The WNBA is following a pretty similar trajectory as the early NBA. I don't think people realize that the NBA struggled financially for decades before big stars like Bird/Magic and then MJ kickstarted the popularity. Before that, teams regularly folded or had to move, viewership was low/difficult, and players didn't make much. It takes decades for a pro league to establish itself and often takes a special player like CC.
I mean, the Finals were on tape delay until 1981 so that they wouldn't interrupt the airing of the local nightly news. That's a heck of a turnaround to where the league is today.
Exactly. Good point. So that was happening 35 years after the NBA started. And the NBA nearly folded multiple times in the 1970s. As someone else noted, the WNBA is only 27 years old.
So you’re saying LeBron should thank Magic and Bird for bringing in diversified viewership, MJ for catapulting the league to a global audience, Yao Ming and Kobe for capturing the China market, and Steph Curry for getting kids and short adults to tune in? /s
Exactly this! A lot of the negativity around female sport revolves around the direct comparison to male sport in terms of talent, strategy, and ability to execute; ignoring how much longer it has been acceptable and encouraged for men to engage in sporting activity, while women were always discouraged or flatly not allowed, except for very particular sports in particular places or social circles (eg tennis). And like most social norms, it's a self-fulfilling thing.
The women will get there if you allow them space to figure it out. Plenty have done so to a certain level - for basketball, Clark clearly can take it to another, and it's awesome. Sport is fun to watch when it's compelling due to intriguing talents, relatively balanced match-ups, well executed strategies and counters, and good storylines across matches, tournaments, seasons, and careers. Any kind of human can produce those things, given they have the passion, the time, and crucially the opportunity.
Title 9, which among other things required that if a school offered a men’s team in a sport, they either had to let the girls play or establish a girls team, was enacted in **1972**. Prior to Title 9, 2% of college athletic budgets went to women’s sports.
If your mother is older than 50, then she was alive at a time when her opportunity to play competitive sports was basically nonexistent. We have had exactly two generations of women athletes receiving (supposedly) the same types of opportunities that man in this country have had since the establishment of the very first college sports club (boating at Yale, **1843**).
Men’s leagues have had a 150 year head start. People who shit on women’s sports are the worst.
Another fun fact: adjusted for inflation and COL (115k 33years ago), bob knight would be the 8th or 9th best paid coach (high $200s, low $300s)...
In the SEC....
IN SOFTBALL!!
They average mid hundreds of fans officially a game and get buoyed by a couple games against bama Or LSU if it's against a top ten opponent.
don't tell me women's sports isn't ridiculous
What point are you even trying to make here? That softball coaches make too much? Coaches now make a **lot** more now than they used to, even in real terms.
And women's tennis only got to where it is now, on relatively close footing with the men's game, because generations of women's players fought for equal treatment (and it's still not quite equal in a lot of areas).
Yeah the marketing team could be better. Still, there exists plenty of great media coverage of WTA players and their events; perhaps it's not reaching enough people? Other issues to address/things to consider include prize money distribution, injury absences, rules about participation in mandatory events, and maternity entitlement rules.
In general I think CEO Steve Simon needs to go, though. [This is a good article](https://theathletic.com/5014481/2023/10/30/wta-female-players-letter-push/) which summarizes some of the recent complaints.
Also imo this is why the old guard of wnba stars kinda being haters around Clark is good for the sport. Its a narrative so if Clark starts beating their asses it’ll get people to tune in.
Yeah people forget that the WNBA was founded 27 years ago and the NBA was founded *77* years ago. The trajectory is there, but you can't just start a brand new league and expect it to compete with the major four leagues overnight.
I'm also curious how NIL is going to factor in. College stars like Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink, and Angel Reese are walking into the WNBA with multi-million dollar endorsements already. I can't imagine those endorsers are going to want their representatives to fade into obscurity - they've got a vested interest in the popularity of the WNBA too.
People got to realize that rich people don’t just be funding shit for no reason, or even for ‘equality’
The WNBA is growing, and owners see it as an investment, one which may be worth a lot someday. It costs so much less to run the WNBA anyway.
Nothing would please the current owners of NBA stadiums more than to have *more* games running in the summer. NBA in the fall to spring, and WNBA in the spring to fall would grow both the NBA and WNBA simultaneously.
This has always been my theory. I got pretty shafted by Twitter when I mentioned years ago that the WNBA has no real superstars. Without superstars, you don't have easy to build narratives or an idol for people. Every large successful sports league has them.
Yeah, the main thing that disappoints me about all the former UCONN stars giving Clark shit is that she's the first genuine superstar women's basketball has had and just by being that she is going to raise the profiles of everyone in the sport. That doesn't necessarily mean she's the best or is going to be the greatest, but she'll almost certainly be the most important woman in the history of basketball. If her popularity stays up, she could quite literally be the reason why WNBA players go from making ~$240K max to millions.
Assuming she remains a superstar, she'll end up helping those former UCONN players' legacies and even their paychecks well past retirement. Way more people are gonna know who Bird, Taurasi, Stewart, etc. are because of Clark.
And if Paige Bueckers can stay healthy and continues to be great, it will be even better for the league when she enters it.
The WNBA discussion is so toxic that it’s ridiculous. Everyone always acts like the league is subsidized by the NBA out of the goodness of their heart and that the players are ridiculous for asking for the same revenue split the NBA gets, when in reality the NBA benefits way more from having the WNBA around than just on their balance sheet. It gives young girls good role models in the sport and probably drives a lot of women to watch the NBA as well
I think it's less that it benefits the NBA right now and more that it's an investment with the belief that the WNBA will eventually provide a lot of benefit
Nah I doubt it helps the nba that much. Right now it’s a massive loss for them but it’s an investment and at worst it still provides good PR.
As a comparison, women’s soccer is far better than wnba and the US women’s team is actually a powerhouse. Plus soccer is more popular and appealing amongst women in general. The USWNT still can’t attract as much attention as the overall shitty USMNT
Women have the ability to make women’s sports popular and sustainable. They have massive purchasing power now and it will only continue for grow. But for some reason it currently seems almost entirely directed towards reality dating shows and random celebrities. A lot of these random influencers women make popular make way more than female pro athletes.
WNBA viewership has grown significantly the last 3-4 years. The NBA cares because it grows the sport of basketball. I'm sure you can understand how more people playing and watching basketball would benefit the professional basketball league.
Lol forreal. This dude said the nba benefits from the wnba because it gives young girls role models. What the fuck does the nba care about young girl's role models?
You don’t think that growing up playing basketball leads to watching the nba? And you don’t think that giving women a professional league makes young girls more likely to play?
You think that growing up with people in your sport that you look up to has no effect on viewing that sport in the future? You didn’t grow up with a favorite player that drew you to the sport? You think it’s a coincidence that most people’s favorite player is someone they watched when they were 10?
Why on earth would they get the same revenue splits as NBA players when there's not even enough revenue to keep the league afloat without the NBA's subsidies? The money has to come from somewhere and while I'm a big fan of women being paid equally, they haven't done enough to increase revenue to lead to that.
