The Caitlin Clark effect is quickly making its mark on the big leagues, as WNBA host teams around the country rush to upgrade their Fever games to larger arenas in order to accommodate surging ticket sales.

With Clark mere weeks away from her Indiana Fever debut, both the Las Vegas Aces and Washington Mystics have officially relocated their scheduled home games with head coach Christie Sides' squad. On Thursday, the Mystics became the latest to adjust their plans, moving their June 7th matchup from Entertainment & Sports Arena in Southwest DC to the more centrally located — and much larger — Capital One Arena "due to unprecedented demand."

The Mystics home court's capacity taps out at 4,200, while Capital One Arena — home to the Wizards, Capitals, and Georgetown Hoya's Men's Basketball — can fit nearly five times that crowd at some 20,000 spectators.

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"The move to Capital One Arena will allow for additional fans in the stands as well as premium hospitality options, including Suites and the all-new all-inclusive courtside Hennessy Lofts," the team announced via Thursday's press release.

The Aces were one of the first teams to switch venues, aiming to take on the Indiana Fever in front of as many as 20,000 fans inside T-Mobile Arena on July 2nd. That’s a sizable a boost from their home venue, which holds just 12,000.

For those still planning to face the Fever in their home arenas, ticket prices have skyrocketed. Previously scheduled construction has already forced the LA Sparks to relocate their first five games — including their May 24th clash with the Fever — to Long Beach State's Walter Pyramid. The temporary venue is quite the downsize, holding just 4,000 in comparison to Crypto.com Arena's near-19,000. As of Friday, the get-in price for that game started around $400.

Despite fans launching a Change.org petition urging relocation, the Chicago Sky say they're unable to move their June 23rd Fever meeting from Wintrust Arena's 10,000-seat facility to the 23,500-seat United Center due to a concert. Tickets for that game start around $325 as of Friday.

Former Iowa captain Kate Martin was in the audience during Monday night’s draft when she was selected 18th overall by the Las Vegas Aces. 

The moment quickly went viral, as Martin was in the crowd to support superstar teammate Caitlin Clark going No. 1 overall, and was not one of the 14 players invited to the draft.

"To be honest, I don't think I'd have the type of career if I don't have a teammate like Kate," Clark said about Martin leading up to the 2024 national championship game. "She's been one that has had my back. She holds me accountable. I hold her accountable. But I think at the same time, me and Kate are wired so similarly that we get each other on a different level."

Martin being drafted marks the first time that Iowa has had two players selected in the same WNBA draft since 1998.

“She's one of the best leaders I've been around," Clark said. "She wants the best for her teammates. She's one of the most selfless people."

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said Monday that she is “so proud” of her player, “because her dreams came true.”

"She has been such a big part of our program over the last six years,” she said. “Her efforts did not go unnoticed by her peers. I wish Kate all the success with this next step.”

Martin said afterward that she’s “excited for the opportunity” and to showcase her “really good” work ethic. Helping Iowa to back-to-back NCAA title games, Martin finished her college career with 1,299 points, 756 rebounds and 473 assists.

“There are a lot of emotions right now,” Martin said in an interview on ESPN. “I’m really happy to be here. I was here to support Caitlin, but I was hoping to hear my name called. All I wanted was an opportunity and I got it. I’m really excited.”

While Martin was watching from the crowd, her family was watching from back home.

The 2024 WNBA season will bring a new Commissioner’s Cup format, another opportunity for a Las Vegas Aces title defense and an Olympic break.

The schedule tips off with four games on May 14, including the Aces hosting the Phoenix Mercury in their opener and the Indiana Fever potentially showing off the No. 1 overall draft pick against the Connecticut Sun. All 12 teams will play 40 games, and the season will end on Sept. 19 with every team in action.

“We eagerly anticipate tipping off the 2024 season and building on the success of last season, our most-watched in 21 years and a record-setter for social media engagement, digital consumption, All-Star merchandise sales and sports betting,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement.

No games will take place from July 18 through Aug. 14 due to the Paris Olympics, which will feature many WNBA players competing for their national teams. The All-Star game will be held on July 20 in Phoenix, and it will also serve as a send-off event for the U.S. Olympic team.

