Caitlin Clark explains why outdoor game at Kinnick Stadium is a 'historic moment' for women's sports

As Caitlin Clark and Iowa made a run to the national championship last year, falling to Angel Reese and LSU, women’s basketball drew record viewership numbers. It was the most-viewed championship in history and showed a growing interest in women’s sports.

Then, earlier this year, Nebraska volleyball set a world attendance record for an outdoor match against Nebraska-Omaha at Memorial Stadium. More people showed up for the 3-0 sweep than any Nebraska home football game. Iowa will look to have similar success on Sunday when the Hawkeyes take on DePaul in a charity scrimmage at Kinnick Stadium.

Women’s sports are growing quickly, and Clark said even though people are new to the game, it’s great to see them taking an interest.

“I think that’s one of the coolest things is to see the amount of attention, amount of people we have brought to the game,” Clark said on SiriusXM College at Big Ten Media Days. “And maybe they haven’t watched women’s basketball their entire life, but now they’re watching and to me, that’s a good thing rather than a bad thing. I don’t see that as a negative. I see it as, we brought them to the game. The game’s growing, they want to stay, they want to continue to watch.

“We get to play in front of 50,000 people outside in Kinnick Stadium, and hopefully that number continues to grow as we continue to approach that game. That’s basically three Carver-Hawkeye Arenas. Actually, more than that, that we’re playing in front of. So 15,000 feels like a lot. I can’t imagine what 50,000 is going to feel like. But just a historic moment for women’s basketball in general, and really the women’s sports world.”

With growing interest in Saturday’s game, which doesn’t even count toward the standings, Clark said that proves women’s athletics is in a strong position to keep growing. Considering the success Nebraska volleyball had, not to mention the U.S. Women’s National Team in the World Cup in 2015 and 2019, she sees the arrow pointing up for women’s sports.

“I think it just shows — whether it’s Nebraska volleyball, whether it’s the World Cup, whether it’s our game in Kinnick Stadium — people want to watch it,” Clark said. “When you allow them to have an opportunity to thrive, people go, the product’s great and really is going to continue going up and up from here.”

How the growth of women’s sports has impacted the NIL space

Women’s athletics has also seen growth when it comes to NIL opportunities. Six female athletes rank in the On3 NIL 100 — the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation. Caitlin Clark has ranks No. 45 with an On3 NIL Valuation of $753,000.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

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