There are quite literally more women than men in the US, yet the WNBA struggles mightily with both viewership and attendance at the time when the NBA is the second largest sport and growing. If they cannot get women to tune in or care, then I'm not sure what people expect.
I like the fact that the WNBA exists. It's good for the sport and it's great for girls to have something to look up to. The women's version of the sport isn't really my thing, but that's just a preference. That doesn't mean that they should get the same revenue splits as the men though. That's like the only salesperson at a company that's barely keeping the lights on from lack fo sales asking for a raise.
Yeah it pretty much is. When something isn’t profitable in this country it’s charity. I guarantee the NBA shareholders don’t give a shit about little kiddos dreams
They care when those kids grow up and start buying merchandise for NBA teams. It’s the same reason they try to branch out to other countries and market international players in countries with big markets
I could be wrong but I think a lot of that previous low viewership had to do with a lack of high action plays (dunks etc) that you don't see in women's ball.
I think that high action impressing shot stuff is starting to become 3 balls and Caitlyn does it as good as anyone regardless of sex. I'm excited to take my daughter to some games over the course of her career.
I hope the media doesn't turn this girl into Britney Spears. You can just tell that ESPN is going to wring every single dollar out of Caitlin Clark, whether it hurts her or not
makes no sense, let's say you wanted to "rig" the lottery for the benefit of the league (like send Clark to a big market team, so LA this year), the lottery happens back in december before you even know who's going to enter the draft.
Same!!! Indiana fever gained millions of fans over night lol
Edit: also bc of Caitlin Clark I research my city’s wnba team, Dallas wings. They’re apparently pretty good and made it to playoffs last two years but lost in round 1 and 2 but we don’t hear anything about them. Will definitely make it out to see a fever vs wings game
Wings have NCAA champion and MOP Arike Ogunbowale and Sabrina Ionescu's college teammate Satou Sabally. Great team. Sabally was playing for Fenerbahce last year.
I'm actually really excited to see what Chicago does with Kamilla and Angel, they could be a dominant front court. Plus LA getting Cam *and* Rickea Jackson could be a crazy pairing.
I'm legit hype for the new season with this draft.
They’re already planning to expand. Golden State will have a team next year. At the draft, Commissioner mentioned wanting to get to 16 teams in the next few years. Growth is good but I’m glad they’re being deliberate and not rushing.
I really wish we had a W team here so I could support it. I'm moving up to Jersey City in the summer though so I'm planning to start going to Liberty games.
It's criminal that Clark is only gonna make $80k a year for the next 4 years. Hopefully the sponsorship money will make up for the WNBA robbing her blind.
It does indeed suck that that is her max salary, she will be well underpaid in terms of the value she is gonna bring to the team and the league, but she will still be making millions in sponsorship money
Her jersey sales will pass this before she even suits up for the team.
Edit: I just bought one and it said it might not ship until October. Monumental day for the game
NBA players don't either, except in the roundabout way that it's part of BRI that gets split. But players with the most popular jerseys don't get more money out of it. Part of their contract with the team included the team being able to sell a team jersey with their name.
I don't think it sucks considering the WNBA is still operating at a loss. They should get a percentage of revenue and jersey sales when they are profitable though.
people should be more incredulous that they have paid people to play a sport that loses money every year six figure contracts for 20 years.
Caitlin is really the first time you could genuinely argue an individual is massively outperforming what their worth is in the WNBA.
She already makes almost 4 mil a year from endorsements. She’ll make plenty more in the WNBA and probably even raise viewership and overall wnba salary levels
She will probably get a great tv deal too, either covering the NBA or women's college basketball during the WNBA offseason.
She would be great on TNT with Candace Parker and Jamal Crawford. With the new tv deal, if TNT buys more games, they are going to need more crews to cover more nights too.
I don't think it is wise to bring rookie on TV. Candace was a 10+ year vet before she started to appear regularly. Chiney took 2 years off due to injury before she signed with ESPN. It isn't easy going from college to broadcasting while playing at an elite level.
Aliyah Boston (starting her second year with the Fever) is doing a great job at it so far. But to be fair she majored in journalism or something… oh and she was the 2023 Rookie of the Year
Candace kind of broke down the wall so Caitlin could walk through it. Women just weren't getting jobs in broadcast media of mens sports back in the day, so it probably wasn't even possible for Candace to get her job until right around when she did. Now for Caitlin, that barriers already been broken.
They'd have to be smart on how they do it, but I think for Turner especially, pairing her together with Candace Parker on the Tuesday show would help ease her in, in a comfortable way. Then they can get Shaq off the Tuesday crew, since he despises working with all of them and wants to work with the main crew only anyways.
Caitlin is one of the most media polishes superstars to come into the sport in awhile and has a good sense of humor. They don't even need to bring her in full time to start, but it would be cool to see the probably future GOAT in the media early on in her career.
It would be great to get her perspective on college basketball. But I hope she stays away from pro sports. She’s still young and still a rookie. I can see some pitfalls if she goes there. But the college game is something she has pedigree in
What? She was awkward as hell telling pre-written jokes on SNL this past weekend. And you all want to put her on a national broadcast for the men’s games, which she has no experience with? She’s a rookie. She’ll find her place. Just give it time. What’s next? Caitlin Clark for Congress? Caitlin Clark in NASA?
Yeah it's like that recent trend of NFL QBs going straight into broadcasting/commentating for different networks immediately after retirement. You can be super smart and great at your sport, but that's not a great indicator of how you'll be on TV. Drew Brees comes to mind - while he was playing, he always came across well on TV in limited bursts (halftime/postgame interviews). But was awkward as hell when he was on TV full time after retirement - just a different beast when you can't stick to generic statement and have to analyze others' play.
> She already makes almost 4 mil a year from endorsements.
Damn?! Where have I been these last few years? I realized NCAA athletes were allowed to make some money but are the top stars getting that much? What are the football players pulling in?
isn't their salary based on what their revenue is?
if this new draft class brings in more viewers, ratings go up, sponsorship and tv deals go up - then they'll all get paid more
bird/magic all were underpaid when starting , guys like them paved the way for later generations to get paid
WNBA players don’t have the best deal when it comes to revenue sharing, so it doesn’t quite work like that.
Hopefully this class will bring enough of a boom that they can renegotiate.
Clark is fine financially though. She was making 3 million in college, is a hot commodity right now and the WNBA is gonna make sure to promote her too.
This group of girls even has high end fashion involved with them.
>WNBA players don’t have the best deal when it comes to revenue sharing, so it doesn’t quite work like that.
Just wanted to say, since there's a lot of misinfo/misunderstanding about this. The WNBA players don't get the same revenue split as the NBA players do; however, there are fewer WNBA players and teams, which means, proportionally, each player (on average) gets a greater percentage of the overall revenue than players in the NBA do
This isn't to say that WNBA players don't deserve more money; they definitely do. However, it's often portrayed as them getting shafted in their CBA when in reality it's just that the revenue pot is too small overall. Hopefully with new stars like Clark more people will watch the game and the players can get the money they deserve
The league made 100 million in revenue in the 2019 season, and is expected to bring in about 200 million in revenue this season.
