Report: Indianapolis named host of 2025 WNBA All-Star Game
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Indianapolis has been chosen to host the 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend, according to news reports.
The selection, which could be formally announced as soon as Thursday, marks the first time the city has been picked to host the event. The selection was reported by ESPN, which cited anonymous sources. The game is expected to be hosted at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and feature multiple days of events, including a skills competition and three-point contest.
Indianapolis hosted the NBA All-Star game in February, which would make the WNBA pick for next year’s event only the third time since the league’s founding in 1999 that a city has been named as host of both midseason events in back-to-back years.
The Indiana Fever have been in the spotlight since drafting Caitlin Clark No. 1 overall in the WNBA draft in April. The move has sparked immense interest in the franchise during the first half of the season, including numerous sellouts at home and on the road.
At least 38 of the team’s 40 regular-season games this season have been or will be televised nationally, with 10 of those broadcasts so far setting WNBA viewership records.
Clark has already set several milestones in her rookie season, with a league-record 19 assists in a single game and as the first WNBA rookie to notch a triple-double (double-digit statistics in three categories in on game). She leads the WNBA in assists and is on pace to set the league’s all-time assist record for a season. Clark also has broken the record for the most turnovers in a single season.
Indianapolis’ selection as host for next year comes on the heels of the July’s All-Star game between the Team USA and a roster of WNBA players that included three Indiana Fever players in Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. Clark was the game’s leading vote-getter, with 700,735 votes, followed by Boston with 618,680. Clark set a rookie record for assists in the game, with 10.
The contest became the most watched WNBA All-Star game in history, drawing 3.44 million viewers. The previous record was 1.44 million viewers in 2003.
The projected economic impact of the 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend is not immediately clear. The 2024 game drew a sellout crowd of 16,407 to Footprint Center in Phoenix, making it the most-attended WNBA All-Star Game since 2007. The 2023 game in Las Vegas drew fewer than 10,000 spectators, as did the 2022 game in Chicago.