Following being drafted No.1 overall by the Indiana Fever last week, Caitlin Clark’s rookie contract sparked outrage by fans on social media. Under the WNBA’s current collective bargaining agreement, Clark will make a base salary of $76,535 this season and $338,056 in salary over the course of four years. This is certainly a huge pay gap when comparing it to the NBA’s 2023 No.1 overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama’s four-year, $55.2 million rookie contract.
But WNBA salaries are more of an equity issue more so than an equality issue. The NBA is a 77-year-old organization that, in 2022, generated about $10 billion in revenue; on the other hand, the WNBA is only 27 years old and – according to a Bloomberg News report – was estimated to make $180 to $200 million in revenue for the 2023 season.
WNBA revenues have nearly doubled over the last four years, but the players’ portion of the profits have decreased. During the 2023 season, players’ share of revenue was estimated at about 9.3 percent, which is about a 2 percent decline from 2019. Meanwhile, NBA players receive a little bit above 50 percent of their league’s profit sharing. So long before last week’s draft, this is the disparity W players have been speaking about – receiving more basketball related income, which will increase players’ salaries and their overall player experience. Here’s how players receiving less than 50 percent BRI has impacted the W:
Limited Roster Space
Teams are allowed 12 players on their rosters, but some can only afford 11 due to the salary cap – which is the budget each team is allowed to spend on player salaries – and having multiple players on maximum contracts. The 2024 season cap is $1,463,200. It’s set to increase by 3 percent every year, maxing out at about $1,598,800 for the 2027 season. The W has a hard cap, meaning teams can’t go over the allotted number during the regular season unless the league grants a player a hardship exception – an emergency contract offered to a player by a team that has less than 11 players available to play due to injuries or illness. Many W players have been in favor of roster expansion, but it would require changes to the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires after the 2027 season. Either the league or the players have the option to terminate the CBA following the 2025 season if they provide written notice on or before Nov. 01, 2024. The players should opt out of the current CBA because there isn’t any room for growth. A 3 percent increase doesn’t even cover the minimum salary of a drafted player. This is why only 15 of the 36 draftees in 2023 appeared on opening day rosters and this will likely be the case for the 2024 season, as players will be waived during training camp.
Franchise Expansion
Maybe this is why WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has been in favor of franchise expansion. On the day of the draft, Engelbert told reporters she’s confident the league will expand to 16 teams by 2028, with a goal to bring in a 14th team by 2026. Engelbert mentioned cities like Philadelphia, Toronto, Portland, Denver, Nashville and South Florida as places the W is in discussions with for potential expansion franchises. Late last year, the W announced it’s adding a 13th team, owned by the Golden State Warriors, that will begin play with the 2025 season. Since Portland was a frontrunner for a second expansion franchise last year, it’ll likely be the 14th team added in 2026; the W hosted a preseason game in Toronto last May between the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx at Scotiabank Arena, which drew a sellout-crowd of 19, 923 fans, so Toronto will probably receive a bid for a franchise; and I like either Nashville or South Florida for the 16th franchise because those are areas experiencing continued growth, more expansion is needed in the Southeastern region and Tennessee and Florida are states that don’t tax earned income, which would be beneficial for players.
The WNBA expanding is a pressing issue, with talented rookies and veterans inevitably being cut each season due to the league’s hard salary cap, but where will the money come from to afford 11-to-12 new salaries for the Golden State franchise? The Warriors organization did agree to pay a $50 million expansion fee over the course of 10 years, so maybe there’s an exception to the cap under the current CBA for adding a new team. Nevertheless, it’s a great opportunity for players who’ve gone undrafted, who were formerly cut and who are trying out from overseas to make a WNBA roster.
Current Collective Bargaining Agreement
Under the active CBA, implemented in the 2020 season, players are receiving an increase in total cash compensation – consisting of base salary, additional performance bonuses, prize pools for newly created in-season competitions and league and team marketing deals.
But the 50-50 revenue sharing has been contingent upon the league achieving revenue growth targets from broadcast agreements, marketing partnerships and licensing deals. 2023 was the W’s most-watched regular season in 21 years and viewership across its national television partners – ABC, CBS, ESPN and ESPN 2 – was up 21 percent over the 2022 season. The league also set new highs across WNBA digital platforms, social media engagement and sports betting. And Commissioner Engelbert has even referenced how viewership, attendance, merchandise sales and sponsorship interests are growing.