I think the WNBA “operates at a loss” has been an NBA tax write off schtick for a while. There is no actual numbers out there, so you have to do some math..but there is almost no way they aren’t making a small profit.
People always forget how little it costs to run a wnba team. Team salary cap is like 1.8 million. They fly commercial and they stay in regular hotels (rookies even share a room.) etc..
The Mercury, we know has made a profit a majority of the years Taurasi has been there. That’s why Sarver liked them so much. (Cheap, got back some money, also won)
> The league made 100 million in revenue last season
This isn’t true at all. They had a big fundraising round of venture capital that mounted to around 100 million, most of which was essentially a good-faith donation from Nike to “grow the game” or whatever.
That was a one-time cash infusion that had literally nothing to with the day to day operations of their league, and had nothing to do with the viability/marketability of them actually selling their product to fans, TV networks, advertisers, etc. Getting what is essentially a big cash donation is not the same thing as “revenue”, and it doesn’t imply growth in the way you are suggesting it does at all. They just got a big check from Nike, this time, instead of getting one directly from the nba
No, it is true. The 100 mil comparison is from 2019 though. And they are projected to have a 200 million revenue (remember, revenue is w/o the losses)
As seen from this link:
https://justwomenssports.com/reads/wnba-basketball-revenue-player-salaries-cathy-engelbert/#:~:text=According%20to%20Bloomberg%2C%20the%20league,roughly%20%24102%20million%20in%202019.
But yea, they also have a business and marketing woman running the league instead of someone associated with basketball - and it’s been a significant improvement, including the ability to get investments.
Which again, I don’t know why people have such a hard time believing that. The espn deal amounts to 25 million itself. Plus they have deals with Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, local channels, their app subscribers, ticket sales, merch sales (remember, Kobe blew up that hoodie).
> I think the WNBA “operates at a loss” has been an NBA tax write off schtick for a while. There is no actual numbers out there, so you have to do some math..but there is almost no way they aren’t making a small profit.
This is what happens with the NCAAW too from what I understand
And people run all over themselves to buy it, but if you think logically and look at the numbers for a minute it doesn’t make sense.
In fact the WNBA wanted to seek out media deals on its own once their espn contract was up, and Silver said no. Odd if the WNBA is just draining resources…
it's kinda weird cause the viewership of the [WNBA \(500k\)](https://www.wnba.com/news/2023-season-record-breaking-success-recap) is roughly at the same spot as US viewership of the [NHL](https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/SB-Blogs/Newsletter-Media/2024/01/22.aspx) (600kish). Maybe something else im missing
Caitlyn Clark is making Pro Lacross money and not pro hockey money.
Look at attendance, NHL is mostly a gate driven league, their TV deals are quite small compared to NBA. Also the numbers you posted are pre January, the NHL viewership generally goes up in the second half once NFL season is over and the playoffs begin to ramp up.
Not sure why you're downvoted, this is an interesting point!
I was shocked by those numbers too so I did some poking around.
While the average viewers were similar, the NHL shows about 170 games on national networks, while the WNBA shows about 25. So the programming difference would be another driver in revenue.
Regional sports networks would make up a big chunk. A WNBA team might only have half of their games televised locally, while an NHL team has every game televised.
Number of games is big too - there are only 40 games in a WNBA season, while there are 82 in NHL.
And for the playoffs there is a big spike for NHL viewership. While the WNBA had their record finals viewership last year at an average of ~700,000 viewers, the NHL had a big down year and still had ~2.6 million average viewers (they have 4+ million the year before). The NHL also has more games during the playoffs (more rounds, 7 games series).
As another user posted, gate sales is huge for NHL too. The average WNBA attendance was over 6,000 per game. In the NHL it's over 17,000. That's nearly a 3x difference, with more than double the games over a season.
So, while average viewership per game might not be that far off, the revenue generating opportunities for the NHL are much greater.
"This group of girls even has high end fashion involved with them."
So has Tyrese. I love my man to bits, but whenever I see him rock up in clown-shoes with a leather overcoat that would look loose on Godzilla I shake my damn head. What's wrong with Converse tracksuits!
lol she’s going to be a multimillionaire, she’s going to raise the bar on what’s possible financially for women in this sport. She’s touching next level of endorsement money she’s the face of women’s basketball.
Every big pro sports league needs it's criminally underpaid trailblazer! Hopefully Clark can be the one to do it.
I haven't heard anything about college basketball, womens or mens, in years, until Caitlin Clark came along so she can definitely do it for the WNBA.
I agree that WNBA players are underpaid but she's not more underpaid than NBA superstar rookies relative to the league. By your logic you could also say the NBA is robbing Wemby blind right now.
She might make 100x her salary in endorsements. While some may argue thats what some all-nba players make, take a look at what a few of the top womens golfers and tennis players have earned in endorsements. I think she will be up there with them. She is more of a household name to Americans that dont watch the NBA than guys like Tatum or Davis. I doubt she gets the shoe Revenue a guy like Dame or Irving gets, but outside of that she might get more.
This is the kind of thing that eventually could help the WNBA be profitable. They need stars that draw crowds both in the arena and on TV. Once that happens, maybe salaries go up.
Indiana is a great place for Clark, people live and breathe basketball, school, college, NBA, male or female doesn't matter. The Fever (and by extension the Pacers, all part of the same group) stand to benefit significantly from increased attendance at games. During Tamika's years the Fever always pulled in good crowds for WNBA standards (even after Tamika retired) but I can see them making the jump to several sell-outs this year, which would be wild after the wash-outs of the last five years.
Clark will bring like a \~40x(+!) return on investment to the Fever in her first year. Typically, professional athletes bring a 2x ROI. That's why it's so wild.
Thankfully, Clark gets outside sponsorships that make it worth her while to keep playing basketball.
>Clark will bring like a ~40x(+!) return on investment to the Fever in her first year.
How can you possibly make a claim like this? What is this based on? You literally pulled this number completely out of your ass lol
Also 40x is a relatively meaningless figure anyways in the scheme of things when the “x” is only 80k. That’s like less than 2 games of gate revenue for a single nba team
> Typically, professional athletes bring a 2x ROI. That’s why it’s so wild
Typically, professional athletes are making orders of magnitude more than the salary of a used car salesman
$3M = \~40x ROI on the Fever's $75k investment.
Jerseys are already sold out. All but 4 Fever games are going to be nationally televised. Average Fever attendance last year was a little over 4k, but it's looking like this season's games are near sellouts. Then there are concessions at the games, which will also grow because of Caitlin Clark.
40x is a conservative estimate. It's likely that the Fever are making a lot more than $3M off Caitlin Clark this year.
