BOSTON — Mohegan Sun Arena, home to the Connecticut Sun, is 107 miles away from TD Garden. Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Fever, is about 950 miles away.
What’s an 840-mile difference, though? Not much — at least not to many of the fans filling the stands of TD Garden on Tuesday night.
Home-court advantage was not much of a factor for the Sun in Tuesday night’s game between the Fever and the Sun, which marked the second ever WNBA game played in the arena.
That’s because the sellout crowd included lots and lots of Caitlin Clark fans who watched Clark and the Fever secure an 85-77 victory.
“She was kind of like the gateway drug into the WNBA,” David Young said. “Followed her from college into this.”
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Young is from the Bay Area, so he supports the Valkyries in addition to the Fever. And although he and his family did not travel all the way to the East Coast for the game specifically, they did structure their travel plans around catching Clark in action.
Like Young, sisters Sue and Becky Barbour started watching women’s basketball when Clark was playing in college at Iowa.
“I started, just like so many other people, hearing about this basketball player,” Sue said. “So I started watching, and then I started watching the Fever, and then I started liking all the other players that they had.”
The sisters, who live in Rhode Island, went to a couple Sun games last season, but only when the Fever were in town. Their initial narrow interest in Clark has transformed into them becoming Sun fans, though. They're now season ticket holders, and they regularly drive more than an hour to attend games.
Their shared interest in basketball and newfound love for the Sun has brought the two closer.
“We really don’t hang around too much, but we hang around together a lot now because we just enjoy it so much,” Becky said.
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While the Barbours’ interest in Clark blossomed into an interest in the Sun, that’s not necessarily the case for other basketball fans in the Northeast.
Alexandra Barbar lives in central Massachusetts. Despite proximity, she was far less interested in the Northeast’s WNBA team than in the prospect of seeing Clark play live.
She said she probably wouldn’t have bought a ticket to Tuesday’s game if Clark hadn’t been playing.
“We spent too much money on this game,” Barbar said with a laugh.
Clark, who said it was her first time in Boston, didn’t score her second basket until about five minutes left in the first half. The crowd piped up in response after it seemed to have grown stagnant.
That was a common theme, as every time Clark struggled on Tuesday night, the crowd simmered down. Her shots weren’t falling (4-for-14) but she still finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in the win.
“For myself, you don’t take these opportunities for granted,” Clark said before the game. “It’s always fun to go to a new arena and a new place and enjoy it.”
Regardless of whether fans came to support the Sun, or due to the buzz that has followed Clark since her days at Iowa, the 19,156-fan turnout was the most in Sun franchise history.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for people in this city, or fans around the area, to come and support a [WNBA] team here,” Clark said. “I know their game last year had great attendance and great energy, so I’m expecting the same tonight.”
