The Washington Mystics used their scheduled season finale against the Indiana Fever to pull off a stunt that yielded record attendance, despite being one of the worst teams in the league this year.
With Caitlin Clark and the Fever finishing the season in Washington D.C. on Thursday, the Mystics made the advantageous marketing decision of moving the game to a larger venue. They moved it to Capital One Arena, home to the NBA’s Washington Wizards.
Washington typically plays in the The Entertainment and Sports Arena, which is located Congress Heights, a residential neighborhood in southeast Washington, D.C. It has a capacity of only 4,200.
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But Capital One Arena, located in the Chinatown section of the larger Penn Quarter of the city, has a maximum capacity of 20,356 for basketball games.
The Mystics had no problem filling those seats with Clark in town, despite having just 13 wins going into the game.
The 20,711 fans that showed up on Thursday represented a new record for the highest-attended WNBA regular-season contest. The record broke the previous regular-season record of 20,674, which was reached four times by Washington during the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
The best part about it for the Mystics was that the fans there got to watch the home team pull of the win over Clark’s Fever 92-91
The Las Vegas Aces pulled off a similar move when they hosted the Fever at the larger T-Mobile Arena for a July 2 game instead of playing in the relatively smaller Michelob ULTRA Arena. For that game, 20,366 fans showed up, which represented the highest regular-season single-game attendance since 1999.
However, it nearly didn’t happen for the Mystics. Clark came just one technical foul shy of earning a one-game suspension this year. In the Fevers’ most-recent game against the Dallas Wings, Clark was about to pick up her seventh technical foul of the season, which would have meant a one-game suspension for the rookie.
During the game, Clark was walking up the floor after a turnover. She looked up at the replay and immediately started to mouth off to the referee. Kelsey Mitchell stuck out her arm to prevent Clark from heading over to the ref, while Aliyah Boston pulled Clark away and yelled, “No,” to keep her from getting a technical foul.
By avoiding a seventh technical foul, Clark was free to bring a frenzy of fans to watch her play in Washington on Thursday night.
Clark’s record-attended season finale is a fitting end to a historic season where the rookie seemed to break so many other records.
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Clark’s performance on Thursday gave her the record for most points by a point guard in a single season in WNBA history. Clark already clinched the record for most points by a rookie and the league’s single-season assist record.
As the single-season record holder and league-leader in assists this year, Clark is the youngest player to ever lead the league in assists.
Clark also led the league in 3-pointers this year, and had the second most of all time in a single season with 122.
On top of that, she broke the record for most All-Star votes for any player in WNBA history, and became the first rookie to ever record a triple-double.
The attention and performance that Clark has given the Fever has thrust the team into the playoffs for the first time in eight years, as one of the most popular teams in the league. The 14 most-watched WNBA games this year all included the Fever.
Two of Clark’s teammates spoke out about how different it is playing with Clark this year, for the team’s vibe and visibility.
Point guard Kelsey Mitchell told reporters ahead of Thursday’s game she didn’t think the public would know much about her if not for Clark, adding she was used to a more introverted approach to her job.
“I think the reality of it is that I don’t think people would know without “C squared” (Clark’s nickname), so shout out to Caitlin!” Mitchell said when asked about getting more attention and fans this season.
“She’s done an unbelievable job of bringing her own fans and people that support her, but, for me, I kinda laugh at it and I embrace it at the same time because I always flew under the radar. I’ve always kind of been that person that is very conservative, very introvert, so now I get to see the flip side of it.
Meanwhile, Shooting guard Erica Wheeler told reporters that Clark’s presence this season has resulted in the team needing to be more resilient to scrutiny.
“All we do is have fun with Caitlin Clark, who never takes anything seriously,” Wheeler said. “I tell people all the time she’s really a kid at heart. … There’s moments where we need to be serious, and we are serious, but a majority of the time, we’re having fun. Because you gotta understand, the outside world was really trying to get inside this building. We just didn’t let it.
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