Happy return for Parker, Sky
Call it the Candace Parker Effect.
Wherever the WNBA's newest and brightest star goes, people follow. Lots of them.
Parker and the Los Angeles Sparks are traveling the country like a popular rock band, selling out arenas every time they put on a show.
"It's been amazing (on the road)," said Rachel Schlachet, the Sparks' head athletic trainer. "There's a lot of attention, especially on Candace. Sometimes it can be a three-ring circus."
Los Angeles has played five road games this season and all five have been sellouts, including Tuesday night's game at the UIC Pavilion against the Sky.
The other sellouts were at Phoenix, Atlanta, Indiana and Washington.
The Pavilion crowd of 6,304, which cheered louder for Parker than any other player during pregame introductions, marks the first sellout in the Sky's three-year history.
"This is what I hope for. Anything that's good for women's basketball is good," said Parker, who is off to the best rookie start in WNBA history. She's averaging 19.2 points and 9.5 rebounds and put together the most prolific debut in league history when she scored 34 points against the Phoenix Mercury.
"Just me being from here has a lot to do with (the big crowd)," Parker said. "I mean, this is where I grew up. I've seen (the big crowds) other places. But this is home."
Parker has seen big crowds everywhere for quite some time. She played before many sellouts while at perennial titan Tennessee, which is coming off back-to-back national championships.
"I like the big crowds," Parker said. "I'd rather play in a packed arena on the road than at home with hardly anybody."
Small home crowds in Los Angeles are unlikely.
Since the WNBA draft in April, when the Sparks acquired the iconic Parker with the No. 1 pick, the team's sale of new season tickets has more than doubled (plus-244 percent) compared to sales before the draft.
Single-game tickets in Los Angeles have increased nearly fourfold, and overall season-ticket sales there are the highest in three years.
That similar increases are happening in other cities when the Sparks visit also is impressive but not surprising.
"(Parker) has incredible visibility from her days at Tennessee. She had an incredible college career. People are just like, 'Wow, what is she really all about?' " Sky president Margaret Stender said. "People want to come and see. The phones (in the ticket office) kept ringing today.
"What's so wonderful for the league is that the fans come and they're like, 'There's a lot of really wonderful players in this league. This is what the WNBA is all about? This is kind of cool.' "
Of course, the Sky hopes that transfers into repeat visitors at the UIC Pavilion.
"It's really exciting to have the crowd here, but it's also exciting to know that a lot of these people probably haven't been to a WNBA game before," Sky owner Michael Alter said. "To me, that's big."
Prior to Parker's homecoming, the Sky's previous attendance record was 5,443 last season against New York.
Overall, the Sky has averaged about 3,500, and Sunday the Sky managed just 2,276 for a game against the Connecticut Sun.
The Sky needs the Candace Parker Effect to linger.
"I'm just grateful the league sent the Sparks here on June 3 and not Sept. 3 because this creates an opportunity for us to showcase the entire league to all these fans," Stender said. "We're hoping they'll come back."