The Caitlin Clark-fueled financial boom in University of Iowa women’s athletics could not survive her departure to the WNBA, as revealed in the school’s latest NCAA financial disclosures for the fiscal year 2025.
In the first academic cycle since Clark left the Hawkeyes, women’s basketball ticket sales plummeted by 27%, from $3,260,451 to $2,366,160. Revenue from the sales of programs, novelties, parking and concession dropped even more sharply—down 40%, from $858,548 to $511,960—while team-specific royalties fell 21% from $470,749 to $370,408.
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The dip in Iowa’s ticket revenue likely clears the way for Connecticut to reclaim its status as the top-earning public women’s basketball program at the gate. The Huskies held that distinction for most of the past decade until Iowa surpassed them in Clark’s senior season. For FY25, UConn reported $4.25 million in women’s basketball sales.
Such post-departure declines are not unusual when a program loses a singular revenue-driving force. When Deion Sanders left Jackson State to coach at Colorado, for example, the Tigers’ football ticket sales fell from $3.2 million to $2 million.
Iowa’s ticket sales have jumped dramatically in the last few years, thanks both to Clark and the sport’s overall commercial growth. In FY22, Clark’s sophomore year, Iowa reported $767,000 in sales. That doubled to $1.44 million in her junior season, then more than doubled again in her final campaign, when Iowa was the only public FBS school whose women’s basketball team outsold its men’s.
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During FY24—Clark’s historic swan song in Iowa City—the Hawkeyes led the country in not only ticket sales but related game-day revenue. Clark was named the country’s top women’s college basketball player for the second consecutive year, and Iowa advanced to the NCAA tournament’s championship game before falling to top-seeded South Carolina.
Last season, with Clark gone and first-year head coach Jan Jensen taking the reins from Lisa Bluder, Iowa finished 23-10 and exited the NCAA Tournament in the second round as a No. 6 seed.
As revenue declined, expenses followed suit. The program’s FY25 operating costs fell 17.6%, from $10.3 million to $8.5 million.
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