The revamped Commissioner’s Cup tournament will take place before the Olympic break, with the in-season tournament games taking place from June 1-13. The best two teams from that two-week qualifying period will face off in the championship game on June 25.

The Aces will go up against the New York Liberty, who the two-time reigning champions defeated in the 2023 WNBA Finals, three times in the regular season: June 15 and Aug. 17 in Las Vegas and Sept. 8 in New York.

The complete 2024 schedule can be viewed here.

Angel McCoughtry is returning to basketball, joining Athletes Unlimited for its third season.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft and a two-time Olympian with USA Basketball, McCoughtry has played in just three WNBA games since 2021 due to injuries. But she will take the court again with Athletes Unlimited, with the season set to run from Feb. 29 through March 23 in Dallas.

“As the newest member of the AU family, I am beyond excited to start this journey. Basketball has always been a passion that drives me,” McCoughtry said in a release. “My focus is clear: I just want to hoop again, to be on the court where I feel most alive. I can’t wait to show the world what I got.”

The 37-year-old is feeling good, she told ESPN, and has been progressing well in both her rehabilitation and workouts.

A former star at Louisville, McCoughtry spent her first 10 WNBA seasons with the Atlanta Dream. While there, she won the 2009 Rookie of the Year award, made the All-Star game five times and was a member of three WNBA Finals teams. Twice she led the league in scoring and steals.

Since becoming a free agent in 2020, McCoughtry has bounced around, helping the Las Vegas Aces to the WNBA Finals in 2020 but missing the 2021 season with a right knee injury. She played two games for the Minnesota Lynx in 2022 before being waived.

“It’s been hell,” she told ESPN. “You go over 10 years never getting hurt. But then you get hurt, you have a surgery, and it changes things. It’s been like a domino effect.”

In November, she visited the USA Basketball camp. While there, she spent time with former Olympic teammates Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner.

McCoughtry says that she still has “something left,” and she hopes that Athletes Unlimited might help her get back to the WNBA.

“I look forward to showing that I still have ability,” she told ESPN. “I feel like playing AU can help me get back in the WNBA. I know the narrative is, ‘She hasn’t played, she’s older.’ I just want to prove basketball still exists in my world.”

Other WNBA players, including Kelsey Mitchell, Lexie Brown, Allisha Gray and Sydney Colson, have signed back on for another season with Athletes Unlimited.

WNBA legend Candace Parker plans to return to the court next season if she is healthy.

Parker fractured her foot during the Las Vegas Aces’ second-consecutive WNBA Finals-winning season in 2023. She underwent surgery in July after “playing on the fracture all season” and has not played in a game since. 

The 37-year-old forward was interviewed by TMZ Sports on Dec. 7 and echoed statements that she made on Good Morning America in November. 

“If I’m healthy, I wanna play,” Parker said to TMZ Sports.  

Parker started 18 games with the Aces after singing with them as a free agent in 2023, adding chemistry to their offense as the season went along. Parker hasn’t provided a timeline for how much longer she hopes to play basketball professionally, or if she wishes to play at all. But Parker has nothing left to prove, and she seems to know this. With a 16-year career under her belt and three WNBA Championships to her name, Parker’s return hinges mostly on her comfort and desire to spend time with her family. 

“If I’m healthy I’m going to play, but I’m not gonna play in pain anymore,” Parker told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America in November. “It’s too important — the trick-or-treating, the crossing over my kids — it’s too important.” 

Parker provided no update on the condition of her foot, but in the video interview by TMZ Sports, she was seen walking without a boot and without any assistance. 

While WNBA fans would surely like to see a farewell tour for Parker, she hopes that people focus on the future of the game. 

“The game of basketball is in amazing hands, regardless,” Parker said. “If you see NCAA women, if you see the WNBA, the level that these young ladies are taking the game to is exciting and I’m just happy that now we have the visibility and the platform to do it.”

The Las Vegas Aces want to take their talents to a different type of game –”Family Feud.”