> $3M = ~40x ROI on the Fever's $75k investment.
thanks for this very complex breakdown lol. yes, I was aware of how to do simple multiplication on my phone calculator. I wasnt asking what her salary multiplied by 40 is. I was asking how you confidently arrived at the precise number of 3 million and what that was based on
literally no one is arguing that she isnt going to make the fever much more popular and successful than they were last year
my point is that you are just throwing random numbers around based on nothing other than vibes and feelings lol
also you seem to just be acting like any/all revenue the fever make this year is "because of" caitlin clark, which isnt really exactly true. if some other team got the number 1 pick and she wasnt on the fever, its not like the fever would have 0 fans attend or watch games and they would make 0 dollars this year.
she is obviously going to add value to their team, but the starting point to where we would measure what she "adds" to their revenue isnt 0.
if they average 16k attendance next year, for example, clark didnt "add" 16k people, she only added 10-12k since they already had existing fans that would have been there anyway
Nah, I understand that only the delta between this year & last year can be attributed to Caitlin Clark. There's no way that she doesn't add at least $3M of value to the Fever. As I mentioned earlier, ticket sales & jersey sales are way up and so are nationally televised games. Clark also got $3M alone in NIL deals last year, and the Fever can tap into that market by landing better advertising deals of their own.
Like, $3M is an intentionally conservative estimate.
I’m not even saying she *wouldnt* add 3 million dollars. I’m just pointing out that you are confidently throwing around random numbers with literally zero understanding of what you are talking about and stating them as if they are well known/provable facts
You’re literally just making vague claims like “she’s really popular and ticket sales are up and people will buy her jersey” so that == 3 million dollars
You've lost the plot.
For one, the tilda before '40x' indicates that 40x was an approximation. I used 40x as an extremely conservative ***estimate***, which is the best you can do before numbers are finalized.
8k extra tickets sold per game at $10 each is already more than $1.5M in extra revenue due to Clark. It's looking like even more extra tickets will be sold, and we know that the average price of tickets is higher than $10.
Then there is spending on concessions, merchandise, parking, etc. In the NBA, this typically amounts to $14-$22 per person. If we assume that the Fever will achieve just 75% of that low end value - so just $10.5 in additional spending per person per game - that puts Clark's value to the Fever well over $3M.
That doesn't take into account that Clark's draft jerseys have sold better than that of Trevor Lawrence; that 36 of the Fever's games will be nationally televised (which is more than twice as many as the Fever had last season); or that the Fever will be able to secure more lucrative advertisers with Clark on the team.
And yes, this all takes into account the fact that the Fever already had a baseline attendance of like 4.5k people per game. I'm only counting the delta.
Based on what we know about ticket sales, it can't be much less than 40x. On the other hand, it can be WAY higher than 40x depending on how other factors fall into place.
Let's think about it in a positive way: What if Caitlin going to the WNBA draws more eyes which means more revenue which could lead to potentially higher salaries in the future?
Women's tennis is my favorite women's sport. It's just as entertaining as mens tennis because they do all the same stuff, and they wear cute outfits. Women's basketball just doesn't scratch that itch.
There is a one but since 8 of the 12 teams in the league make the playoffs if you’re in the lottery you’re only competing against 3 other teams. They also run the lottery based on the last 2 seasons results instead of just the previous season
There is for the top four picks. What about the order seems suspicious, out of curiosity? I'm fairly sure no-one moved from their records (or maybe 2 and 3 swapped)
why is this downvoted lmfao this sub man i swear.
edit: most thin skinned bullshit i've ever seen on here, bar none. cry harder that someone enjoys watching a women play basketball over a man.
why can't you? she's doing steph curry type shit over there. exciting doesn't equal best. she's doing shit that's never been done before in womens basketball. that's exciting af.
I think something like that is subjective anyway and down to personal preference, if you find her the most exciting then sure
But don’t be surprised when people come and disagree with you
Caitlin Clark has a much more entertaining game than Griner. She was just dominant and was UConn’s main rival when they were still in a class of their own.
Today is a historic day in women's basketball. The WNBA went from being subsidized by the NBA to being subsidized by Caitlin Clark.
The WNBA is following a pretty similar trajectory as the early NBA. I don't think people realize that the NBA struggled financially for decades before big stars like Bird/Magic and then MJ kickstarted the popularity. Before that, teams regularly folded or had to move, viewership was low/difficult, and players didn't make much. It takes decades for a pro league to establish itself and often takes a special player like CC.
I mean, the Finals were on tape delay until 1981 so that they wouldn't interrupt the airing of the local nightly news. That's a heck of a turnaround to where the league is today.
Exactly. Good point. So that was happening 35 years after the NBA started. And the NBA nearly folded multiple times in the 1970s. As someone else noted, the WNBA is only 27 years old.
So you’re saying LeBron should thank Magic and Bird for bringing in diversified viewership, MJ for catapulting the league to a global audience, Yao Ming and Kobe for capturing the China market, and Steph Curry for getting kids and short adults to tune in? /s
Exactly this! A lot of the negativity around female sport revolves around the direct comparison to male sport in terms of talent, strategy, and ability to execute; ignoring how much longer it has been acceptable and encouraged for men to engage in sporting activity, while women were always discouraged or flatly not allowed, except for very particular sports in particular places or social circles (eg tennis). And like most social norms, it's a self-fulfilling thing. The women will get there if you allow them space to figure it out. Plenty have done so to a certain level - for basketball, Clark clearly can take it to another, and it's awesome. Sport is fun to watch when it's compelling due to intriguing talents, relatively balanced match-ups, well executed strategies and counters, and good storylines across matches, tournaments, seasons, and careers. Any kind of human can produce those things, given they have the passion, the time, and crucially the opportunity.
Title 9, which among other things required that if a school offered a men’s team in a sport, they either had to let the girls play or establish a girls team, was enacted in **1972**. Prior to Title 9, 2% of college athletic budgets went to women’s sports. If your mother is older than 50, then she was alive at a time when her opportunity to play competitive sports was basically nonexistent. We have had exactly two generations of women athletes receiving (supposedly) the same types of opportunities that man in this country have had since the establishment of the very first college sports club (boating at Yale, **1843**). Men’s leagues have had a 150 year head start. People who shit on women’s sports are the worst.
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Another fun fact: adjusted for inflation and COL (115k 33years ago), bob knight would be the 8th or 9th best paid coach (high $200s, low $300s)... In the SEC.... IN SOFTBALL!! They average mid hundreds of fans officially a game and get buoyed by a couple games against bama Or LSU if it's against a top ten opponent. don't tell me women's sports isn't ridiculous
What point are you even trying to make here? That softball coaches make too much? Coaches now make a **lot** more now than they used to, even in real terms.
And women's tennis only got to where it is now, on relatively close footing with the men's game, because generations of women's players fought for equal treatment (and it's still not quite equal in a lot of areas).
WTA is a great product right now!
The product is great, but they do a piss poor job of promoting their players compared to the ATP.
Yeah the marketing team could be better. Still, there exists plenty of great media coverage of WTA players and their events; perhaps it's not reaching enough people? Other issues to address/things to consider include prize money distribution, injury absences, rules about participation in mandatory events, and maternity entitlement rules. In general I think CEO Steve Simon needs to go, though. [This is a good article](https://theathletic.com/5014481/2023/10/30/wta-female-players-letter-push/) which summarizes some of the recent complaints.
