With Caitlin Clark and WNBA, Indianapolis Positions Itself as Home of Women’s Sports

At sporting events, there can be noise … and there can be noise. You know the distinction. It’s when one player, or team, gets a special sound, the recognition that while in theory amongst equals, there is one that resonates just that bit more.

One of those moments came in Indianapolis ahead of the WNBA All-Star Game, as basketball fans roared for each of the All-Stars as they were announced, several of them modern legends of the game. But when Indiana Fever hometown star Caitlin Clark was introduced, even if she missed out on the game because of injury, the noise was just … different.

 Clark is one of most well-known athlete in the United States today — male or female — and her stardom transcends basketball. Since she was drafted by Indiana, the team’s home attendance has more than doubled. Visit Indy’s web page on the Fever has seen a 500% increase year over year and its digital marketing in Iowa has shown significant upticks.

“It’s as big as we thought it would be because we thought it would be big,” said Leonard Hoops, president and CEO of Visit Indy. “She was so popular coming out of college and we were just hoping we’d win that Ping-Pong ball — whether it was an envelope or Ping-Pong ball or whatever. The minute we got it, I knew this would turn into a big thing for us.”

Perhaps it’s also not surprising that the success of the Fever is in Indiana, the state of Hoosiers (the movie and the team), of Final Fours and NBA Finals appearances, where a citizenry is proud to boast of its basketball heritage.

After all, as Indiana Sports Corp President Patrick Talty said: “In our neighborhood HOA covenants, one of the things that you don’t have to get approval for is to install a basketball hoop. You have to get approval for everything, to plant trees and all this other stuff — except put in a basketball hoop.”

Basketball Means More in Indiana

The perception of basketball in Indiana has changed among national outlets with the arrival of Clark last season in many ways, large and small — small screen, that is.

“I’m so used after 14 years of being in Indianapolis to checking ESPN after a Pacers game, seeing that the Pacers beat the Knicks 108-96 and seeing four of the five highlights are Jalen Brunson or Karl-Anthony Towns and one highlight of the Pacers,” Hoops said. “With Caitlin and the Fever, the Fever might lose to the (New York) Liberty and three of the highlights are Caitlin (assists) and Caitlin 3’s.”

Indianapolis has said it wants to be one of the women’s sports capitals of the world by 2050 and Clark’s presence in town, Talty said, has made leaders in the community try to accelerate that benchmark. Throughout the city on All-Star Weekend, there was plenty of basketball but notably it was entirely WNBA-related with barely any Pacers blue and gold noticed around downtown.

More than a dozen temporary art installations popped up across downtown, showcasing local female artists. Monument Square, Indy’s central gathering space, became a fan hub featuring “W” sculptures, floral displays, custom sneaker stations and more. As part of Indiana Black Expo, a “Court Vision” Exhibit inside the convention center featured over 30 artists spotlighting women and girls. There was also All-Star Bounce through downtown the morning of the All-Star Game, as 2,500 youths 18 and under dribbled along a half-mile, non-competitive route.

The Indianapolis area does not just turn out for women’s basketball for one weekend per summer. One of the city’s more beloved athletes who remains active in the community is Tamika Catchings, who played her entire 15-year WNBA career with the Fever and led the franchise to its only WNBA championship in 2012. Catchings was prominent throughout the weekend attending a breast tissue donation event and at a popular stop around town during All-Star Weekend, Tea’s Me Café, which has teas available for purchase at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The city’s love for basketball and special events extends to some of its historic landmarks. Since 1902, St. Elmo’s restaurant has had one appetizer on its menu — its famous shrimp cocktail, deemed one of the world’s spiciest dishes by Travel Channel. On All-Star Weekend, the waiters were in red and yellow bowties and even the menus had special Fever branding.

A State of Major Sporting Events

Indianapolis is known for basketball and many other things in the sports world — not just the NFL’s Colts, but best for Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 on Memorial Day Weekend, an event first held in 1911 that this year drew nearly 350,000 fans.

The newly renovated $60.5 million museum at the track (a much shorter ride from downtown than one would expect) allows visitors to learn the history of the track and Indy’s racing lore, with cars all eras and areas representing the track’s ties to NASCAR and Formula 1. Those who book a “Kiss the Bricks” tour get a narrated, 30-minute bus tour that features one lap around the famous 2.5-mile oval with a stop at the start/finish line and the chance to kiss the historic yard of bricks (SportsTravel can attest that kissing the bricks tastes … like kissing a brick).

One of the other visible things throughout the city is not only its sporting heritage, but its building boom. Indianapolis has $1.6 billion invested in hotels over the next three years and within the next five years overall will have an additional 1,500 rooms, highlighted by a Shinola Hotel and a Signia by Hilton that, once it opens in 2026, will bring the total number of rooms connected via skywalks to 5,100, the most in the country.

The region is promoting the number of hotels with the goal of getting more international sports business. And one of the things that has given Indianapolis massive international sports exposure was when it hosted the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials — Swimming at Lucas Oil Stadium, the first time the Trials were held at an NFL stadium. Over 17 sessions, the stadium saw an average of 16,000 fans per session, maxing at 22,209 on June 19 for the largest swim meet ever held. USA Swimming recently announced it will return to Indianapolis for the Trials in 2028.

“I was in Paris for the Olympics and we came across someone from Team GB and someone from Team Canada who said, ‘Oh my God, we saw what you did, now that’s changed how we have to think about our swimming trials,’” Talty said. “We never set out to think that way. We wanted to have an impactful event and have media attention here in the States — and it definitely paid off in spades.”

Between the big attendance numbers and unique visuals — Hoops remembers walking into the stadium “and the way it was lit, it took my breath away” — it also assuredly made other cities with NFL domed stadiums think about how they could position themselves for four years down the road, leading Indianapolis executives to work fast to ensure its return.

“We definitely felt like we earned the right to host the event again,” Talty said. “When you do something so transformational to a sport, we learned so much, too. So we were like, we have to do this again to implement all these learnings and make it even more grand and better and more effective. We also wanted to be a part of the domestic Games. That was extremely important to Leonard and I that part of LA28 runs through Indy.”

There was one more thing to coordinate, however. Because swimming will be held at the back end of the 2028 Games instead of the front part of the schedule, the Trials will be held in a different time period in 2028 than in 2024. So while Visit Indy and the Sports Corp had held the convention center space in anticipation of getting the Trials back, it originally was not the dates that USA Swimming now needed. Adjustments were needed and Visit Indy worked to clear multiple groups that had reserved the dates, helping them find new host cities for that summer.

“Leonard’s team had to do a ton of work to get it done,” Talty said. “Without the partnership between the Sports Corp and Visit Indy, we wouldn’t be sitting here today having (the 2028 Trials) coming back here.”

USA Swimming was on hand during the WNBA All-Star Weekend to check out the scene, as were multiple other organizations and sports commissions. From the initial touchpoint at the airport with a full WNBA basketball court and gigantic signage around the entry way,  to the billboards all around downtown spotlighting Clark and other W stars, visitors saw an example of why Indianapolis continues to bring in so many sporting events.

“People expect to see something on the JW when it’s a big event,” Talty said, referring to giant signage on the side of one of the city’s tallest buildings. “Those things were done first at one point and then that learning continued. The advantage that we have here in Indy is two things. One, we have so many of these big events that come on a somewhat regular basis that you have continuity of people who have the experience and can share that experience and bring on new leadership and people into the system and learn. The other piece of that is we, as a sports commission, are lucky enough that we can have a standing staff that helps execute these events. We have full-time professionals that are event operators that help put on those events again and again and again.”