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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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Caitlin Clark's meteoric rise at the University of Iowa sent NCAA women's basketball's visibility into unchartered territory but she isn't the first phenomenon to gather a crowd for women's sports — and she most certainly won't be the last.
Billie Jean King is a pioneer for women's sports on multiple levels. Her victory over Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match in 1973 inspired a generation of females to participate in sports.
King also co-founded World Team Tennis in 1973. Shortly after in 1976, she helped found the first women's professional softball league, known as the International Women's Professional Softball Association. In the IWPSA's first season, each team played a 120-game schedule that featured 60 doubleheaders. Player contracts ranged from $1,000 to $5,000 per year. The association folded after four seasons due to a lack of funds, high travel costs, and inadequate facilities.
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King sold her majority ownership stake of World Team Tennis in 2017, a year before she and partner Ilana Kloss bought into the Los Angeles Dodgers as minority owners.
Since then, King has also invested in the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, Angel City FC of the National Women's Soccer League, and the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) – another joint ownership venture with Dodgers chairman Mark Walter and CEO Stan Kasten.
"Caitlin Clark is one very cool phenomenon, but it's just the latest," Kasten told Dodgers Nation, "and it's the harbinger of future greatness and recognition of these talented women athletes."
Professional women's sports have clearly been around for decades. For many, a lack of visibility has contributed to their demise.
Take softball. Women's Pro Softball League was founded in 1997 and folded in 2001. National Pro Fastpitch revived the league in 2004 and shut its doors in 2021, only to have Women's Pro Fastpitch launch in 2022 and pause operations in 2024.
Madison Huskey, a former Gold Glove winner at the University of Washington, took to social media Tuesday and addressed the lack of basics like a $60,000 minimum and benefits. Her post was quoted by Heather Tarr, head coach of the United States Women's National Team.
While softball struggles, women's soccer has figured things out. The Chicago Red Stars are hosting Bay Area FC at Wrigley Field on June 8, and tickets are selling at an outrageous pace.
The PWHL needed less than 20 minutes to sell out a game at the Bell Centre in Montreal, home of the NHL's Canadiens, which holds a capacity of more than 21,000. The game will break the attendance mark set earlier this season at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena, where 19,285 fans attended a Montreal-Toronto game in February.
The Omaha Supernovas of the Pro Volleyball Federation recently broke the attendance record for an indoor women's professional volleyball match in the United States for the second time this season. In February, 11,918 fans filled the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
The WNBA reportedly brought in $200 million in revenue last season, queen among women's sports in North America. Add in the Caitlin Clark effect — even opposing teams have changed venues to accommodate more fans for games against the Indiana Fever — and women's sports could be approaching heights hardly seen since King-Riggs.
For decades, big businesses didn't see the value in professional women's sports, but that trend is shifting. For the first time in NCAA history, the women's basketball tournament drew four million more viewers than the men's. The Women's College World Series softball championship series has outperformed its baseball counterpart every year since 2021.
Perhaps Clark isn't the catalyst that suddenly sparked an interest in women's sports, but provides the fuel needed to brighten a slow-burning flame.
Maren Angus-Coombs contributed to this story.
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