The city of Washington laid out the red carpet when the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark descended upon their city to play their WNBA team, the Washington Mystics. The contest was held at the city’s premier stadium, the Capital One Arena. While Mystics usually play at the Entertainment and Sports Arena, their stadium simply didn’t have the facilities to house the incumbent fans. The venue was later shifted to Capital One Arena, which has an excess of 16,356 seats in comparison, but even then, it only took fans 30 minutes to buy the whole venue.
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The matchup lived up to the hype, as the game went down to the wire, with the game ending on an 83-85 scoreline. The game came down to a final Hail Mary from the home side, but their efforts turned out to be in vain, as Clark and the Indiana side shot their way into securing their season’s third victory.
While the players did put on a show, the crowd was just as involved in the action as the participants. Before tip-off, the stadium was already at full capacity, with reporter Joe Pompliano also breaking the news that an excess of 16,000 seats were filled within just 30 minutes, a testament to the Caitlin Clark effect.
The Washington Mystics moved tonight’s game against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever from their normal 4,200-seat arena to the 20,356-seat Capital One arena.
However, the 16,000 extra seats weren’t a problem, as tickets sold out in 30 minutes. https://t.co/ZHvKqBqQdJ
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) June 8, 2024
Friday night’s competition even broke attendance records. Taking to the social media platform X, play-by-play commentator and reporter Tyler Byrum pointed out how the recent Indiana Fever and Washington matchup hosted a 20,333 large audience, the largest since 2007, and the 7th largest of all time.
A sold-out crowd of 20,333 filled up Capital One Arena for Mystics-Fever.
That stacks up as the highest-attended WNBA game since 2007, the 5th highest-attended regular season game in league history, and 7th all-time, per @WBBTimeline
— Tyler Byrum (@theTylerByrum) June 8, 2024
With an excess of 40,000 eyeballs on her, Caitlin Clark performed as any generational player should. The Iowa native ended the competition with 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists while making 7 three-pointers on the night. But Clark’s impact was larger than the numbers show, as she single-handedly pulled out the Mystics defense and created space for her other teammates to score.
Caitlin Clark with a historic night 🔥 pic.twitter.com/eIRIBLmhCp
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) June 8, 2024
While the recent victory against the Mystics is surely reassuring for the Indiana side, it’s important to remember that the Mystics are currently the team with the worst record in the league, having lost all 11 of their contests so far. The Fever will have to replicate last night’s performance against better-ranked opponents if they want to keep their post-season dreams alive.
