect Caitlin Clark Effect

The GIST: After a record-breaking women’s March Madness in 2023, the popularity of women’s college basketball — and namely aforementioned Iowa star Caitlin Clark — keeps on growing, but the NCAA is still playing catch up. The Big Ten women’s basketball tournament officially sold out this weekend, two whole weeks before the event tips off. Holding all the tickets.

The demand: For the first time, all seven sessions of the Big Ten’s women’s basketball tourney have sold out. The host venue, Minneapolis’ Target Center, boasts a 20K capacity, with over 109K fans expected to attend throughout the entire tournament.

• While Big Ten school Iowa is currently ranked No. 4 nationally, it tends to come first in TV ratings thanks to Clark. The Hawkeyes have broken two viewership records and have four of the six most-watched WBB games this season, all of which surpassed 1M viewers. 

The disparity: Even though ticket demand is booming (with high price points), the NCAA hasn’t been able to accommodate the current demand. Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse will hold just under 20K fans for this year’s women’s Final Four tournament, while Glendale’s State Farm Stadium can host 73K for the men’s.

• And beyond venue capacity, the NCAA has held back the growth of the women’s game with scheduling conflicts and restrictive sponsorship rules. Boo.

The takeaway: There’s clearly massive demand for women’s college basketball, and the NCAA hasn’t fully met it under its present structure. But some change is happening this year — an improved ESPN deal and the addition of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament should hopefully be signals of even bigger things to come.