Caitlin Clark to sign new Nike deal valued at $28 million over 8 years, reports say

Caitlin Clark seems to be on the cusp of setting one other document.

Essentially the most prolific scorer in NCAA Division I historical past and the No. 1 general choose within the WNBA draft will proceed her affiliation with Nike by signing a $28 million contract that spans eight years and features a signature shoe.

The Wall Avenue Journal and The Athletic reported the pending deal, citing unnamed folks conversant in the negotiations between the sportswear large and Clark’s brokers.

Excel Sports activities Administration, which represents Clark, declined to remark. Nike didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from The Related Press.

Clark’s preliminary title, picture and likeness deal, signed in 2022, expired on the finish of the 2023-24 season.

The brand new deal could be the richest sponsorship contract for a girls’s basketball participant.

Underneath Armour and Adidas additionally participated in contract discussions with Clark’s workforce in February, based on the WSJ and Athletic. Puma additionally confirmed some curiosity however walked away when informed the bidding would begin at $3 million per 12 months, based on the WSJ.

Clark obtained gives of $16 million over 4 years from Underneath Armour and $6 million over 4 years from Adidas, with each together with a signature shoe, based on the WSJ.

Clark earned about $3 million in NIL cash at Iowa with offers she has had with State Farm, Gatorade and others, based on On3.com.

Clark’s brokers had been engaged on the brand new Nike contract even earlier than she introduced she would flip professional as an alternative of return to Iowa for a fifth season below the COVID-19 exemption provided to gamers in faculty throughout the 2020 pandemic season.

After averaging 31.6 factors and main the Hawkeyes to a second straight nationwide championship sport, Clark was drafted No. 1 by the Indiana Fever on April 15. She’ll earn a $76,000 wage as a rookie.

She’s been the primary driver for the dramatic uptick in girls’s basketball curiosity along with her mixture of deep 3-point pictures, flashy thread-the-needle passes and general courtroom presence. A girls’s basketball-record 18.9 million viewers watched Iowa’s loss to South Carolina within the NCAA title sport, and a WNBA-record 2.45 million watched the draft.

Of the Fever’s 40 video games this season, 36 will likely be nationally televised, and ticket gross sales have skyrocketed across the league.

Her marketability is enhanced by her polished performances in media settings, and her shock look on “Saturday Evening Reside” two weeks in the past was extensively acclaimed and uncovered her to a fair wider viewers.

The reported eight-year contract with Nike reveals the sportswear large’s dedication. At 22, Clark may play properly over a decade within the WNBA and she or he might be on the U.S. roster for the Olympics in Paris this 12 months, in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane, Australia, in 2032.

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