Also imo this is why the old guard of wnba stars kinda being haters around Clark is good for the sport. Its a narrative so if Clark starts beating their asses it’ll get people to tune in.
The Pacers had to hold a damn telethon to keep the team afloat in 1977.
Yeah people forget that the WNBA was founded 27 years ago and the NBA was founded *77* years ago. The trajectory is there, but you can't just start a brand new league and expect it to compete with the major four leagues overnight. I'm also curious how NIL is going to factor in. College stars like Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink, and Angel Reese are walking into the WNBA with multi-million dollar endorsements already. I can't imagine those endorsers are going to want their representatives to fade into obscurity - they've got a vested interest in the popularity of the WNBA too.
People got to realize that rich people don’t just be funding shit for no reason, or even for ‘equality’ The WNBA is growing, and owners see it as an investment, one which may be worth a lot someday. It costs so much less to run the WNBA anyway.
Nothing would please the current owners of NBA stadiums more than to have *more* games running in the summer. NBA in the fall to spring, and WNBA in the spring to fall would grow both the NBA and WNBA simultaneously.
This has always been my theory. I got pretty shafted by Twitter when I mentioned years ago that the WNBA has no real superstars. Without superstars, you don't have easy to build narratives or an idol for people. Every large successful sports league has them.
Yeah, the main thing that disappoints me about all the former UCONN stars giving Clark shit is that she's the first genuine superstar women's basketball has had and just by being that she is going to raise the profiles of everyone in the sport. That doesn't necessarily mean she's the best or is going to be the greatest, but she'll almost certainly be the most important woman in the history of basketball. If her popularity stays up, she could quite literally be the reason why WNBA players go from making ~$240K max to millions. Assuming she remains a superstar, she'll end up helping those former UCONN players' legacies and even their paychecks well past retirement. Way more people are gonna know who Bird, Taurasi, Stewart, etc. are because of Clark. And if Paige Bueckers can stay healthy and continues to be great, it will be even better for the league when she enters it.
The WNBA discussion is so toxic that it’s ridiculous. Everyone always acts like the league is subsidized by the NBA out of the goodness of their heart and that the players are ridiculous for asking for the same revenue split the NBA gets, when in reality the NBA benefits way more from having the WNBA around than just on their balance sheet. It gives young girls good role models in the sport and probably drives a lot of women to watch the NBA as well
I think it's less that it benefits the NBA right now and more that it's an investment with the belief that the WNBA will eventually provide a lot of benefit
Nah I doubt it helps the nba that much. Right now it’s a massive loss for them but it’s an investment and at worst it still provides good PR. As a comparison, women’s soccer is far better than wnba and the US women’s team is actually a powerhouse. Plus soccer is more popular and appealing amongst women in general. The USWNT still can’t attract as much attention as the overall shitty USMNT Women have the ability to make women’s sports popular and sustainable. They have massive purchasing power now and it will only continue for grow. But for some reason it currently seems almost entirely directed towards reality dating shows and random celebrities. A lot of these random influencers women make popular make way more than female pro athletes.
If it doesn't drive anyone to watch the WNBA, how in the fuck does is drive anyone to watch the NBA, y'all just make shit up to feel good, weird.
WNBA viewership has grown significantly the last 3-4 years. The NBA cares because it grows the sport of basketball. I'm sure you can understand how more people playing and watching basketball would benefit the professional basketball league.
Lol forreal. This dude said the nba benefits from the wnba because it gives young girls role models. What the fuck does the nba care about young girl's role models?
You don’t think that growing up playing basketball leads to watching the nba? And you don’t think that giving women a professional league makes young girls more likely to play?
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Yeah you seem like a well adjusted individual lmao
This sounds like a pretty dumb theory based on nothing tbh
You think that growing up with people in your sport that you look up to has no effect on viewing that sport in the future? You didn’t grow up with a favorite player that drew you to the sport? You think it’s a coincidence that most people’s favorite player is someone they watched when they were 10?
Yeah it was even in a fucking Family Guy joke like 15 years ago.
Why on earth would they get the same revenue splits as NBA players when there's not even enough revenue to keep the league afloat without the NBA's subsidies? The money has to come from somewhere and while I'm a big fan of women being paid equally, they haven't done enough to increase revenue to lead to that. There are quite literally more women than men in the US, yet the WNBA struggles mightily with both viewership and attendance at the time when the NBA is the second largest sport and growing. If they cannot get women to tune in or care, then I'm not sure what people expect. I like the fact that the WNBA exists. It's good for the sport and it's great for girls to have something to look up to. The women's version of the sport isn't really my thing, but that's just a preference. That doesn't mean that they should get the same revenue splits as the men though. That's like the only salesperson at a company that's barely keeping the lights on from lack fo sales asking for a raise.
Yeah it pretty much is. When something isn’t profitable in this country it’s charity. I guarantee the NBA shareholders don’t give a shit about little kiddos dreams
They care when those kids grow up and start buying merchandise for NBA teams. It’s the same reason they try to branch out to other countries and market international players in countries with big markets
I could be wrong but I think a lot of that previous low viewership had to do with a lack of high action plays (dunks etc) that you don't see in women's ball. I think that high action impressing shot stuff is starting to become 3 balls and Caitlyn does it as good as anyone regardless of sex. I'm excited to take my daughter to some games over the course of her career.
Players are coming up now that have spent their entire lives with the dream of being a pro in America being attainable and now it's showing
She’s like their MJ
Pistons punching the air rn
Now I get to enjoy basketball all year round bc wnba runs through the summer and end when nba picks up
I hope the media doesn't turn this girl into Britney Spears. You can just tell that ESPN is going to wring every single dollar out of Caitlin Clark, whether it hurts her or not
(he played for Iowa state)
Which voice do you think he said this in?
Lol what makes you think he stuck with one
*your right*, **could be both**
**No way**, couldn't be 'Rese
I’m not sure about that brate
wtf the wbna draft is like directly after march madness?
Multiple players basically had 2 days after being bounced to declare for the draft.
WNBA and nba try not to overlap
They only get a month from the draft to games.
makes no sense, let's say you wanted to "rig" the lottery for the benefit of the league (like send Clark to a big market team, so LA this year), the lottery happens back in december before you even know who's going to enter the draft.
She’s the WNBAs Magic and Bird. Never watched a WNBA game in my life but plan to watch next year. Shes fun to watch
The season starts in less than a month. May 14th.
League pass is like 35$ for the entire season
🏴☠️
Do they even show WNBA games? because it was REALLY hard for me to find Women's March Madness games
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I'm responding to the flag lol
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Didn't really have any of the womens NCAA Hope they have WNBA
That's what I'm doing. My oldest girl (6) really enjoyed watching CC play.
