How Caitlin Clark pulled the boldest NIL deal in women's basketball

INDIANAPOLIS − Caitlin Clark's latest NIL deal is with Gainbridge, and if that sounds logical – if that sounds almost like: Duh – you’re not wrong. But you’re not right, either.

Clark is the all-time NCAA scoring leader for the Iowa Hawkeyes, which you probably know. She’s entering the 2024 WNBA Draft, another thing you know, and it just so happens the Indiana Fever have the No. 1 overall pick in April – and the Fever play at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Again: You know, you know, you know.

What you don’t know, what you need to understand, is the timing and luck, the coincidence, the synergy, that led to Caitlin Clark partnering with Gainbridge before she knew she'd be playing for the Fever.

The timing and luck extends to all of us, to all of Indianapolis, because Clark is going to change things around here. The Fever have averaged less than 5,000 fans per game for several years now – it was 4,067 in 2023, an improvement from 1,776 in 2022 – and even when they were winning the WNBA title in 2012, their average attendance was about 7,500. The Fever has brought business to Downtown, to be sure, but there’s always been room for more.

Caitlin Clark is going to bring a lot more. How much, I cannot say. But I do wonder this: Who will have the bigger crowds next season, the Indiana Fever – or the Indiana Pacers?

Seriously.

That’s the luck, the timing, the synergy, of a generational talent – a once-in-a-lifetime player – like Caitlin Clark entering the 2024 WNBA Draft when our Fever just happen to own the No. 1 overall pick. You don’t dare plan for something like that. You just hope. It requires blind luck, and we got it.

Caitlin Clark signing an NIL deal with Gainbridge, and then calling the Fever’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse home? Also not planned. More blind luck.

Well, almost blind luck.

Life expectancy, and Caitlin Clark's step-back

Minji Ro is looking into her computer camera from the suburbs of New York City, and she’s breaking down Caitlin Clark’s step-back jumper, and she’s doing a great job for anyone – never mind someone whose playing career peeked at something she calls “the incredible athletic powerhouse of the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois.”

And never mind that Minji Ro’s daytime job is chief strategy officer of Gainbridge, the insurance and annuity company based in Zionsville.

“I recently saw a slo-mo of one of her 3’s,” says Ro, who played club basketball at Northwestern, “and I had not appreciated two things. One, the step-back, her go to move, the amount of ground she covers. It’s easily 4 or 5 feet – unbelievable. The speed from her step-back and then up into her shot is crazy. And then the great shooters, Steph Curry and players like that, they’re almost always square to basket. Caitlin could be square, she could be leaning one way or the other, and it doesn’t matter.

“Obviously,” Minji says, laughing, “I could talk about this for a long time.”

Ro is part of the group that designed the exact Gainbridge investment option – they call it the ParityFlex – Clark will be promoting. Ro calls it an annuity designed by women, for women, but available to anyone. When I ask her to dumb this down for me, to explain how something as seemingly asexual as an annuity can be designed for women, she breaks out an analogy.

“Think about public transportation,” she says. “Public transportation was always designed with men in mind: the weight of doors, the height of handrails. It’s not that it doesn’t work for women – they take public transportation, they can open the doors – but it’s not made for them. Think of this annuity as if the handrails are lower and doors are lighter. It still benefits men, but it’s made for women.”

Dumb it down more, I’m telling her. How can an annuity be made for women?

“It was created with women in mind, but available to anyone, with this as an example,” she says. “The ParityFlex has a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit: We will pay you a fixed amount every single year that you’re alive. Even if you live long enough that you eat into all that you have invested, we will continue to pay your income at the regular rate. We are taking on that risk. That’s not new, but most products you have to pay for that to get it. Here, it’s automatic.”

Dumb it down some more, I’m saying.

“It’s about the life expectancy of women,” she says. “They’re living longer than men by five to seven years (5.8 years, according to the CDC), and the gap is growing. When we survey women, they have a lot of anxiety around retirement and finances and outliving their male partners. That’s an example of something designed for women.”

She made it make sense. Now, let’s see if I can do the same with the not entirely coincidental, but not entirely planned connection between Caitlin Clark, Gainbridge and Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Billie Jean King, Annika Sorenstam, Caitlin Clark

The CEO of Gainbridge’s parent company, Group 1001, was ahead of the curve. Dan Towriss is his name – Ball State class of 1994, and before that, Muncie Central class of 1990 – and he saw the breakthrough of women’s sports, the marketing influence of female athletes, a bit before most of us. When he went looking for sports ambassadors, he pursued two of the most recognizable names, male or female: Billie Jean King and Annika Sorenstam.

Hence, the LPGA Tour event called “The Annika Driven By Gainbridge,” held in November at Belleair, Fla. And the World Cup of Tennis going by the name “The Billie Jean King Cup.”

Gainbridge partners with male athletes as well, of course. It’s the presenting sponsor of the Indianapolis 500 and the primary sponsor of the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Gainbridge Honda driven by Colton Herta, but those have come later. In the case of Gainbridge, the ladies came first.

Which brings us to Caitlin Clark.

Gainbridge wanted her – Towriss wanted her – before anyone knew she’d be playing for the Fever in 2024. Gainbridge wanted her before anyone knew she'd be in the WNBA in 2024. This whole thing started as an NIL deal that would follow her from Iowa to whatever team drafted her, whenever that happened.

Negotiations started well before the Fever won the 2024 WNBA Draft Lottery in December, and were locked up before Friday, when Clark announced she was leaving Iowa after the season to enter the WNBA Draft. Minji Ro tells me the company found out Clark was entering the draft, and would be calling Gainbridge Fieldhouse home, at the same time as the rest of us.

“Obviously we were hoping that to be the case,” Ro says, “but I swear on my children’s lives I had no idea. We are a nationally focused company. We already have deep ties to Indianapolis – Gainbridge Fieldhouse, title sponsor of the Indianapolis 500 – but our signing Caitlin was meant to be a nationally branded campaign. The timing of this is more luck than anything.”

Not all of it, though. Gainbridge and Clark chose this week to announce their partnership because the Big Ten women’s tournament starts Wednesday at Minneapolis.

“She sells out every single time she plays,” Ro says. “It doesn’t matter home or away. This year is the first time the Big Ten women’s tournament is completely sold out.

“She’s a national icon,” Ro continues. “I saw a stat this morning that said six TV networks have set women’s basketball viewership records, and they’re all Caitlin Clark games. Her coming to the Fever isn’t why we partnered with her at Gainbridge, but we’re thrilled she’ll be playing at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.”

It’s the perfect storm, I say, proud of myself. Ro smiles and does a little better.

“The Storm is another WNBA team,” she says. “Maybe you should say ‘the perfect Fever.’”

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.

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