The Indiana Fever announced on Thursday the team will play a preseason game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Caitlin Clark and her teammates will face the Brazilian National Team in the game schedule for May 4.
“We couldn’t be more excited to play at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and we know Iowa fans will deliver an unforgettable homecoming for Caitlin,” Kelly Krauskopf, president of basketball operation for the Fever, said in a statement. “Countless Hawkeye fans have become Fever fans, and we consider them family. That’s what will make this preseason matchup so special for us.”
Clark is entering her second year in the WNBA, following a rookie year that changed the landscape of women’s professional basketball.
“Clark’s Fever appeared in the most watched WNBA games ever on ABC, CBS, ESPN, and ESPN2,” Sean Gregory wrote in the special December issue of Time Magazine. “The WNBA attracted an all-time record of more than 54 million unique viewers across all its national broadcasting platforms during the regular season, and the league’s overall attendance jumped 48% year over year to its highest level in more than two decades. The Fever broke the WNBA record for home attendance by a single franchise, and Fever games were moved to NBA and NHL arenas in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., to accommodate the hordes of fans, many donning Clark’s No. 22 jersey. The Washington Mystics-Fever regular-season finale set a new WNBA single-game attendance record of 20,711.”
In that same issue, Time named Clark its 2024 Athlete of the Year.
Tickets for the Fever game at Carver are not yet on sale, but will be “available through the University of Iowa, with more information available at a later date,” according to a UI news release.
This Sunday, the Hawkeyes will retire the number 22 jersey Clark made famous during her years on the court in Iowa City. The ceremony will be held after the final buzzer between the UI women’s basketball team and USC at Carver. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.
