For the first time in the history of almost three decades of American professional women’s basketball, its star players have become familiar names. What would it be for them to be paid accordingly?
While heating up recently for the Wnba All-Star game, the players wore t-shirts that read Pay us what you owe usIn reference to negotiations under collective negotiation between players and the league. Until this time, there had not been a lot of buzz on WNBA negotiations, but the shirts had their expected result, taking the fight of the players’ work. While the WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, presented the MVP Prize for the All-Star game to Napheesa Collier, fans inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis have Hué Engelbert and sung“Pay them!”
Apart from the arena, however, the reaction was more mixed. While the WNBA has become a trendy subject on X and national experts began to weigh, many have proven not to share the perspective of game fans. Dan Hollaway, co-host of the Podcast Drinking,, poster On X, that players should really reimburse the team owners, given the unwinding of the league: “Ladies, you must, not the other way around.” Another criticism of players’ efforts has been seen almost 40 million times. “Imagine being an employee in a company that has never made a profit and presenting themselves to work in these shirts”, ” Jason Howrton wrote.
Many criticisms cited A New York Post article From last October, reporting that, despite the explosive WNBA growth in 2024 – which was punctuated by the arrival of the feeling of the Indiana Caitlin Clark fever – The League should lose $ 40 million that year. A source close to the situation declared the Job The fact that the NBA, which has a large part of the female league, was impartial as to the non-activity of the WNBA.
The timing of JobThe report was interesting. He came three days before the WNBA players’ union announcement that he moved from the current collective barge agreement. To a certain extent, this is part of the game that takes place whenever there are labor tensions between players and owners. During the Lock-out NBA 2011, the owners claimed That they were on the right track to lose $ 300 million this season and have suffered similar defeats since 2005. A more in -depth analysis has shown It was not true and that the league was actually profitable.
To be fair, the claims that the WNBA has not been able to make a profit during its 28 years of existence is more credible. During this period of time, the owners of the NBA spent a considerable sum of money to maintain the League afloat. But these expenses were not charity; It was an investment. And the investment is very clearly about to bear fruit.
The 30 NBA team owners have 42% of the WNBA; Another 42% is controlled by private ownership of the WNBA, and the remaining 16% belong to an investment group that stimulated A capital infusion of $ 75 million in 2022. Among the notable names of this investment group are the former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, The Boston Globe CEO Linda Henry, and Michael and Susan Dell.
The capital increase was so great because investors could see what was going to happen. The WNBA profile had already increased regularly. Then came Clark, whose presence – and the rivalry with his compatriot Star rising Angel Reese, from the sky of Chicago – is about to raise the WNBA financially beyond the expectations of anyone.
Last year established popularity records for WNBA at all levels, and growth shows no signs of slowdown. In 2024, ESPN, the main television partner of the League, saw a 170% Boost in the hearing. Global ratings increased by 23% this year. Ticket sales increased by 26% and sales of goods increased by 40%.
The largest figure is $ 2.2 billion. It is the value of the agreement with the 11 -year -old media rights that the WNBA obtained last year, which begins in 2026. It includes partnerships with Disney (ESPN’s Parent Company), Prime Video and NBC Universal. The league also signed a separate transaction With Ion Television to Air Games on Friday evening. The terms have not been disclosed, but the reports assumed that between the two transactions, the WNBA has a multimedia package worth almost $ 3 billion in the next decade.
This colossal source of income helps to explain the immense evaluations of WNBA franchises.
The WNBA will add five expansion teams by 2030. The owners in the three cities that have so far obtained a franchise – Detroit, Philadelphia and Cleveland – have cost the fees of $ 250 million each to reach the League. Ten of the 13 existing WNBA teams are assessed at 200 million dollars Or more. The Golden State Valkyries at the top of the list, about $ 500 million. The Valkyries, which, in 2023, became the first WNBA expansion team in 17 years, are the first professional women’s sports team to have been valued. They also lead the present league – a sign that the popularity of sport does not depend on Clark.
With such disproportionate growth in the League, the fact that WNBA players currently receive 9.3% of the total league income is embarrassing. (This is equivalent to around $ 78,000 for Clark and a little less for Reese, which are still on their recruit contracts, and a little more than $ 249,000 for the highest paid veterans in the league.) By comparison, the players of the NBA, the LNA and the NFL receive all half of the income related to their league. Even in the ultimate combat championship – which has a Unpleasant story Under -paid his fighters – athletes receive 16 to 20% of income. The WNBA is not yet as great as these leagues, and its players have never said that they should be paid as much as Patrick Mahomes or LeBron James. Their argument is only that they deserve a similar proportion of income generated by their work.
Each professional sports league has experienced ups and downs, but that never prevented players from demanding and receiving more. The NBA was in such poor condition in the late 1960s and early 1970s that the teams had to pool Money to subsidize the salaries of the best players in the League, notably Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Elvin Hayes. Before the early 1980s, the future of the league was precarious due to rampant medication problems among players and bass television notes. The arrival of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird helped to change it all.
In each sports league, the players had to fight for their value. At 28, the WNBA is undoubtedly in better shape than the NBA in the same stage. As the league develops, players’ salaries should increase with it.
