For the primary time within the almost three-decade historical past of U.S. skilled girls’s basketball, its star gamers have change into family names. What would it not take for them to receives a commission accordingly?
Whereas warming up just lately for the WNBA All-Star Sport, gamers wore T-shirts that learn Pay Us What You Owe Usin reference to the continuing collective-bargaining negotiations between the gamers and the league. Till that time, there had not been a lot buzz in regards to the WNBA’s negotiations, however the shirts had their meant outcome, taking the gamers’ labor struggle mainstream. Because the WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert introduced the All-Star Sport MVP award to Napheesa Collier, followers inside Indianapolis’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse booed Engelbert and chanted“Pay them!”
Exterior the world, nevertheless, the response was extra combined. Because the WNBA grew to become a trending subject on X and nationwide pundits started to weigh in, many turned out to not share the attitude of the followers on the sport. Dan Hollaway, a co-host of the podcast Drinkin ‘bros, posted on X that the gamers ought to truly be paying again the group homeowners, given the league’s unprofitability: “Girls, you owe, not the opposite manner round.” One other submit crucial of the gamers’ efforts was considered almost 40 million occasions. “Think about being an worker at an organization that has NEVER turned a revenue and exhibiting as much as work in these shirts,” Jason Howerton wrote.
Many critics cited a New York Publish article from final October reporting that, regardless of the WNBA’s explosive development in 2024—which was punctuated by the arrival of the Indiana Fever sensation Caitlin Clark—the league was anticipated to lose $40 million that 12 months. A supply near the state of affairs advised the Publish that the NBA, which owns a big share of the ladies’s league, was antsy in regards to the WNBA’s unprofitability.
The timing of the Publish’s report was attention-grabbing. It got here three days earlier than the WNBA gamers’ union introduced that it was opting out of the present collective-bargaining settlement. To a point, that is a part of the gamesmanship that takes place at any time when there may be labor rigidity between gamers and homeowners. Throughout the 2011 NBA lockout, homeowners claimed that they have been on observe to lose $300 million that season and had suffered comparable losses since 2005. Additional evaluation confirmed that this wasn’t true, and that the league was in reality worthwhile.
To be truthful, claims that the WNBA has been unable to show a revenue throughout its 28 years of existence are extra credible. Over that time-frame, NBA homeowners have certainly spent a substantial amount of cash to maintain the league afloat. However that spending wasn’t charity; it was an funding. And the funding could be very clearly about to repay.
The 30 NBA group homeowners personal 42 p.c of the WNBA; one other 42 p.c is managed by non-public WNBA possession, and the remaining 16 p.c belongs to an funding group that stimulated a $75 million capital infusion in 2022. Among the many notable names in that funding group are former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, The Boston Globe CEO Linda Henry, and Michael and Susan Dell.
The capital increase was so massive as a result of traders might see what was coming. The WNBA’s profile had already been rising steadily. Then got here Clark, whose presence—and rivalry with fellow rising star Angel Reese, of the Chicago Sky—is poised to financially elevate the WNBA past anybody’s expectations.
Final 12 months set reputation information for the WNBA throughout the board, and the expansion exhibits no indicators of slowing. In 2024, ESPN, the league’s main tv accomplice, noticed a 170 p.c increase in viewership. General scores are up by 23 p.c this 12 months. Ticket gross sales are up 26 p.c, and merchandise gross sales have elevated by 40 p.c.
An important determine is $2.2 billion. That’s the worth of the 11-year media-rights deal that the WNBA secured final 12 months, which begins in 2026. It consists of partnerships with Disney (ESPN’s guardian firm), Prime Video, and NBC Common. The league additionally signed a separate deal with Ion Tv to air video games on Friday nights. Phrases weren’t disclosed, however stories speculated that between the 2 offers, the WNBA has a media bundle value near $3 billion over the subsequent decade.
This colossal income helps clarify the immense valuations of WNBA franchises.
The WNBA will add 5 growth groups by 2030. Homeowners within the three cities which have up to now been awarded a franchise—Detroit, Philadelphia, and Cleveland—paid a price of $250 million every to affix the league. Ten of the present 13 WNBA groups are valued at $200 million or extra. The Golden State Valkyries high the checklist, at an estimated $500 million. The Valkyries, which in 2023 grew to become the WNBA’s first growth group in 17 years, are the primary girls’s skilled sports activities group to ever be valued that top. In addition they lead the league in attendance—an indication that the game’s reputation doesn’t rely on Clark.
With such outsize development taking place throughout the league, the truth that WNBA gamers at present obtain a mere 9.3 p.c of the league’s complete income is embarrassing. (That works out to about $78,000 for Clark and a bit much less for Reese, who’re nonetheless on their rookie contracts, and simply over $249,000 for the league’s highest-paid veterans.) By comparability, gamers within the NBA, the NHL, and the NFL all obtain about half of their league’s sports-related revenue. Even within the Final Preventing Championship—which has a nasty historical past of underpaying its fighters—the athletes obtain 16 to twenty p.c of the income. The WNBA isn’t but as massive as these leagues, and its gamers have by no means stated they need to be paid as a lot as Patrick Mahomes or LeBron James. Their argument is simply that they deserve an identical proportion of the income generated by their labor.
Each skilled sports activities league has skilled monetary ups and downs, however that has by no means stopped the gamers from demanding and receiving extra. The NBA was in such dangerous form within the late Nineteen Sixties and early ’70s that groups needed to pool collectively cash to subsidize the salaries of the league’s high gamers, together with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Elvin Hayes. Heading into the early ’80s, the league’s future was precarious due to rampant drug issues amongst gamers and low tv scores. The arrival of Magic Johnson and Larry Hen helped change all of that.
In each sports activities league, gamers have needed to struggle for his or her value. At 28 years outdated, the WNBA is arguably in higher form than the NBA was on the identical juncture. Because the league grows, the gamers’ salaries must be rising proper together with it.
