Caitlin Clark's Fever Home Preseason Debut Moved Up Due to Pacers' NBA Playoff Game

Tim Capurso | May 3, 2024

Caitlin Clark's preseason debut with the Fever has been moved up a day due to the Pacers' win on Thursday. / Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Caitlin Clark-mania will take over Indiana a day sooner than fans of the WNBA rookie expected.

The Indiana Fever's first home preseason game of the 2024 season—Clark's debut in front of Indiana fans in the WNBA—originally scheduled for Friday, May 10 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, has been moved up to Thursday due to a conflict with the Indiana Pacers, who will be hosting Game 3 of the Eastern conference semifinals against the New York Knicks that night.

"Due to the Pacers home playoff schedule for the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Fever preseason game originally scheduled for Friday, May 10, has been moved to Thursday, May 9, 7 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Tickets for Friday's game will be valid for Thursday's rescheduled date. The game will also be shown on the WNBA app," the team said in a statement posted onto its account on X, formerly Twitter.

The Pacers' win over the Milwaukee Bucks, as well as the Knicks' victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday, led to the scheduling conflict at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the shared home of the Pacers and the Fever.

Clark-mania has taken over the WNBA, as there has been a spike in ticket interest in the Fever, as well as an increase in the number of nationally-televised games the team will play in 2024.

Clark, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, is slated to make her professional basketball debut on Friday night against the Dallas Wings at 8 p.m. ET. The West Des Moines, Ia. native's regular season debut is scheduled for May 14 against the Connecticut Sun at 7:30 p.m. ET.