Caitlin Clark Reality Check Surfaces as Cathy Engelbert Faces Test of Sustaining WNBA Beyond Fever Star

It’s the final week of the season, and the WNBA is already gearing up for the playoffs. Meanwhile, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has had her work cut out between inappropriate objects being thrown on courts and players protesting about the current CBA deal. But before she could focus on these issues, a major problem was already lining up: “Caitlin Clark’s absence.”

On September 5th, Caitlin Clark finally broke her silence and provided an update via her Twitter account. She penned, “I had hoped to share a better update, but I will not be returning to play this season… I spent hours in the gym every day with the singular goal of getting back out there. Disappointed isn’t a big enough word to describe how I am feeling.” The Indiana Fever sensation had been limited to just one-third of the season due to different soft-tissue injuries, the latest being a right groin injury that kept her sidelined since July 15th. And now, she’s out for the remainder of the season. But her absence isn’t just costly for the Fever, it’s costly for the W as a whole!

It’s because “Caitlin Clark is the league.” As Colin Cowherd came across the latest update by the Fever, he couldn’t help but raise an immediate concern. “Let’s be honest, you know Caitlin Clark is good for everybody’s business and bottom line. It’s why she’s still the topic of conversation even when she’s missed this much time,” Cowherd shared in the latest podcast with Awful Announcing.

No doubt, before Caitlin Clark’s latest update, everyone was hopeful for her return. After all, she was participating in practice sessions with the team. Not fully, but still enough to reflect the sentiment. “That’s the hope,” HC Stephanie White shared when asked about her return. “She’s working as hard as she can to make sure that she is coming back or is capable of coming back. I think the long-term viewpoint of her health and wellness is the most important thing.” The curtains have lifted, though.

Now, with Clark shut down for the season, that reality check surfaces as a real-time challenge for Cathy Engelbert. She has to prove that the WNBA can sustain momentum beyond just Clark, because sponsorships, betting, and casual fan buzz clearly tilt Clark’s way.

While the W’s Commissioner has been leading the league since 2019, the real surge she witnessed came in 2024. With the arrival of Caitlin Clark, literally every metric spiked—be it attendance or viewership. Notably, of the 24 W-related broadcast shows last season that drew at least 1 million viewers, 21 involved her. Not just that, CC’s popularity was even responsible for 26.5% of all the W’s economic activity last season.

Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of Finance at Indiana University of Columbus, who calculated the rise, shared, “If things just go as they were, and we have an expanded season of 22 home games with modest inflation, I’m looking at $875 [million]… And I could easily see that eclipsing a billion dollars on the economic impact of Caitlin Clark this year,” in an interview with NBC earlier this year. Whatever falls short will be because of her prolonged injuries.

Still, Clark averaged 1.3 million viewers who tuned in on ESPN to watch Indy’s preseason game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That audience was bigger than all but two NBA games on ESPN since 2010. Even when fans knew she wouldn’t play, they showed up for her, with long lines forming just to grab memorabilia. That kind of pull makes her season-ending absence all the more impactful.

As Robin Lundberg put it better in one of his recent videos, “I haven’t read them, but I know that last year with Caitlin Clark, I was, I would, if the game was on, I would drive home making a point.” He added, “And when’s that game on? I would watch it on my phone in the car so you could listen, not watch I’m driving, but you could listen to it in the car and that’s just not happening. Now I’m tracking the Sparks a little out here.” But now the challenge’s lined up for Cathy. Can she drive through it? Maybe.

The W is already prepared. Yes or no?

Ever since CC’s game versus the Sun, wherein she got poked in the eye by Jacy Sheldon, Cathy Engelbert’s often been asked about the physicality around the Indiana Fever sensation. While she mentioned CC as “one of America’s most popular athletes,” she also added, “It is a balance, but she’s a generational talent… No league is ever about one player, but in this case, Caitlin brought tens of millions of new viewers into the W. And there’s no denying that impact.”

“Not just in the WNBA, but the world of sports. [NBA Commissioner] Adam [Silver] and I talk all the time about this, she’s the most popular athlete in America… But again, you do want to balance it,” Engelbert said. So, if you ask her, W’s already prepared, by promoting other stars like A’ja Wilson, three-time MVP, and Napheesa Collier, an MVP favorite.

While we are yet to see how the “final update” would affect, we did see a stretch where, despite Clark’s absence, the numbers shot up. With CC being limited to just 13 games so far, the 2025 season marks the W’s single-season attendance record. As the league drew a total of 2,501,609 fans over 226 games this season, it surpassed the previous mark set in 2002 with 16 teams. But will her strategy to spotlight W’s stars apart from CC work when Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers are already out of the playoffs?