WNBA Commissioner Says Caitlin Clark Is 'Most Popular Athlete in America'

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert says she and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver believe Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is the nation's "most popular" athlete.

"She's a generational talent. No league is ever about one player, but in this case, Caitlin brought tens of millions of new viewers into the W," Engelbert said at the 1:39:00 mark of the Bill Simmons Podcast. "And there's no denying that impact, not just in the WNBA, but the world of sports.

"Adam and I talk all the time about how she's the most popular athlete in America."

"She went to an LPGA tournament for a pro-am on a Wednesday, and it's like throngs of people were out there to watch her," Engelbert continued. "I was at the Masters last year when she in the Final Four, and I counted like 19 Caitlin Clark shirts of people walking around the Masters."

Engelbert concluded, "Think about it: She just turned 23. So she is hugely popular."

Clark, the highest-scoring college basketball player in history, helped the Fever attract unprecedented viewership and attendance during her rookie season in the WNBA.

Multiple teams moved their games against Clark and the Fever to larger arenas to accommodate swelling crowds, and Indiana set a WNBA record with a home attendance total of more than 300,000 during the 2024 season.

The WNBA also set an all-time viewership record during Clark's rookie season. That momentum continued into the 2025 preseason, during which the WNBA's first nationally televised exhibition game between the Fever and the Brazil national team averaged 1.3 million viewers on ESPN.

Only two of ESPN's NBA preseason games have averaged more since 2010, and both of those games featured LeBron James, per The Athletic's Richard Deitsch.