If the league is evolving in the aforementioned areas, players should now be receiving or close to receiving 50 percent of basketball related income. But the players’ profit share has shrunken.
In early 2022, the W announced a $75 million capital raise. Investors included Nike; former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; former NBA players Pau Gasol and Baron Davis; WNBA legend Swin Cash and multiple NBA and WNBA owners.
The funds were expected to be used for “brand elevation, marketing… human capital and operational optimization as part of an overall effort to address some of the league’s obstacles to growth and generating new revenue.”
Chartered Flights
Under the current CBA, players fly premium economy class on commercial flights.
https://byoungncompany.com/2019/11/05/the-state-of-the-wnba-part-2/
New York Liberty owners Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai were fined $500,00 for violating the rules of the CBA by paying for charter flights for their team during the second half of the 2021 season and a trip to Napa Valley following a game against the Seattle Storm. These benefits exceeded the allowable compensation to players.
The W recently announced it will continue to pay for charter flights for the playoffs as well as back-to-back games that require air travel during the upcoming season. The league spent $4 million on charters in 2023 and plans to do the same this year.
It’s possible the $75 million raised has been set aside for future expansion franchises. And since the capital can’t be put towards player salaries because of the cap, some of it should be invested to provide charter flights for all regular season and playoff games.
Prioritization Rule
The prioritization clause requires players to prioritize the WNBA over international leagues. Since many WNBA players compete overseas to supplement their incomes, some players arrive late to W training camps, miss them entirely or even miss games at the start of the season. It was negotiated as a part of the active CBA in 2020 but didn’t go into effect until the beginning of the 2023 season. Players with more than two years of experience were required to complete overseas play and report to their WNBA teams before the start of the regular season. They were fined 1 percent of their base salary for every day of training camp they missed and suspended for the year if they failed to report by the start of the season. The rules are more challenging for 2024.
Owners wanted players to put the W first and players gained salary increases as a result of the compromise. The rule impacts some players more than others; for example, it doesn’t affect players like Candace Parker and Chiney Ogwumike, who have full-time commentator contracts with TNT and ESPN, respectively, when they’re not playing for the W. But for players like Breanna Stewart, who earns about $1.5 million per season overseas, the rule cuts into a huge source of her income.
https://byoungncompany.com/2019/10/17/the-state-of-the-wnba-part-1/#more-2143
Future Growth
Commissioner Engelbert recently mentioned that just a few years ago, the W was surviving and now the league is in transition from surviving to thriving. So maybe recent growth in revenue and capital raised has been used to recoup losses from previous years or kept in reserves to put the league in a better position to sustain future growth. The WNBA’s books aren’t open to the public, so no one fully knows the league’s financial state besides the governing bodies of the W. However – as partners with the league and the product fans support and pay to see – the players should be privy to the books, especially when trying to negotiate a new CBA. If the players opt out of the active agreement, which I expect they will, it will be the second time in six years.
Without a doubt, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s jerseys selling out, the Las Vegas Aces, Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings selling out season tickets and increased ticket prices are pivotal for the league. But it’s also important that this money is shared equally with the players.
The Players’ Union now has more leverage to negotiate a better deal upfront with the next CBA. Instead of 50-50 revenue sharing being contingent upon hitting certain growth targets, there needs to be a higher percentage of profit share that’s guaranteed for players. Also, with the heightened interests of investment – and players like Clark, Reese and many others bringing their sponsors to the W – the league should do another capital fund raise before the new CBA is implemented. This way, that revenue can be considered when setting the salary cap and allowable compensation for charter flights.
One of the complexities of the W is that some teams are owned by the NBA while others are independently owned. Some owners want to invest more and others don’t, which has been to the detriment of the players. The fundraise will allow interested team owners to invest what they want and the money can be used to benefit all WNBA franchises. The W is an organization that’s still on the rise, but there’s more than can be done right now to increase the players’ profit share. And that’s all the women are asking.
Brittany Young 