Courtside tickets were going for as high as $2,695 on the secondary market two days before Caitlin Clark’s sold-out preseason debut on Friday in Arlington, Texas against the Dallas Wings. WNBA team officials anticipate this kind of supply and demand situation throughout the season.
For the past few years, the Wings have intentionally hosted a private morning game at the College Park Center for season ticket holders; they have never offered tickets to a preseason game. However, following Indiana’s December draft lottery victory, Greg Bibb, the team’s president, CEO, and partner, got in touch with the Fever and suggested a Fever-Wings exhibition game in Texas. Clark had not yet declared her desire to play in the WNBA at the time.
Five months later, the preseason Wings vs. Fever game has grown to be a Dallas metroplex must-see. After the April 15 draft, Bibb delayed ticket sales, rescheduled the start time from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT, and increased the average face-value ticket price from $44 to $52.
The game sold out quickly because of College Park Center’s 6,251 WNBA seat capacity and Bibb’s refusal to give up on his loyal fans or the University of Texas-Arlington in favor of moving the game to the 19,000-seat American Airlines Center. A single mid-court ticket in the lower bowl was going for as much as $516 on Vivid Seats’ secondary market as of Wednesday; courtside seats were going for four times that much.
“The preseason game just sold out; we didn’t really even put any kind of advertising behind it,” Bibb stated. Things basically of took care of themselves as soon as people knew that Caitlin Clark had been drafted by the Indiana Fever and that the team will be playing the Dallas Wings in a preseason game on May 3.
“And Indiana deserves praise for being an excellent partner. They could have simply said, “We’re going to play our first preseason game at home,” or they could have asked after learning that Caitlin was a member of their squad. But that’s not what they did. Actually, it worked out better because they were much more understanding and let us adjust the gametime.
