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With a few minutes left in Iowa's game against West Virginia, the outcome of the game was in doubt. For a moment, it looked like Iowa had lost its momentum, Caitlin Clark was losing her temper and the Hawkeyes might be eliminated from the tournament.
For the first time, I began to imagine the unimaginable – that the Caitlin Clark run would be over. I imagined that Clark's attempt to win her first national title in front of a huge crowd watching and rooting for her would come to an end, and with it the enormous attention that women's sports had enjoyed this year. It suddenly dawned on me that such an outcome would lead to a nightmare for both ESPN and women's sports fans.
The reason Clark's march to the final is so important is because there are few instances in which women's sports draw large live audiences for its competition. Until Clark, the only consistent examples were the Women's World Cup, where the U.S. plays for a gold medal, or, in some cases, the Olympics, where Team USA has more female athletes than male athletes and sports like gymnastics and beach volleyball shine.
However, Caitlin Clark has become a national phenomenon this season. We've seen her break records and are thrilled with her remarkable performance and march to winning her first-ever NCAA Championship. Everyone in sports marketing knows her name, and even NBA commissioner Adam Silver references her star appeal in his press conferences.
She doesn't take anything away from other star college basketball players, and there are a number of them who are great athletes in their own right, but Clark has set herself apart from them and everything she does is now receiving widespread national attention. Unfortunately, if she and her Iowa Hawkeyes fail along the way, it would be a major setback for ESPN and women's sports.
Let's look at the history of TV ratings to truly understand the significance of this fact. Before last season, the highest-rated and most-watched women's national championship was the 2004 University of Connecticut vs. Tennessee, with 5.6 million people watching the finale.
In 2022, the average viewership for the 2022 national semifinals was 2.7 million viewers. This is the most watched semi-final in a decade. And the national championship game reached 4.85 million viewers, still well short of the historic best.
However, in 2023, the Caitlin Clark effect kicked in and more than doubled that value. The Iowa-South Carolina game drew 5.6 million viewers. That makes it the third-most watched women's college basketball game in ESPN history. Then the 2023 National Championship game reached a record-breaking viewership of 9.9 million viewers on ABC, making it by far the most-watched women's college basketball game ever televised and doubling its 2022 ratings.
This year, ESPN has been licking its fingers in anticipation of another record-breaking Women's Final Four. The hype surrounding Clark grew throughout the year as she broke the NCAA women's world record and then passed the legendary Pete Maravich, who set the all-time record regardless of gender.
Last night she broke the NCAA season scoring record. Now all that remains is the elusive NCAA Championship, and the entire country is following that journey. I expect the viewership will be in the 15 million range if Clark makes the finale. If she exits before the Final Four, the numbers will likely return to 2022 range, about a third of the audience Clark would attract.
Fans of women's sports should unite and support Caitlin Clark because the more instances where women's sports can attract a mass audience, the more credibility women's sports will gain and the more people will be made to appreciate female athletes. That's why the Caitlin Clark effect is so strong, so let's hope and pray that it lasts for at least a few more weeks.
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I created the Shaq brand for Shaquille O'Neal's and the Golden Boy brand for Oscar De La Hoya, changing the way athletes were marketed. Instead of just backing products, I positioned them to own their intellectual property and build institutional equity.
I was co-founder and commissioner of AVP Pro Beach Volleyball, uniting men and women under one roof and mandating equal prize money and equal television time for women, a first in sports.
I have pioneered the use of technology to increase brand equity and have most recently focused on advising athletes, brands and media companies on web3's capabilities to engage fans and consumers.
I am the founder and CEO of Management Plus Enterprises (MPE); was CMO of Skechers; President of Skechers Performance Division and board member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
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