Ahead of the WNBA’s season opener, all eyes are on Fever vs. Sky
The world of sports doesn’t have a lot of certainty. But there was one thing that was certain about last year’s WNBA season.
Whenever Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever took on Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky, viewership skyrocketed.
The teams clashed four times last season, and all four games saw at least 1.5 million viewers tune in. A home-and-home battle between the two squads on June 16 and June 23 resulted in the two most-watched games of the regular season.
This year, fans won’t have to wait long to tune in for one of the most intriguing rivalries in professional sports. The Sky will visit the Fever on opening day, May 17, for an afternoon affair that will be broadcast on ABC.
The Fever games in Chicago — June 7 and July 27 — have been moved to the larger United Center to accommodate crowds Wintrust Arena can’t.
But even with the high viewership it is certain to draw, the Fever is doing its best to block out the noise and focus on itself.
“What happens outside this building, what happens outside the locker room, we can’t control that,” new Fever coach Stephanie White said. “We control what’s inside our building … and every day that is a hunger and a drive and a competitive spirit to be better.”
The competitive spirit has been aided by new additions to the roster. While Clark remains the headliner, the Fever also added two WNBA All-Stars, DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard, in free agency. The combination of talent with veteran acumen makes the Fever a dangerous team for anyone to deal with.
“I think the main thing we were lacking last year was experience, and adding really great vets like DB (Bonner) and Syd (Sydney Colson) and Tash (Howard) … they have the championship pedigree about them,” Clark said. “And I think having their voices in our locker room and on the court every single day is what’s going to really help us.”
Of course, the Sky also added veteran talent to bolster a young core of Reese and fellow 2024 draftee Kamilla Cardoso. Ariel Atkins led the Washington Mystics in scoring last season, and former Sky All-Star Courtney Vandersloot is back in Chicago after winning a championship with the New York Liberty.
But even though both teams have been surrounding their young stars with talented veterans, they know there’s still a long way to go.
“I don’t know where the pressure comes from, because we haven’t proved anything yet,” Bonner said. “I don’t feel we are the hunted, we are the hunter … because yeah, the roster can look really good on paper, but it’s going to be the work that we put in.”
Luckily, the younger stars have already grown very familiar with pressure. The record-breaking NCAA tournament in 2024 that saw 18.9 million viewers tune in to watch Cardoso’s South Carolina team defeat Clark’s Iowa team to win the national championship shattered viewership records. That same tournament also saw Clark and Iowa defeat Reese’s LSU team (which also included current Sky rookie Hailey Van Lith) in the Elite Eight, a game that drew 12.3 million viewers.
“There’s always expectations and pressure to perform. We understand the spotlight,” Clark said. “If there is that pressure, I think that’s just something you embrace. That’s always what I try to remind myself … you just rise to the occasion because you wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Both teams rose to the occasion in their clashes with each other last season. Three of the four games between the two teams were decided by 8 points or fewer. There will be a lot of pressure, and there will be a lot of viewers tuning in to the season-opening showdown. And that’s just how the Fever and Sky like it.