When Caitlin Clark stepped onto the court against Michigan a month ago, her fans, her coaches, and her fellow players all knew she was there to make history. It took her just over two minutes.
Her eyes focused up and ahead, the defender too far away to stop her. Just minutes into Iowa’s contest against Michigan on Feb. 15, Clark had a clear shot at a very deep three. With those points, Clark passed Kelsey Plum — former University of Washington star guard who now plays for the Las Vegas Aces — to become the NCAA Division I women’s basketball all-time leading scorer.
That singular accomplishment has become more than just a number in a record book. The basketball phenom that is Clark — not single-handedly, she’d be sure to tell you — triggered a tsunami of fandom that stretches beyond the confines of Carver-Hawkeye Arena and into the world at large.
As her story progressed over the last four years, and as she ticked off one record after the next, the fandom expanded in both size and shape: Girls of all ages stare wide-eyed when she walks past them into the tunnel after the game. Boys wear the number 22 emblazoned on their t-shirts. Fans of all ages at visiting arenas push and shove to get a closer look at her when she enters the court to practice sinking 3-pointers.
Yet the big looming question that many are asking but can’t quite determine: Will support for women’s basketball continue once Clark departs?
Clark declared for the 2024 WNBA Draft in February before senior night, making this season her last with the Hawkeyes. Are we witness to a temporary Caitlin Clark era in the universe? Will future generations of women hoopers sustain these kinds of crowds?
And if they will, how will the money flow?
As a result of the last two years with Clark at the helm of the Iowa women’s basketball program, Hawkeye games have increasingly sold out arenas across the country, and ticket prices can reach into the thousands of dollars.
Lisa Bluder, who has been coaching at Iowa since 2000, receives an annual base pay of $1 million. That includes a $200,000 raise she earned within the past year after the team’s historic run to the NCAA championship game — the first time in history the Hawkeyes had made it to the final game of the tournament.
Her male counterpart fares much better. Fran McCaffery, the Iowa men’s basketball coach since 2010, receives a base pay nearly double what Bluder makes.
The history of the game being played on campuses across the nation has dictated not only the comparative popularity between men’s and women’s basketball but also the money flow into the various teams.
An abundance of factors goes into the process of deciding a coach’s paycheck. From TV contracts to ticket sales, there’s no single equation that can compute the perfect salary for a coach. According to a statement from the UI Athletics Department, pay for coaching staff at Iowa is influenced by, in no particular order, “education, experience, salary market data, past program and coaching success, budget, job classification and pay level, job duties, and job performance.”
In following the money and cultural shift that sports have seen over the past several years, however, The Daily Iowan began an investigation to reveal why this wage difference exists — and why it might not be right.
Pay for Iowa’s coaching staff
The audience for all women’s sports at Iowa has been climbing over the past few years. Fans are showing up in greater numbers, media outlets are investing more by sending reporters to cover sports in Iowa City, and these teams are winning.
However, coaches at Iowa for women’s sports make considerably less than their counterparts in every respective sport.
Bluder’s current contract, for example, sets her guaranteed pay at $1.4 million, while McCaffery’s guaranteed pay is $3.3 million, according to contracts obtained by the DI. Before Iowa’s NCAA tournament success last year, Bluder’s base salary was $838,000. The Iowa coach broke $500,000 for base pay 15 years into her tenure at Iowa.
Following the money trail is hardly an easy process given the history of limited funds and attention women’s basketball — and women’s sports in general — have attracted. In short, data follows popularity, and women’s athletics didn’t have that.
The DI editorial team recognizes women’s sports have historically brought in only a fraction of the total dollar amount brought in by the men’s teams. Fans were not lining up to watch women’s basketball hours before tipoff until Clark came to town.
And indeed, the young athlete catapulted the program into an entirely new paradigm.
According to The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Iowa Athletics captured more revenue from women’s basketball in the 2023 fiscal year than originally anticipated. The sport was anticipated to generate $350,000. It grossed $1.2 million.
Still, the Iowa men’s basketball team, estimating $3.2 million in revenue, raked in $3.5 million during the same time frame — nearly three times that of the women’s program despite the men’s team losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Two words: media contracts.
During Bluder’s tenure, she has coached the team to 17 NCAA tournament runs, four Sweet 16 games, two Elite Eights, and one Final Four. Women’s basketball games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena were sold out all season this year, which is a first for the program.
Every time the women’s team plays at home, roaring screams ripple across the stadium every time a Hawkeye puts the ball through the net. Long lines form for the sticky-sweet Carver Cones, and the smell of popcorn fills the air.
McCaffery has coached for 13 years and succeeded in seven NCAA tournament bids — but has only taken his team to round two before elimination. This year the team didn’t qualify for the NCAA tournament, ending its season with a loss in the second round of the NIT — a smaller postseason tournament hosting teams that did not win enough quality games during the season to receive a berth in the NCAA tournament.
This season, as of February, the men’s team is averaging just 9,712 people in attendance at home games and has struggled all year to get students into seats. Even in the middle of an Iowa blizzard, over 13,000 people showed up to watch the women’s team in January.
While this is the first season the women’s basketball team has averaged more in attendance than the men’s, the numbers indicate a trend toward greater support for and success of the sport in Iowa.
Scott Dochterman has been covering Iowa basketball for years with The Athletic and has seen these changes firsthand.
“It’s surging in a way that’s unrecognizable, I would say, just from covering this industry since the later part of the last decade,” Dochterman said. “I would have never guessed this.”
