Indianapolis shouldn’t be new to internet hosting main sporting occasions, routinely internet hosting Closing Fours and yearly internet hosting the NFL Draft Mix. This previous February, it was additionally the positioning of the NBA All-Star Recreation. Subsequent summer season, nonetheless, will mark the primary time the town is internet hosting the WNBA All-Star Recreation.
The sport will happen July 19 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, with the 3-point contest and expertise problem occurring July 18.
“We’re excited to carry AT&T WNBA All-Star to Indiana for the primary time,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated in an announcement. “Town of Indianapolis and the complete state of Indiana have such an unbelievable and enduring ardour for the sport of basketball, making the area the right host to rejoice the WNBA and the sport’s biggest stars.”
it’s official.
AT&T WNBA All-Star 2025 is coming to Indianapolis 💫
📝 https://t.co/PKuMPP9P4j pic.twitter.com/I0Z5nCiKr6
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) August 15, 2024
The information comes amid a major surge in curiosity within the Indiana Fever. Led by 2024 No. 1 decide Caitlin Clark and 2023 No. 1 decide Aliyah Boston, Indiana leads the WNBA in attendance for each dwelling and away video games this 12 months, with the franchise saying Wednesday it has had a 265 p.c enhance in comparison with final season.
Heading into the second half of the WNBA season, which begins Thursday, the Fever have additionally seen a increase in different areas. Indiana introduced that single-game data for gross sales on the Gainbridge Fieldhouse Workforce Retailer have been set 4 instances this season, and the group retailer has skilled a leap of greater than 1,000 p.c in internet gross sales. The Fever have added 1.3 million followers throughout its social media platforms since mid-April, and in accordance with the group, movies produced by the group from April 15 to July 19 had greater than 800 million views, trailing solely Miami FC (the membership of Lionel Messi) throughout main U.S. sports activities franchises throughout that interval.
Ten Fever broadcasts this season have additionally set community viewership data with the group’s June 23 matchup towards the Chicago Sky changing into the most-viewed WNBA recreation in 23 years, averaging 2.3 million viewers. Even look requests for Indiana’s mascot, Freddy Fever, are up 150 p.c.
“It is a historic second, an inflection level for ladies’s basketball, and there’s nothing extra becoming than Indiana being on the middle of all of it,” Mel Raines, chief government officer of Pacers Sports activities & Leisure, stated in an announcement. “Over a number of seasons, we have now constructed a younger, gifted roster that followers are excited to assist, and that is momentum that we’ll construct off for years to come back.”
Clark and the Fever received off to a slower begin than many anticipated, dropping 9 out of 11 video games in 20 days. Since then, Indiana has rallied, with Clark, Boston, two-time All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell and 2022 No. 2 decide NaLyssa Smith creating extra chemistry. Getting into the second half of the season, Clark leads the league in assists whereas pacing rookies in factors per recreation. She additionally ranks third in 3-pointers and seventh in whole factors, all whereas taking part in the second-most minutes of anybody throughout the WNBA.
The Fever, who sit in seventh place at 11-15, return to the courtroom Friday towards the Phoenix Mercury. Tipoff is about for 7:30 p.m. ET.
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(Photograph: Justin Casterline / NBAE through Getty Pictures)
