And She's Off! Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever Home Debut Has An Indy 500 Feel To It

Caitlin, start your engine.

The Indy 500 is just over two weeks away. The Indiana Pacers host game six of their Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks in the NBA Playoffs Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, trailing 3-2. 

And tonight, the Indiana Fever and rookie Caitlin Clark, the top scorer in NCAA men's and women's basketball history, play their WNBA regular season home debut against New York Liberty in front of what is expected to be a near capacity crowd of 18,000 at Gainbridge (7 p.m., Amazon Prime, WTHR Channel 13 in Indianapolis).

Indiana Fever point guard Caitlin Clark drives against Connecticut in the Fever's regular season opener on the road Tuesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. (Getty Images)

"Tickets are still available," an operator at the Gainbridge box office told OutKick on Thursday afternoon. "There are a couple at the bottom, a few at the middle and upper levels. The six dollar seats have been sold out."

Caitlin Clark Home Opener A Bargain

Yes, fans could buy tickets to see Clark's Fever debut for just $6 in recent days. That may be the best sports bargain in America on Thursday. NHL Playoff tickets for the New York Rangers at Carolina (7 p.m., TNT) and Edmonton at Vancouver (10 p.m., TNT) were between $150 and $200. Game six of the Denver-Minnesota Western Conference semifinal in the NBA Playoffs (8:35 p.m., ESPN) tonight were available at $65 to $70.

Other Fever-Liberty prices late Thursday ranged from $38 to $177. Tickets have gone for as high as $1,500 on SeatGeek and StubHub, while Ticketmaster was selling some at $1,525. Tickets for the Knicks at Indiana on Friday are going for an average over $470.

The place to be appears to be Indy.

"The whole city feels very sporty," Indy driver Conor Daly told the Associated Press. "That's the best way to put it."

Indy driver Conor Daly of Noblesville, Indiana, is a new Indiana Fever fan because of Caitlin Clark. (Getty Images)

A native of Noblesville, which is 27 miles north of Indianapolis, Daly will be wearing an Indy-themed helmet in the Indy 500 that sports the Fever logo. He is also a Fever season ticket holder as of last month when the Fever took Clark out of Iowa with the first pick of the WNBA Draft.

"The electricity," Daly marveled. "Every time I turn on ESPN, there's something about the Pacers or Caitlin Clark. It's just awesome to be here right now."

RELATED: Indiana Fever Packed Them In For Exhibition Game

The Fever drew 13,028 for a preseason home game just last week for an 83-80 win over the Atlanta Dream.

"Our preseason game was tremendous, and now we get to play for real," Clark said after the Fever dropped their regular season opener Tuesday to the Connecticut Sun, 92-71, in front of a sell-out crowd of 8,910 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Incasville. That was the first sellout for an opener there since 2003.

The Atlanta Dream, meanwhile, anticipated huge crowds for its home games against Indiana on June 21 and Aug. 26. And it just announced that those games will be moved from the Dream's usual home at 3,500-seat Gateway Center Arena to the home of the Atlanta Hawks - 16,888-seat State Farm Arena. That's called the Caitlin Clark Effect. 

TV Ratings: Caitlin Clark Continues To Be Must-See TV

Clark's opener at Connecticut also drew an average of 2.13 million viewers on ESPN2, despite going up against the Pacers-Knicks game on TNT. And it was the most watched WNBA game of any kind since May 28, 2001, when the Los Angeles Sparks and Houston Comets played before an average of 2.45 million on NBC on Memorial Day.

"It's just going to be loud," Clark said. "We're going to need to use the environment to our advantage. Embrace it and enjoy it."

Clark also hopes the home crowd improves her game. She struggled at times on Tuesday. She scored 20 points, but on 5-of-15 shooting with seven misses out of 11 from 3-point range. And she committed 10 turnovers with only three assists and no rebounds.

"I'm disappointed," she said. "And nobody likes to lose, but I don't think you can beat yourself up too much about one game. I don't think that's going to help this team. Just learn from it and move on. A few things have to be crisper. Getting more comfortable - that's just going to come with experience."