Want to know how to turn $76,000 into $36 million in a few months? Draft Caitlin Clark.

That’s the deal of the century, enjoyed by the WNBA, the Indiana Fever, and the city of Indianapolis thanks to Ms. Clark and the fandom that followed her from a record-setting collegiate career to her first season as a professional.

It’s well known that the WNBA received unprecedented attention during Ms. Clark’s rookie season in 2024. Putting that in actual dollars is mind-boggling.

The IndyStar asked a finance expert, Professor Ryan Brewer, to put a price tag on what Ms. Clark has meant financially to the WNBA, Indianapolis, and the nation since joining the Indiana Fever last May. “The numbers are so staggering, they don’t even seem real,” Mr. Brewer told the IndyStar.

In his estimation, Ms. Clark is responsible for 26.5 percent of “the WNBA’s league-wide activity” for the 2024 season, including attendance, merchandise sales, and television. He reported one of every six tickets sold in the WNBA is linked to Ms. Clark. Combining just about every revenue stream available, Mr. Brewer put Ms. Clark’s overall economic impact at upwards of $36 million.

“Think about this,” Mr. Brewer said. “That’s one year. We’re talking about one player.”  It’s a huge return considering Ms. Clark’s rookie salary was a mere $76,535.

Fortunately, Ms. Clark has an eight-year $28 million endorsement deal with Nike following a $3 million NIL deal at Iowa. According to Sportico, Ms. Clark made an estimated $11 million in 2024, including sponsorship deals with Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, Wilson, and Xfinity, among others.

Her portfolio of endorsements is why she turned down $1 million to compete in the newly formed Unrivaled 3-on-3 women’s league that debuts in January.  

With little time between the end of her collegiate career and the beginning of her NBA career, Ms. Clark said she’d rather continue to rest and play golf before preparing for the upcoming WNBA season. She deserves some time off.

Amid all the hype of being the No.1 overall draft pick, Ms. Clark delivered on the court leading the Fever to a 20-20 season and a playoff berth. She was a near-unanimous choice for WNBA Rookie of the Year and made the All-WNBA first-team after setting records for most points by a rookie (769), assists (337), and fastest to reach 350 points and 150 assists. She also averaged 19.6 points a game.

She proved to be a gold mine off the court. According to the IndyStar, the league’s television viewership was up 300 percent. League merchandise sales increased by 500 percent with apparel linked to Ms. Clark ranking No. 1. Her regular-season games were watched by an average of 1.2 million viewers, an estimated 199 percent more than games in which she didn’t play. The Fever was also the first WNBA team to draw more than 300,000 fans in a season.

WNBA didn’t hesitate to capitalize on its sudden popularity. The league signed a new $2.2 billion media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime Video, and NBC Universal. The league is also upping its asking fee for an expansion franchise to $200 million. By comparison, Golden State, which begins play in 2025, paid a $50 million fee in 2023, while Portland ($125 million) and Toronto ($115 million) joined last year to begin play in 2026.

Players also want a larger share of the financial pie. Salaries are expected to rise after the player’s union voted to opt-out of its collective bargaining agreement to negotiate a new one under more favorable terms.

“We’re getting to a point where the salary cap and the systems that are part of the business needs to start looking like a professional league that’s not a startup,” the WNBAPA’s executive director, Terri Jackson, told ESPN.

Several existing franchises made moves to make the most of the attention and potential revenue. Seven teams, including Indiana, made a head coaching change.  Ms. Clark’s new coach will be the former Connecticut Sun coach who has a long history with the Fever as a player, assistant coach, and former head coach, Stephanie White. Ms. Clark approves of the change.  “I’ve been watching Caitlin play since she was an eighth grader when I was coaching in the college realm and covering her games in college,” Ms. White told ESPN. “It’s an exciting time for me, very excited to be working with her and this young team.”