On Sunday, Kiah Stokes posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the game show, asking if there was any way the two-time reigning WNBA champions could be featured as contestants. She even wanted to take the pitch directly to host Steve Harvey.

“Can we go on ‘Family Feud’??” she wrote, speaking about the Aces. “Who got Steve’s number?”

The Aces have had quite the championship tour, which already has included attending Usher’s residency in Las Vegas. And everyone – including the Aces’ social media admin – appeared to be on board with a potential “Family Feud” appearance.

“Let’s goooooo!! I’m down someone let Steve know!!” A’ja Wilson wrote.

“Count me in!!!!” Alysha Clark added.

“Oh yeah I guess I shoulda asked if y’all would be down,” Stokes responded.

Meanwhile, the Aces kept tweeting out Steve Harvey reactions with various captions, including calling out Sydney Colson – whose answers would undoubtedly warrant a classic Harvey reaction.

“We would be doin’ the most,” Colson wrote Monday.

At this point in Caitlin Clark’s career, it’s not a matter of if she broke an NCAA record – it’s which record she broke.

The Iowa guard’s 35-point performance in the Hawkeyes’ 113-90 win against Drake on Sunday marked her 39th career game with at least 30 points. That number breaks Kelsey Plum’s record for the most in Division I women’s college hoops history. She also had 10 assists, 6 rebounds and 7 steals – an all-around performance from the reigning national player of the year.

With just one more 30-plus point game, Clark will match the overall NCAA record, set by Detroit’s Antoine Davis last season. With her pace so far (31.0 points per game through five games), she seems likely to break the record.

Perhaps more important to Clark, though, was the rebounding performance from the Hawkeyes, as well as teammate Kate Martin posting a career high in points after going scoreless in the previous game, a 68-58 loss to Kansas State.

“I thought everyone responded really well,” Clark said. “People want to beat you. You’re the Iowa Hawkeyes. You were in the Final Four last year. You have a target on your back, but this group just worries about what’s in our locker room. We knew Thursday wasn’t who we are.

“Tonight, we got back to who we are.”

Another impressive note about Clark’s record is that many of her 30-plus point performances have come against top-tier opponents. The senior has averaged 29.6 points per game against AP top-10 opponents in her career, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Most recently, she hung 44 points on then-No. 8 Virginia Tech on Nov. 9.

Candace Parker wants to play another WNBA season, but only if she is fully healthy, she told Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America.”

The two-time WNBA MVP missed the second half of the 2023 season after undergoing surgery to repair a foot fracture in July. Before the surgery, the 37-year-old started in the first 18 games of the season for the Las Vegas Aces, averaging 9.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

“I’m coming off a foot surgery. If I’m healthy, I’m going to play. But I’m not going to play in pain anymore,” she said Thursday.

She shared the same sentiment in an interview with the Associated Press, noting that she played on her injured foot throughout the first half of the 2023 season. She is still rehabbing the injury, and she has other priorities: “I want to be able to go out to the beach. I love playing beach volleyball. I don’t know if one more season is worth risking that.”

Parker enters the offseason as a free agent. She signed a one-year deal with the Aces ahead of the 2023 season.

“If I’m healthy, I’m going to play, but the game of basketball is in amazing hands regardless,” she told Roberts.

Parker saw the future of the game up close as a member of the Aces. While she had to watch from the sidelines as the Las Vegas Aces won the championship, she spent the season working alongside head coach Becky Hammon, who won her second title in as many years, and A’ja Wilson, who took home the Finals MVP award.

“I realized why they’re a first-class organization: Becky Hammon, the way she brings everybody together; A’ja, I was extremely proud of the leader she’s been all season; Chelsea Gray; Kelsey Plum — go down the line,” Parker said. “I just was really happy to be a part of that.

“And it’s extremely humbling to do it from the sideline, from a different vantage point, but it was so special to see the adversity that the team was able to overcome.”

Parker is preparing for the debut of her documentary, “Candace Parker: Unapologetic,” which will premiere at 9 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN.

For two years in a row, the Las Vegas Aces have ended the WNBA season as champions. Yet only after the Aces’ second title did Kelsey Plum finally allow herself to reflect on the accomplishment.

