INDIANAPOLIS— On Thursday afternoon, Michelle Cassaday is in her Florida hotel room before she boards a plane to Indianapolis Friday morning.
“I do it every year,” said Cassaday.
Cassaday is referring to going to an Indiana Fever game.
“Try to make it to a few games. I’ll be at the one on the 17th and 20th,” said Cassaday.
The game on Saturday, May 17th is the season opener for the Fever. Before retiring to Florida, Cassaday worked for the team for 10 years, starting in 1999.
“I interviewed with Kelly Krauskopf. I told her, 'Kelly, I gotta tell ya I know absolutely nothing about basketball,' and she said I’m not hiring you to play, so that's how it started,” said Cassaday.
Cassaday is not the only one traveling to see the Fever play this season. Penny Van Nostrand has been a season ticket holder for seven years. She moved to Ohio this year and will drive six hours to see them play.
“It’s our vice. We don’t do a lot of other things, what we do is we do basketball,” Van Nostrand.
Van Nostrand has watched the WNBA since the 90s and was thrilled to see what happened last year.
“It was unbelievable.”
The people that the WNBA and the Fever are bringing together is even more incredible. Van Nostrand and Cassaday are not the only ones traveling long distances.
“Every game, we sit next to someone from somewhere else. The girl who sat next to us at the last game, she and her mom drove 10 hours overnight to get to the game after her prom,” said Van Nos Strand.
According to StubHub, WNBA ticket sales are up 145% and Fever ticket sales are six times higher than they were last year.
“I’m just thrilled. I’m thrilled for all the teams because they’re all getting more popular and more viewers and it’s just a fantastic experience seeing it all unfold,” said Cassaday.
“It’s amazing what last year did for basketball because we’ve been around it for decades and this is the most unbelievable thing that we’ve seen,” said Van Nostrand.