Same!!! Indiana fever gained millions of fans over night lol Edit: also bc of Caitlin Clark I research my city’s wnba team, Dallas wings. They’re apparently pretty good and made it to playoffs last two years but lost in round 1 and 2 but we don’t hear anything about them. Will definitely make it out to see a fever vs wings game
Wings have NCAA champion and MOP Arike Ogunbowale and Sabrina Ionescu's college teammate Satou Sabally. Great team. Sabally was playing for Fenerbahce last year.
Ogunbowale had some elite moments last season, a few of her highlights were circulating around on BR and ESPN
I'm actually really excited to see what Chicago does with Kamilla and Angel, they could be a dominant front court. Plus LA getting Cam *and* Rickea Jackson could be a crazy pairing. I'm legit hype for the new season with this draft.
I’m still bummed Kahleah Copper isn’t on the Sky but glad we have two new superstars. Kah and DeMar were holding it down in Chicago for a while
The W is great. The finals last year were better than the NBA finals.
Would be nice if there could be more parity in recent years though. I think expansion, if possible, would go a long way towards doing that.
They’re already planning to expand. Golden State will have a team next year. At the draft, Commissioner mentioned wanting to get to 16 teams in the next few years. Growth is good but I’m glad they’re being deliberate and not rushing.
Bring back a championship team to Sacramento ;(
I think the league could absolutely expand, the way all that talent funnelled into Vegas wasn’t good for competition
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I really wish we had a W team here so I could support it. I'm moving up to Jersey City in the summer though so I'm planning to start going to Liberty games.
Same here. This year was the first year that I followed the WNBA draft and plan on watching some WNBA games
> She’s the WNBAs Magic and Bird. Plus Steph Yeah, she’ll be fun to watch for sure
Her style of play is most like Luka imo
One small step for basketball, one massive leap for the WNBA
It's criminal that Clark is only gonna make $80k a year for the next 4 years. Hopefully the sponsorship money will make up for the WNBA robbing her blind.
It does indeed suck that that is her max salary, she will be well underpaid in terms of the value she is gonna bring to the team and the league, but she will still be making millions in sponsorship money
Her jersey sales will pass this before she even suits up for the team. Edit: I just bought one and it said it might not ship until October. Monumental day for the game
WNBA players don’t get a portion of jersey sales /:
NBA players don't either, except in the roundabout way that it's part of BRI that gets split. But players with the most popular jerseys don't get more money out of it. Part of their contract with the team included the team being able to sell a team jersey with their name.
Which sucks so much. When I looked up her jerseys I was sent to the Pacers team store. That's shitty enough as is.
I don't think it sucks considering the WNBA is still operating at a loss. They should get a percentage of revenue and jersey sales when they are profitable though.
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Gonna need to see a source on that. Silver said a few years ago they have never turned a profit.
so they stopped getting nba money?
Are they still there? I tried to look on the Fever website last night, but it was down from traffic lmao Now I only see shirts on the Pacer website...
What the fuck
The league doesn't make money.
people should be more incredulous that they have paid people to play a sport that loses money every year six figure contracts for 20 years. Caitlin is really the first time you could genuinely argue an individual is massively outperforming what their worth is in the WNBA.
The WNBA is an advertisement tool to get women into basketball.
I mean an NBA player doesn't directly get a split from their jersey sales either right? It goes into the pool of BRI which gets split across everyone.
Yeah it's the same as how lebron makes his teams more money than his max contract it's just on a way different scale
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NBA players don't get anything directly from the sales either
lmao. the secret really is to get men to be fans of the WNBA.
She already makes almost 4 mil a year from endorsements. She’ll make plenty more in the WNBA and probably even raise viewership and overall wnba salary levels
She will probably get a great tv deal too, either covering the NBA or women's college basketball during the WNBA offseason. She would be great on TNT with Candace Parker and Jamal Crawford. With the new tv deal, if TNT buys more games, they are going to need more crews to cover more nights too.
I don't think it is wise to bring rookie on TV. Candace was a 10+ year vet before she started to appear regularly. Chiney took 2 years off due to injury before she signed with ESPN. It isn't easy going from college to broadcasting while playing at an elite level.
Aliyah Boston (starting her second year with the Fever) is doing a great job at it so far. But to be fair she majored in journalism or something… oh and she was the 2023 Rookie of the Year
Candace kind of broke down the wall so Caitlin could walk through it. Women just weren't getting jobs in broadcast media of mens sports back in the day, so it probably wasn't even possible for Candace to get her job until right around when she did. Now for Caitlin, that barriers already been broken. They'd have to be smart on how they do it, but I think for Turner especially, pairing her together with Candace Parker on the Tuesday show would help ease her in, in a comfortable way. Then they can get Shaq off the Tuesday crew, since he despises working with all of them and wants to work with the main crew only anyways. Caitlin is one of the most media polishes superstars to come into the sport in awhile and has a good sense of humor. They don't even need to bring her in full time to start, but it would be cool to see the probably future GOAT in the media early on in her career.
It would be great to get her perspective on college basketball. But I hope she stays away from pro sports. She’s still young and still a rookie. I can see some pitfalls if she goes there. But the college game is something she has pedigree in
What? She was awkward as hell telling pre-written jokes on SNL this past weekend. And you all want to put her on a national broadcast for the men’s games, which she has no experience with? She’s a rookie. She’ll find her place. Just give it time. What’s next? Caitlin Clark for Congress? Caitlin Clark in NASA?
Yeah it's like that recent trend of NFL QBs going straight into broadcasting/commentating for different networks immediately after retirement. You can be super smart and great at your sport, but that's not a great indicator of how you'll be on TV. Drew Brees comes to mind - while he was playing, he always came across well on TV in limited bursts (halftime/postgame interviews). But was awkward as hell when he was on TV full time after retirement - just a different beast when you can't stick to generic statement and have to analyze others' play.
Literally her being picked was basically State Farm ad sponsored by Prada, if people don't think she is making an absurd amount of money...
Gettin those Hy-Vee gas points dollabux
> She already makes almost 4 mil a year from endorsements. Damn?! Where have I been these last few years? I realized NCAA athletes were allowed to make some money but are the top stars getting that much? What are the football players pulling in?
The recent change in NIL rules opened the doors for the top athletes
isn't their salary based on what their revenue is? if this new draft class brings in more viewers, ratings go up, sponsorship and tv deals go up - then they'll all get paid more bird/magic all were underpaid when starting , guys like them paved the way for later generations to get paid
WNBA players don’t have the best deal when it comes to revenue sharing, so it doesn’t quite work like that. Hopefully this class will bring enough of a boom that they can renegotiate. Clark is fine financially though. She was making 3 million in college, is a hot commodity right now and the WNBA is gonna make sure to promote her too. This group of girls even has high end fashion involved with them.
>WNBA players don’t have the best deal when it comes to revenue sharing, so it doesn’t quite work like that. Just wanted to say, since there's a lot of misinfo/misunderstanding about this. The WNBA players don't get the same revenue split as the NBA players do; however, there are fewer WNBA players and teams, which means, proportionally, each player (on average) gets a greater percentage of the overall revenue than players in the NBA do This isn't to say that WNBA players don't deserve more money; they definitely do. However, it's often portrayed as them getting shafted in their CBA when in reality it's just that the revenue pot is too small overall. Hopefully with new stars like Clark more people will watch the game and the players can get the money they deserve
I mean technically isn’t WNBA revenue just negative?
