Caitlin Clark sees Taylor Swift concert ahead of election amid shared Chiefs fandom, different voting messages
Caitlin Clark elected not to play in Europe this offseason, so now she has the chance to vote in person on Tuesday after enjoying some big-ticket American entertainment.
Clark showed up at a Taylor Swift Eras tour concert at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Friday night, sharing photos of the event on her Instagram.
Clark was even seen sharing friendship bracelets – a staple of Swift's fanbase – with other attendees.
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Clark was noticeably distant from the stage, having to settle for a seat in the outer section. The starting ticket price for Friday's concert was around $2,000 before fees, across various vendors. However, the starting price plummeted in the days leading up to the concert to just $1,271 before fees by Friday morning, on Vivid Seats.
Clark's WNBA salary for 2024 was $76,535. However, she is estimated to have made much more from other revenue sources. But even if she hadn't splurged for a front-row ticket, Clark got the chance to witness a figure in music to whom she has been compared as an ascendant sports figure.
Clark was recently placed right next to Swift on the cover of Time Magazine's recent Inspiring Women special edition issue that featured eight women in positions of leadership, including multiple athletes. Clark and Swift were the only two figures on the top row, and Clark was the most highly placed athlete above veteran sports icons Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe.
A recent viral resurfacing of a social media post that Clark sent while in college has brought the fan bases of the two figures together as well.
"Taylor Swift welcome to the good side," Clark wrote Sept. 24, 2023, in a post on X with the hashtag "Chiefs Kingdom."
Clark has said multiple times that she is a life-long Kansas City Chiefs fan. She originally made the post right after Swift went public with her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce in September 2023.
That influx of interest in Clark by Swift fans occurred after a controversial podcast episode that was conducted by Clark's arch-rival Angel Reese in October.
Reese, who has played emotional, high-stakes games against Clark dating back to college and has made off-the-court comments about Clark's fans, hosted Kelce's ex-girlfriend Kayla Nicole, who is a promotional model, media personality, on-air host and entertainment journalist on Instagram. Nicole's comments on the podcast prompted backlash by Swift fans with multiple viral posts declaring their allegiance to Clark in the heated women's basketball rivalry against Reese.
INSIDE CAITLIN CLARK AND ANGEL REESE'S IMPACT ON MEN'S BASKETBALL
Clark has also been linked to Swift's political beliefs.
Earlier in Clark's rookie season, she liked Swift's Instagram post that announced the singer's endorsement of Kamala Harris on Sept. 10.
However, Clark did not endorse a candidate herself when asked about liking Swift's endorsement of Harris. Clark instead responded with a message about the importance of telling people to vote.
"I think, for myself, I have this amazing platform," she said told reporters at an Indiana Fever team press conference on Sept. 11. "So, I think the biggest thing would be is to encourage people to register to vote. I think this is the second time I could vote in an election. That’s the biggest thing I can do with the platform that I have – the same thing Taylor did.
"And I think, continue to educate yourself on the candidates that we have, policies that they’re supporting. I think that’s the biggest thing you can do. And that’s what I would recommend to every single person that has the opportunity in our country."
Swift has endorsed Democratic candidates dating back to 2018, when she endorsed Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections in Tennessee. She then endorsed Biden in 2020 before endorsing Harris in 2024.
Clark was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and played at Iowa before she turned pro and was drafted by the Fever. Her parents, Anne and Brent, have three children, as Caitlin is the middle child between her two brothers, Blake and Colin. Her parents are life-long Iowa natives. Former President Donald Trump won six electoral votes in Iowa in the 2020 election. However, most of the votes in Polk County, where Des Moines is located, went to Biden.
However, Clark has also been called a "right-wing symbol" by popular sports journalist and talk show host Skip Bayless, and other WNBA players have accused her fan base of racism. Those players include Reese and Connecticut Sun players Alyssa Thomas and DiJonai Carrington.
Still, a recent YouGov study found Clark is among the most popular basketball players in the world in 2024, ranking among athletes like LeBron James and Stephen Curry, and Clark's followers include large numbers of men and women. The "Caitlin Clark effect" became universally adopted by media outlets over the last year to describe the impact that Clark had on women's basketball at the college and pro levels.
This year's WNBA draft, in which the Indiana Fever selected Clark with the first overall pick, averaged 2.45 million viewers, the most in WNBA draft history and the most-watched WNBA telecast since 2000. The top 15 most-watched WNBA games of the regular season have all included Clark. She helped the league draw record TV audiences for games played at the same time as NFL games.
The Fever's new president of basketball and business operations, Kelly Krauskopf, said she wants to make the Fever's brand like the tech company Apple, during her introductory press conference on Tuesday.
"We have a foundational player in Caitlin Clark, and we're going to continue to add to that. But I want this team to be a leader in the country and an enduring brand like Apple. We have a real opportunity here," Krauskopf said.
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