Players in the WNBA may get more money, but significant reforms are needed to make that happen.

• Even with its growing popularity, the WNBA still only brings in a small portion of the NBA’s earnings, which makes it difficult for women’s wages to catch up to those of males.

TFD – Explore the challenges and opportunities in women’s basketball as the WNBA strives to market its players and close the earnings gap with the NBA. With rising stars like Caitlin Clark, the conversation around empowering women’s basketball gains momentum. Join us in unlocking the potential of WNBA stars and supporting their journey to success.

The Caitlin Clark impact won’t be felt by all players in the WNBA right away.

Clark enters the league as a budding superstar who is already widely recognized as having been the biggest figure in a sea change for women’s basketball. Shortly after she helped the NCAA women’s Final Four set broadcasting records, she went first overall in the WNBA draft, helping the event draw a bigger TV viewership than the most recent MLB and NHL drafts. Tickets for the Indiana Fever, who drafted Clark last weekend, are the hottest in the sport. Clark’s jersey has already sold out — though Dick’s Sporting Goods intends to sell Clark name and number T-shirts in all 724 of its locations, according to a company spokesperson. Last year, it sold WNBA merch in only a fraction of its stores.

However, despite the fact that women’s basketball is growing significantly, Clark joins a league that has seen severe financial difficulties, meaning that its players receive far less money than their male counterparts.

Nancy Lieberman, a gold medallist at the Olympics, an NCAA champion, and a member of the Hall of Fame basketball team, stated in an interview that “it’s not good enough.” “It needs to improve.

Renegotiating the money flow might take several years because to all the important relationships that are in place between players, the league, television partners, and other corporate interests.

The collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, that WNBA players signed in 2020 still governs their total compensation arrangements as of right now.

The WNBA’s earnings have increased since the contract was signed, but they are still not as high as the NBA’s.

According to a Bloomberg News story from the previous year, the WNBA was expected to bring in between $180 million and $200 million in revenue in 2023.

An WNBA representative declined to comment on the story, which hasn’t been confirmed by NBC News. The representative also declined to talk about the league’s finances.

In the most recent year for which data is available, the 2022 season, the WNBA’s income was $10 billion, while the NBA’s revenue was around the same.

The pay gap between the leagues, which has recently made national news, is largely due to the WNBA’s lesser earnings. As a result, rookies like Clark will only receive a base salary of $76,000 this season.

Naturally, Clark will make a lot more money from outside sponsorship agreements than that. In addition, she qualifies for a variety of marketing opportunities and performance-based incentives worth at least $500,000. These are offered by the league, her team, the Fever.

However, that would still probably fall short of the $1 million league minimum that the NBA now has. Rookies in the NBA technically make a little bit more than that. The exception are players in the G League, the NBA’s lower tier, who normally make roughly $40,000 a season.

There is more to the compensation disparity between male and female basketball players.

NBA players and owners share around 50/50 of the so-called basketball-related profits, such as broadcast money and jersey sales.

Revenue sharing was only permitted under the terms of the CBA that WNBA players signed if specific revenue levels were reached. And they haven’t succeeded thus far, a WNBA representative acknowledged.

After this season, WNBA players have the option to opt out of their CBA; considering the tremendous growth the women’s game has been enwjoying even prior to Clark capturing America’s attention, it seems likely that they will.

The hope is that with Clark and other young stars entering the league, there will soon be more money and better terms for its players.

The WNBA, in particular, is about to negotiate a new set of TV rights that will raise the league’s worth to the point where, if the thresholds even stay in place, the revenue sharing requirement would become meaningless.

Strangely, the NBA, which owns more than 40% of the women’s league, still has power over the WNBA.

Terri Carol Jackson, the executive director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, has therefore urged the NBA to prioritize the WNBA.

Carmichael Jackson told NBC News in a statement, “It’s time the NBA recognizes the indispensable role of WNBA players in shaping the league’s future success.”

They must acknowledge that a stronger broadcast deal is necessary to value WNBA players and pay million-dollar salaries, and that players must be present at the negotiating table to strengthen the business case and drive home their value,” the speaker went on.

When NBC News asked for a statement, an NBA representative directed them to the WNBA.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert made the following statement in reference to the collective bargaining agreement: “We continue to find ways to return some of the growth we have been experiencing to the players beyond what the CBA requires.”

We’re “increasing playoff bonuses by over 50% and providing a $4 million budgeted charter [flight] program for full playoffs, all back-to-backs requiring air travel, and the Commissioner Cup Championship Game,” Engelbert added.

It’s not a given that WNBA players demand the same pay scales as their NBA colleagues. Instead, as Las Vegas Aces player Kelsey Plum stated, “We’re asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue shared,” during an edition of the Vegas-focused podcast “The Residency Podcast.

The Hall of Famer Lieberman claimed that money that would have been needed to prominently display the game on television or in other media has not been willingly invested.

“Being the first can be very lonely,” she observed, noting that decision-makers who had “taken a leap of faith” had frequently been responsible for her achievement. These decision-makers were primarily men.

Lieberman’s remarks were similar to those of Geno Auriemma, the women’s coach at the University of Connecticut, who was far more pointed in his condemnation of the WNBA’s expansion initiatives.

“The WNBA is going to have to do a great job of marketing these guys,” he said at a news conference this month, referring to players like Clark and Huskies star Paige Bueckers. “And I don’t think the WNBA has done a very good job of promoting each of its individual stars.”

“The WNBA is going to have to do a great job of marketing these guys,” he said at a news conference this month, referring to players like Clark and Huskies star Paige Bueckers. “And I don’t think the WNBA has done a very good job of promoting each of its individual stars.”