“I feel like for the first time in my career, I really have allowed it to soak in,” Plum told Just Women’s Sports.

That catharsis showed in the raucous celebrations after Las Vegas became the first team to win back-to-back titles since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002. From a parade down the Strip to a personalized concert invitation from Usher, the Aces did not hold back in sharing their joy.

“We have a lot of fun together,” Plum said. “And I think that’s why people really love watching us play, because that kind of permeates onto the court.

“I’m not going to lie, it was a long year for everyone, not just collectively but individually. And so I think that people let loose a little bit when we finally won, which, to me, I wasn’t mad at. I thought it was awesome.”

To reach that point, the Aces first had to do battle with the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals. And while both teams sniped at each other after the series, Plum called the attention and the rivalry “great for the game.” In particular, she pointed to the buy-in from both franchises, which paid off on the court.

“The incredible investment that both franchises have made have just put the W in a different place,” she said. “And I think that it’s really just elevated the league overall. And that’s the biggest win out of all of it.”

After the WNBA Finals and ensuing celebrations, Plum faced a quick turnaround for USA Basketball’s fall training camp, which is being held from Nov. 7-9 in Atlanta. The 40-game WNBA season and deep playoff run presented what she called a “brutal” challenge.

“So I think it’s done a number on my body,” she said. “At the same time, USA Basketball is very important to me. We’ve been training for this since — shoot, I mean, forever, it feels like.”

Plum won Olympic gold as part of Team USA’s 3×3 team at the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo. Now, she is primed to compete for a roster spot on the traditional 5×5 team for the 2024 Games in Paris.

After the USA Basketball camp, Plum will turn her attention to the rest of the offseason. And her competitive streak will come in handy as she partners with DICK’S Sporting Goods for their Holiday Shopping Sprint.

One lucky winner will team up with Plum for a frantic three-minute, $5,000 shopping spree. Plum remembers trips to DICK’S with her father for Spalding TF-1000 basketballs, but she’ll let her teammate lay out the shopping list this holiday season.

“I’m just a soldier in this fight, so whatever they tell me, whether that’s socks, shoes — now I will say, I’m not going to grab anything but Under Armour shoes,” said Plum, who inked a deal with that brand in 2022. “So if they want something else, I can’t help them with that. But everything else, I got them.

“I’m going to wear the best shoes I’ve got, I’m going to be hydrated. I’m taking this very, very, very seriously. … We’re not leaving anything on the table.”

When it comes to Halloween, A’ja Wilson always aces the assignment.

The 2023 WNBA Finals MVP dressed as all five characters from “Codename: Kids Next Door,” an animated series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2002 to 2006. She pulled off a similarly impressive costume in 2022, when she dressed as all five characters from “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”

And she was far from the only name from women’s sports to get in on the Halloween action. Here are some of the standout costumes from the holiday.

A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces

Wilson doesn’t skimp on the details for “Operation: H.A.L.L.O.W.E.E.N.” Just take a look at her Instagram gallery, which shows the costumed Aces star next to each character.

Kerry Washington, actress

The 46-year-old actress, best known for her role as Olivia Pope in “Scandal,” dressed as American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson — or in this case, Sha’Kerry. Richardson won the world title in the 100-meter dash in August.

San Diego Wave

The No. 1 seed in the NWSL playoffs, the Wave are preparing for Sunday’s semifinal against OL Reign. But that didn’t stop them from celebrating Halloween.

Shae Yanez stole the show, dressing up as head coach Casey Stoney, cooler and all. Other costumes included Meggie Dougherty Howard as Wednesday Addams, and Madison Pogarch and Christen Westphal combining for a tribute to painter Bob Ross.

Morgan Weaver, Portland Thorns

The 26-year-old forward showed up for training dressed as Harry Potter — and assistant coach Robert Gale stepped in as Draco Malfoy. No. 2 seed Portland is preparing to host Gotham FC in the NWSL semifinals.

Ghosts of Halloween costumes past

In addition to the new crop of costumes, we brought back some of the best from past years, including Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis, Lynn Williams, Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux and more.