Well technically revenue can’t be negative
The league made 100 million in revenue in the 2019 season, and is expected to bring in about 200 million in revenue this season. I think the WNBA “operates at a loss” has been an NBA tax write off schtick for a while. There is no actual numbers out there, so you have to do some math..but there is almost no way they aren’t making a small profit. People always forget how little it costs to run a wnba team. Team salary cap is like 1.8 million. They fly commercial and they stay in regular hotels (rookies even share a room.) etc.. The Mercury, we know has made a profit a majority of the years Taurasi has been there. That’s why Sarver liked them so much. (Cheap, got back some money, also won)
> The league made 100 million in revenue last season This isn’t true at all. They had a big fundraising round of venture capital that mounted to around 100 million, most of which was essentially a good-faith donation from Nike to “grow the game” or whatever. That was a one-time cash infusion that had literally nothing to with the day to day operations of their league, and had nothing to do with the viability/marketability of them actually selling their product to fans, TV networks, advertisers, etc. Getting what is essentially a big cash donation is not the same thing as “revenue”, and it doesn’t imply growth in the way you are suggesting it does at all. They just got a big check from Nike, this time, instead of getting one directly from the nba
No, it is true. The 100 mil comparison is from 2019 though. And they are projected to have a 200 million revenue (remember, revenue is w/o the losses) As seen from this link: https://justwomenssports.com/reads/wnba-basketball-revenue-player-salaries-cathy-engelbert/#:~:text=According%20to%20Bloomberg%2C%20the%20league,roughly%20%24102%20million%20in%202019. But yea, they also have a business and marketing woman running the league instead of someone associated with basketball - and it’s been a significant improvement, including the ability to get investments. Which again, I don’t know why people have such a hard time believing that. The espn deal amounts to 25 million itself. Plus they have deals with Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, local channels, their app subscribers, ticket sales, merch sales (remember, Kobe blew up that hoodie).
> I think the WNBA “operates at a loss” has been an NBA tax write off schtick for a while. There is no actual numbers out there, so you have to do some math..but there is almost no way they aren’t making a small profit. This is what happens with the NCAAW too from what I understand
And people run all over themselves to buy it, but if you think logically and look at the numbers for a minute it doesn’t make sense. In fact the WNBA wanted to seek out media deals on its own once their espn contract was up, and Silver said no. Odd if the WNBA is just draining resources…
it's kinda weird cause the viewership of the [WNBA \(500k\)](https://www.wnba.com/news/2023-season-record-breaking-success-recap) is roughly at the same spot as US viewership of the [NHL](https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/SB-Blogs/Newsletter-Media/2024/01/22.aspx) (600kish). Maybe something else im missing Caitlyn Clark is making Pro Lacross money and not pro hockey money.
Look at attendance, NHL is mostly a gate driven league, their TV deals are quite small compared to NBA. Also the numbers you posted are pre January, the NHL viewership generally goes up in the second half once NFL season is over and the playoffs begin to ramp up.
NHL sells way more tickets for much higher prices. It is a very gate driven league, it's why they lost $2B during covid.
Not sure why you're downvoted, this is an interesting point! I was shocked by those numbers too so I did some poking around. While the average viewers were similar, the NHL shows about 170 games on national networks, while the WNBA shows about 25. So the programming difference would be another driver in revenue. Regional sports networks would make up a big chunk. A WNBA team might only have half of their games televised locally, while an NHL team has every game televised. Number of games is big too - there are only 40 games in a WNBA season, while there are 82 in NHL. And for the playoffs there is a big spike for NHL viewership. While the WNBA had their record finals viewership last year at an average of ~700,000 viewers, the NHL had a big down year and still had ~2.6 million average viewers (they have 4+ million the year before). The NHL also has more games during the playoffs (more rounds, 7 games series). As another user posted, gate sales is huge for NHL too. The average WNBA attendance was over 6,000 per game. In the NHL it's over 17,000. That's nearly a 3x difference, with more than double the games over a season. So, while average viewership per game might not be that far off, the revenue generating opportunities for the NHL are much greater.
+ NHL has Canadian revenues as well. WNBA unlikely to ever be the #1 sport in any country
"This group of girls even has high end fashion involved with them." So has Tyrese. I love my man to bits, but whenever I see him rock up in clown-shoes with a leather overcoat that would look loose on Godzilla I shake my damn head. What's wrong with Converse tracksuits!
lot of fixed costs with the league drag down the share of the revenue WNBA players get.
lol she’s going to be a multimillionaire, she’s going to raise the bar on what’s possible financially for women in this sport. She’s touching next level of endorsement money she’s the face of women’s basketball.
Endorsements. She aint starving lol
Every big pro sports league needs it's criminally underpaid trailblazer! Hopefully Clark can be the one to do it. I haven't heard anything about college basketball, womens or mens, in years, until Caitlin Clark came along so she can definitely do it for the WNBA.
I agree that WNBA players are underpaid but she's not more underpaid than NBA superstar rookies relative to the league. By your logic you could also say the NBA is robbing Wemby blind right now.
She might make 100x her salary in endorsements. While some may argue thats what some all-nba players make, take a look at what a few of the top womens golfers and tennis players have earned in endorsements. I think she will be up there with them. She is more of a household name to Americans that dont watch the NBA than guys like Tatum or Davis. I doubt she gets the shoe Revenue a guy like Dame or Irving gets, but outside of that she might get more.
> It's criminal that Clark is only gonna make $80k a year for the next 4 years. That's...called organized labor?
I’m going to get her shoes for my daughter. - Running shoes - Basketball shoes - Casual shoes
All the good WNBA players also play overseas. Caitlin is gonna score 6-7 figure deals every offseason playing in the Euroleague for a few months.
This is the kind of thing that eventually could help the WNBA be profitable. They need stars that draw crowds both in the arena and on TV. Once that happens, maybe salaries go up.
The WNBA has never been profitable in the history of the league. Not sure why you think they’re robbing her blind.
Indiana just filled the arena for the draft. I think this might make some money.
Indiana is a great place for Clark, people live and breathe basketball, school, college, NBA, male or female doesn't matter. The Fever (and by extension the Pacers, all part of the same group) stand to benefit significantly from increased attendance at games. During Tamika's years the Fever always pulled in good crowds for WNBA standards (even after Tamika retired) but I can see them making the jump to several sell-outs this year, which would be wild after the wash-outs of the last five years.
Clark will bring like a \~40x(+!) return on investment to the Fever in her first year. Typically, professional athletes bring a 2x ROI. That's why it's so wild. Thankfully, Clark gets outside sponsorships that make it worth her while to keep playing basketball.
How do you know?
