MINNEAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark wasn’t here. It would be another 31 hours before she’d take the court.
Yet here they were at the second round of the Big Ten Tournament — men and women, boys and girls, young and old — wearing No. 22, wearing black and gold, wearing pride and enthusiasm and anticipation, as the biggest star in college sports approached the stage.
They bought their tickets long ago, long before Clark announced the next few weeks would bring the final days of the most electric and impactful career women’s basketball has ever seen.
They bought all-sessions tickets as early as December, unsure when Clark would be scheduled to play, unwilling to risk missing the phenomenon in person.
For the first time in its 30-year history, the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament sold every ticket to the (five-day) event.
Last year’s tournament — also held at the Target Center — set an attendance record of 47,923. This year, the event is expected to draw more than 109,000 fans.
“I’m really happy we got the tickets when we did,” Micki Kostka of Minnesota said. “It’s so special for the kids to be here and see this. One day they will look back and be like, ‘Holy crap, we were there.’ ”
Virtually no one was there when Clark debuted at Iowa, when Carver-Hawkeye Arena was kept empty by COVID-19.
Even during her sophomore season — after Clark led the nation in scoring and led the Hawkeyes to the Sweet 16 — the school was still curtaining off sections of unsold seats.
Now, millions gather around screens to see if van Gogh will paint “The Starry Night” in real time. They remain fixated after the paint dries, after the cameras go dark.
“I’ve been to almost all of her games this year, and wherever you go, people are waiting in line for hours, in the cold, to see her,” said Dickson Jensen, Clark’s former AAU coach. “After games, there are 5,000 people standing there, watching her do interviews. They don’t want to leave the building until she does.”
They come from big cities and small towns. They are diehards who are thankful for the “Caitlin Clark effect” and the spotlight they’ve long sought for their sport.
They ride in bandwagons, unaware they’ve stumbled upon the unprecedented.
They come to say that they did, to cross it off a bucket list, to be able to share where they were when Clark — the nation’s leader in scoring (32.3) and assists (8.7) — and the Hawkeyes chased their third straight conference tournament championship.
“We’re just here to see Caitlin,” Iowa native Rob Martinek said. “Until a few years ago, I’d never seen a women’s game. It used to be I never missed a men’s game. Now it’s the other way around. She is can’t-miss TV.”
Because of Clark, Iowa’s games have been the most-watched women’s basketball games in the history of six different networks.
Because of her — the sport’s biggest star since Zion Williamson — women’s college basketball games on Fox are averaging more viewers than men’s games this season.
After helping set a record of more than 9.9 million viewers for last year’s national title game — doubling the previous year’s ratings — the superstar guard inspired an October exhibition game in Iowa’s football stadium, attended by 55,646 fans.
On Sunday, Clark’s regular-season finale doubled as the most-watched regular-season women’s basketball game in 25 years, peaking at 4.4 million viewers, while besting that day’s ratings of the nationally televised battle between the Warriors and Celtics.
In the hours before Clark surpassed Pete Maravich for the most points in Division I history, hundreds waited to enter Minneapolis’ newly opened “A Bar of Their Own,” which is believed to be just the country’s fourth establishment — and first outside the Pacific Northwest — to exclusively showcase women’s sports.
“There’s a pizza joint across the street and we joke with them that they’ve become our official waiting room,” said bar owner Jillian Hiscock. “The fervor has exploded in such a massive way that it’s not just Iowa fans anymore. She’s such a household name that people are coming from all over the country to see her play. There were some couples here — from Colorado and Kansas City — who are going to the Big Ten Tournament and have no connection to the teams other than wanting to see Caitlin play.
“When she broke the record, it was very intense. We had the sound blaring on the speakers. Everybody was cheering. It was a goose bumps moment, the type of moment we’ve always dreamed that we’d be able to hold with all these women’s sports fans who didn’t have to be cheering silently to themselves anymore.”
This week, hordes of tickets for Clark-less sessions could be scooped up for $1 on secondary ticket sites. Almost every available Iowa ticket is going for more than $100. Some were being hawked for four-figures.
How do you put a price on what has never been seen? On what may never be again?
“She is just crazy to watch,” said teenager Emma Martinek. “You’re always like, ‘How did she do that? How in the world did that just happen?’ ”
The lucky ones may watch Clark play three times in the span of 40 hours. They will collect anecdotes with no expiration. They will experience the payoff for so many forgettable hours spent watching sports.
They will see her playfulness, smiling and strutting. They will feel her intensity, through screams and stares. They will see her shoot like Steph, compete like Kobe, pass like Nash.
They aren’t here to see a show. They’ve come for a spectacle.
“She is like Taylor Swift,” said Donna Syverson. “Everybody should see her in person.”
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