Packed house at TD Garden for WNBA game prompts calls for a Boston team

BOSTON — Thousands packed TD Garden for the WNBA game Tuesday night as the Indiana Fever took on the Connecticut Sun.

Caitlin Clark’s “22″ jersey could be seen everywhere outside the Garden on women, young girls and even men.

Players like Clark are changing the game for young basketball players.

“I feel like it’s just making women’s sports taken seriously, like even our age stuff, people take us more seriously because of all these people leading the way, I guess,” said Lyla Minichino, who plays high school basketball.

Last year the Connecticut Sun made history by playing its first ever WNBA game at TD Garden, and it was sold out to more than 19,000 fans.

Tuesday’s game may top that.

“We have Caitlin Clark obviously that is holding the torch, but all of the athletes before her have done all the grunt work and I think it’s time to celebrate women in Boston,” said Dina Gentile, a professor of Sport Management at Endicott College.

Governor Maura Healey says crowds like this show it’s time to bring a WNBA team to Boston.

Many outside the game agree.

“I think the time is right you can see the energy, the excitement, the venue is large enough to host women’s professional basketball – just added women’s professional soccer back into Boston, so it makes sense to have basketball and soccer here,” said Gentile.

The governor also signed a proclamation Tuesday calling it “WNBA Day in Boston” as she pushes for the city to get its own team one day.

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