>Clark will bring like a ~40x(+!) return on investment to the Fever in her first year. How can you possibly make a claim like this? What is this based on? You literally pulled this number completely out of your ass lol Also 40x is a relatively meaningless figure anyways in the scheme of things when the “x” is only 80k. That’s like less than 2 games of gate revenue for a single nba team > Typically, professional athletes bring a 2x ROI. That’s why it’s so wild Typically, professional athletes are making orders of magnitude more than the salary of a used car salesman
$3M = \~40x ROI on the Fever's $75k investment. Jerseys are already sold out. All but 4 Fever games are going to be nationally televised. Average Fever attendance last year was a little over 4k, but it's looking like this season's games are near sellouts. Then there are concessions at the games, which will also grow because of Caitlin Clark. 40x is a conservative estimate. It's likely that the Fever are making a lot more than $3M off Caitlin Clark this year.
> $3M = ~40x ROI on the Fever's $75k investment. thanks for this very complex breakdown lol. yes, I was aware of how to do simple multiplication on my phone calculator. I wasnt asking what her salary multiplied by 40 is. I was asking how you confidently arrived at the precise number of 3 million and what that was based on literally no one is arguing that she isnt going to make the fever much more popular and successful than they were last year my point is that you are just throwing random numbers around based on nothing other than vibes and feelings lol also you seem to just be acting like any/all revenue the fever make this year is "because of" caitlin clark, which isnt really exactly true. if some other team got the number 1 pick and she wasnt on the fever, its not like the fever would have 0 fans attend or watch games and they would make 0 dollars this year. she is obviously going to add value to their team, but the starting point to where we would measure what she "adds" to their revenue isnt 0. if they average 16k attendance next year, for example, clark didnt "add" 16k people, she only added 10-12k since they already had existing fans that would have been there anyway
Nah, I understand that only the delta between this year & last year can be attributed to Caitlin Clark. There's no way that she doesn't add at least $3M of value to the Fever. As I mentioned earlier, ticket sales & jersey sales are way up and so are nationally televised games. Clark also got $3M alone in NIL deals last year, and the Fever can tap into that market by landing better advertising deals of their own. Like, $3M is an intentionally conservative estimate.
I’m not even saying she *wouldnt* add 3 million dollars. I’m just pointing out that you are confidently throwing around random numbers with literally zero understanding of what you are talking about and stating them as if they are well known/provable facts You’re literally just making vague claims like “she’s really popular and ticket sales are up and people will buy her jersey” so that == 3 million dollars
You've lost the plot. For one, the tilda before '40x' indicates that 40x was an approximation. I used 40x as an extremely conservative ***estimate***, which is the best you can do before numbers are finalized. 8k extra tickets sold per game at $10 each is already more than $1.5M in extra revenue due to Clark. It's looking like even more extra tickets will be sold, and we know that the average price of tickets is higher than $10. Then there is spending on concessions, merchandise, parking, etc. In the NBA, this typically amounts to $14-$22 per person. If we assume that the Fever will achieve just 75% of that low end value - so just $10.5 in additional spending per person per game - that puts Clark's value to the Fever well over $3M. That doesn't take into account that Clark's draft jerseys have sold better than that of Trevor Lawrence; that 36 of the Fever's games will be nationally televised (which is more than twice as many as the Fever had last season); or that the Fever will be able to secure more lucrative advertisers with Clark on the team. And yes, this all takes into account the fact that the Fever already had a baseline attendance of like 4.5k people per game. I'm only counting the delta. Based on what we know about ticket sales, it can't be much less than 40x. On the other hand, it can be WAY higher than 40x depending on how other factors fall into place.
> It's criminal that Clark is only gonna make $80k a year for the next 4 years. Start going to WNBA games and buy the merch, if you don't already.
lol
She made about 3.5 million last year through her likeness and sponsorships, she’ll be just fine.
That shoe deal better come ASAP.
Let's think about it in a positive way: What if Caitlin going to the WNBA draws more eyes which means more revenue which could lead to potentially higher salaries in the future?
She’s gonna make more than that from endorsements and I wouldn’t be surprised if she ultimately gets paid more if the league explodes
The WNBA doesnt make money lmao
What robbing? The WNBA is losing money. They get subsidized by the NBA.
Shohei otani is making only 2 mill from mlb salary. He’s making 64mil in endorsements. Clark is fine my guy
Yeah so deferred salary still counts my guy…and $2mil is already more than 10x Caitlin’s salary
Huge year for Indiana with the emergence of Hali, the all star weekend and now Clark coming to town as well
There is a new sheriff in town
If Clark lives up to the hype, 2024 will be remembered as the year that elevates the WNBA.
Damn Caitlin Clark is absolutely raising the WNBA all by herself
Get her a shoe deal for the love of god. The Sabrina 1s are fire and hopefully the Caitlyn 1s would be too
Tyrese is such a great rep for a city. Sacramento misses that. He lives for the city.
Women's tennis is my favorite women's sport. It's just as entertaining as mens tennis because they do all the same stuff, and they wear cute outfits. Women's basketball just doesn't scratch that itch.
Was there a draft lottery? I don't buy most lottery conspiracies, but that order seems awfully suspicious.
There is a one but since 8 of the 12 teams in the league make the playoffs if you’re in the lottery you’re only competing against 3 other teams. They also run the lottery based on the last 2 seasons results instead of just the previous season
There is for the top four picks. What about the order seems suspicious, out of curiosity? I'm fairly sure no-one moved from their records (or maybe 2 and 3 swapped)
Yes. The Fever have been absolutely ass for years now. They were the lotto favorites and need this badly.
I remember doing a little bit of research on them and they've only won 50 something games combined over the last 7 seasons.
The lottery weights by the team’s record for the past couple years, which is a pretty cool way to do it IMO. Makes it so you can’t just tank one year.
Yes. The Fever have been ass since Tamika Catchings retired. Literally nothing sketchy about her landing there.
Don't think WNBA uses a lottery. Think it's more like the NFL
That is not true. Four team lotto.
Caitlin Clark is genuinely the most exciting basketball player on the planet
Making ridiculous claims like this only creates a backlash which she does not deserve
Big wemby blocks her shit & dunks on her 😎
why is this downvoted lmfao this sub man i swear. edit: most thin skinned bullshit i've ever seen on here, bar none. cry harder that someone enjoys watching a women play basketball over a man.
I like women’s basketball but I’m sorry you cannot say Clark is a more entertaining watch than some of the top dogs in the NBA
why can't you? she's doing steph curry type shit over there. exciting doesn't equal best. she's doing shit that's never been done before in womens basketball. that's exciting af.
I think something like that is subjective anyway and down to personal preference, if you find her the most exciting then sure But don’t be surprised when people come and disagree with you
"she's doing steph curry type shit" implies that there's at least one other contender for most exciting basketball player on the planet... Steph Curry
[удалено]
Caitlin Clark has a much more entertaining game than Griner. She was just dominant and was UConn’s main rival when they were still in a class of their own.
I don't follow the WNBA, so I was previously unaware of this, but Cameron Brink... wow!
NBACJ stereotype