Caitlin Clark Effect Fuels Fever’s New $78M Downtown Training Center
WNBA team practice facilities historically have been substandard, particularly relative to the league’s accelerating growth. The Fever’s ambitious plans extend a wave of change happening in the league.
The Caitlin Clark Effect is now extending to the Fever’s plans to develop a $78 million training center in downtown Indianapolis.
The forthcoming Indiana Fever Sports Performance Center, slated to open before the 2027 WNBA season, will feature two full-size courts, strength and conditioning facilities, a range of additional recovery and wellness rooms including those with infrared light therapy and hydrotherapy pools, and even podcast and content production studio space. Fever owner Pacers Sports & Entertainment will privately fund the development of the three-story, 108,000-square-foot facility.
The decision to build the new training complex, of course, is not solely a function of Clark’s arrival last year to the team, but the timing does provide another indicator of how transformative she has been to the Fever—and the league overall—over the past nine months.
With the former Iowa superstar in the fold, nearly all of Indiana’s games were nationally televised, fueling the league’s most-watched regular season. Attendance across the WNBA rose 47%, and the Fever specifically increased by nearly 320% to a league-leading average of more than 17,000 per game.
Now, the Fever are poised to have a training facility commensurate with that rising stature and impact. The facility will be located on the site of the former Marion County Jail. The Fever have been practicing in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the arena they share with the NBA’s Pacers.
“As we look to the future, the focus of creating a first-class player experience designed exclusively for women athletes will set us apart,” said Fever president of basketball and business operations Kelly Krauskopf.
Bigger Development Push
Long a pain point within the league as it continues its accelerating growth trajectory, other franchises that have made similar moves to create purpose-built practice complexes in the last two years include the Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix Mercury, and Seattle Storm—while the Chicago Sky have one under construction and scheduled to open late this year, and the defending league champion New York Liberty are pursuing one as well. Each project has exceeded $35 million in cost, with the Las Vegas facility nearly three times as expensive.
In addition to their training benefits, these hubs are also widely seen as a critical tool in player recruitment and engagement, with teams such as the Sky losing out on multiple talent opportunities because of what they’ve had to offer for a practice facility.
