Within days of the most-watched NCAA Women’s Final Four in history, Charlotte (N.C.) Sports Foundation executive director Danny Morrison had an idea to meet his core objective of bringing a high-profile basketball game to boost the local economy and add to the Queen City’s quality of life.
His board immediately agreed, as did a title sponsor and a television network. It took some time, but so did the teams. Today, the inaugural “Ally Tipoff” becomes official with an intersectional clash on Nov. 9
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Iowa, the NCAA runner-up, has become the biggest draw in women’s college basketball and will bring national player of the year Caitlin Clark to Charlotte. The Hawkeyes’ opponent? Defending ACC champion and fellow Final Four participant Virginia Tech, which has its own elite talent in two-time ACC player of the year Elizabeth Kitley.
An ESPN network will televise the game. Ally Financial has signed on as a title sponsor. Iowa will receive $150,000 to participate, plus $50,000 to cover travel expenses. Virginia Tech’s payout is undisclosed.
“Internally, we said we think this would be an amazing event to bring to Charlotte,” Morrison said. “We thought that if we could get two of the Final Four teams with Iowa being the anchor, that this would be a compelling matchup.”
The scenario couldn’t be more perfect for any of the entities. Blacksburg, Va., is located 175 miles from Charlotte, and organizers believe Hokies’ fans will flock to this game. Within two weeks of its Final Four appearance, Virginia Tech sold out of its home women’s basketball reserved seating.
Iowa has become the sport’s traveling rock show, especially with Clark. Last season, the Hawkeyes set the Big Ten record in average attendance at 11,142. Even more impressive, Iowa led the nation with eight games above 13,000 fans. At Big Ten road venues, Iowa’s nine opponents averaged 3,482 more fans over their season average. The Hawkeyes halted season-ticket sales for the upcoming year because demand far exceeded the supply. When a home nonconference game against Cleveland State on Dec. 16 was moved to Des Moines — two hours west of Iowa City — available tickets were sold out in 90 minutes.
“We felt like with the success of the Iowa team and spotlight on Caitlin Clark, to have an opportunity to bring them to this area of the country and highlight that game of against a great opponent in Virginia Tech, a Final Four opponent, (was great),” Morrison said. “We worked with Iowa on dates that would work for Iowa, and once we secured those dates, we were able to bring Virginia Tech in.
“We’re just absolutely thrilled with the matchup to have two Final Four teams. Not only do you have the high profile of Caitlin Clark, but you got a team at Virginia Tech that basically returns everybody, including the two-time ACC player of the year.”
Landing the game
As effortless as it was to convince his board to pursue the game, Morrison met a similar reaction when he met with Ally Financial, which has its corporate headquarters in Charlotte. Ally began offering sports sponsorships in 2018 with the National Women’s Soccer League and has continued it with title sponsorships of ACC women’s basketball, lacrosse and soccer and other exclusive ACC partnerships.
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Last summer, Ally Financial made a 50-50 pledge to spend equal amounts on advertising and sponsorships for men’s and women’s sports. This game helps enhance the company’s mission.
“It was an easy business decision for us,” said Stephanie Marciano, the head of Ally sports and entertainment marketing. “It’s perfectly aligned with our sports strategy to continue to drive, access and invest in access for women’s sports. The fact that they also had Virginia Tech, the ACC champs, playing in the game with our partnership with the ACC, there’s a perfect alignment there. Obviously, we have a national strategy around women’s sports right now to impact the entire landscape for women’s sports, and we are doing that every single day.
“We’re blown away as well that they were able to bring Iowa to match up against Virginia Tech in the city because I played college basketball myself. So I’m a diehard basketball fan. To watch Caitlin Clark and her team play; you’ve got All-Americans on both sides. This is going to be an incredible game.”
Morrison had no problems securing use of the Spectrum Center, home of the Charlotte Hornets. There was a slight challenge related to television; the Big Ten no longer has a contract with ESPN. But as a neutral-site event coupled with the Charlotte Sports Foundation’s ties with the league — a Big Ten football team appears in Charlotte’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl every other year through 2024 — that potential road block was averted.
The game
Both teams return experience and expectations from last season’s NCAA Tournament runs. Virginia Tech (31-5, 14-4 ACC) returns its top two scorers in Kitley and Georgia Amoore plus guard Cayla King. Kitley and King will use a fifth year of extra eligibility.
Kitley, who is 6-foot-6, was one of three players averaging 18 points and 10.5 rebounds last year. She is Virginia Tech’s career leader in points, field goals, blocks and double-doubles and is the only athlete in school history named first-team All-ACC three times. Amoore averaged 16.3 points and had 178 assists.
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The Hawkeyes (31-7, 15-3 Big Ten) return all but two starters from its Big Ten tournament title squad. Clark, a 6-foot senior, is at the forefront after sweeping every player of the year honor. With a national-high 1,055 points, Clark broke the Big Ten single-season record and became the first player in women’s basketball history with more than 1,000 points and 300 assists in the same season.
In the NCAA Tournament alone, Clark had 191 points and 60 assists. Through three seasons and 100 games, Clark has 2,717 points. Since 2000, there are six instances of a player having 150 points and 50 assists in any five-game span. Clark has all six. Her 11 triple-doubles rank second in NCAA history. Iowa starting guards Gabbie Marshall and Kate Martin also come back for an extra season.
If Virginia Tech will fill up most of the seats, Iowa will draw the eyeballs. The 2023 NCAA championship featuring Iowa and LSU hit 9.9 million viewers, which was up 103 percent from 2022 and was the most viewed Division I women’s game in history. Five of the Big Ten Network’s six most-viewed women’s basketball games ever featured Iowa, and four took place last season.
“I don’t know if anything’s hotter than women’s college basketball right now, in terms of the numbers they’re delivering,” Marciano said. “This is a tremendously good business right now for everybody involved in women’s sports and women’s basketball.”
Said Morrison: “It’s nice to be lucky. We think it’s the compelling matchup in women’s basketball as we start the year. And to have it here in Charlotte, with a world-class airport and direct flights from most everywhere, we don’t think it could be any more special than that.”
(Top photo of Caitlin Clark: David Berding / Getty Images)
