Caitlin Clark is at the forefront of a new generation of WNBA players who are drawing bigger crowds, and the Sparks want to capitalize on the surge.
More than 16,000 fans buzzed in Edmonton’s Rogers Place. Christine Monjer scanned the crowd before the Sparks’ preseason game against the Seattle Storm and saw couples on a date night, families with their kids, people who looked like former basketball players and others who appeared to have never played the game. All were lined up in a merchandise line that wrapped around the concourse.
The Sparks team president stood in awe.
“This isn’t the W from 10 years ago,” Monjer said, “this is just a brand new era for us, so we’re meeting the moment.”
The Sparks are hoping to surf the WNBA’s tidal wave of popularity to reignite an organization that has fallen from grace in the midst of a three-season playoff drought. The pivotal season reaches an early crest Friday as the Sparks host Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever at 7 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena in the star rookie’s only regular-season game in L.A. this year.
The former Iowa star will receive a grand welcome to L.A. as the game was moved from the roughly 4,000-seat Walter Pyramid to the Sparks’ 18,000-seat downtown home.
The Sparks made arrangements late last year with Long Beach State to play five games at the Pyramid due to a renovation project at Crypto.com Arena. But in the last month, the organization called to let officials know their plans had changed, first for the Fever game, then for the next two games after that, said Mike Habura, associate athletics director for facilities and event operations, who manages the Pyramid.
The team cited a need for increased capacity as the reason for the move, he said. Some renovations in Crypto.com Arena were postponed, Monjer said, which was partly why some games could return.
Ticket prices changed accordingly — according to Stubhub, the average price of tickets sold when the game was still at the Pyramid was $253. After the game changed venues, the price dropped to $192.
Seeing the high demand, Monjer still wanted to make a positive first impression on fans who could be attending their first WNBA game. The team president, who joined the Sparks in March after helping build the Las Vegas Aces into one of the most recognizable WNBA brands, capped the price for tickets bought directly from the team at $50 for the top level.
“More fans in the building, better for the W, better for the Sparks, better for everybody,” she said.
Not content to just get in the door, Carson Faulkner bought one ticket near the court for Friday’s marquee game for $200. The 21-year-old business student at Saddleback Community College attended his first Sparks game Tuesday, watching the team hold off the Washington Mystics in a two-point victory. His favorite player, Cameron Brink, made the game-clinching defensive stop.
Faulkner, wearing Brink’s gold Sparks jersey backward so her last name and No. 22 was across his chest, first heard about the 6-foot-4 forward while watching Golden State Warriors games, when announcers mentioned that NBA superstar Stephen Curry — Faulkner’s idol — was Brink’s godbrother. He then started following Brink’s career at Stanford, where she led the Cardinal to the 2021 national championship, was named an All-American three times and won two national defensive player of the year awards.
When he saw the Sparks had the second pick, the Orange County native knew the opportunity was perfect for his local team to grab his favorite player.
