Things are not going particularly well on the court for Caitlin Clark as Indiana Fever is yet to win a game after 4 matches. Yet off the court, she is creating more records in terms of sponsorship deals. Clark recently signed a multi-year partnership deal with the sporting goods company, Wilson. She became the first player after NBA legend Michael Jordan to cement the deal.
On LinkedIn, Reed Berglund estimated Clark’s future success. Co-founder of Breathe Media Network said, “A prodigious talent from the University of Iowa, Clark has not only shattered records but also fundamentally shifted the paradigm of viewership in women’s college basketball.”
Caitlin Clark has drawn record-breaking audiences almost every time she has played this season. On her debut, the Indiana Fever vs the Connecticut Sun clash became the most-watched WNBA game since 2002 with 2.1M views. In her presence, the Fever also holds the top three on the list. Thanks to this indication of popularity, Clark finds her trajectory almost parallel to Jordan.
She signed her first shoe deal worth $28 million with Nike which was the biggest with any of the WNBA athletes. As previously mentioned her deal with Wilson also aligns with the path that Jordan took during his illustrated career. Just like Jordan, Clark would also get a signature basketball line which will be released this year. In 2014 Jordan shocked the world by becoming the first NBA player to enter the Billion dollar list and till now is only one of the three basketball players to make the list.
The model by Berglund predicted the future income of Clark for the period of 20 years. There were a few assumptions in that model, firstly Clark’s income was continuously increasing. Starting at $10 million then growing to $25-30 million and eventually reaching $40 million.
Secondly, Clark will invest 20% of her annual net income at an average return of 10%. And last women’s sports will continue to expand at a robust rate, supported by increasing viewership, sponsorship deals, and commercial investments. Thus Clark could amass a net worth of approximately $416.34 million by the end of 20 years. Jordan, on the other hand, who signed a Nike deal in 1984 took the same period to reach the milestone, thanks to his entrepreneurial mind.
As for now, Clark’s net worth estimation looks solid for the future but her present on court issues needs to end soon. And the top scorer of the NBA has taken the side of the Fever’s #22.
Amidst the Michael Jordan comparison, Clark gets support from LeBron James
The all-time leading scorer in NBA history never shies away from extending his support to the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer. However, the same cannot be said about Indiana. LeBron James recently put forth his honest opinions about the struggles of the 2012 WNBA champions with JJ Reddick at ‘Mind the Game’ Podcast. James said, “This is the second year in a row that they had the No.1 pick. So do y’all know what that mean? That mean that they’re not that good.”
Indiana Fever hasn’t been in the playoffs since 2016. Apparently, this is the longest streak for any franchise. On top of that, the past 5 seasons have resulted in just 28 victories.
Anyhow, Bron’s narratives also heaped praises for Caitlin Clark. Earlier, he expressed, “The one thing that I love that she’s bringing to her sport, more people want to watch. More people want to tune in. I saw for the first time, they had a chartered plane.” Clark has indeed brought a shift in women’s basketball through last couple of years. But if she were to join MJ, she would need to do a lot more than brand deals that her athletic excellence has to offer.