It will take some time for Caitlin Clark's impact to be felt throughout the WNBA.
Clark enters the league as an up-and-coming superstar, but is already widely known as one of the biggest game-changers in women's basketball. Shortly after she helped set broadcast records for the NCAA Women's Final Four, she became the No. 1 overall pick in her WNBA draft, and the event garnered more TV viewership than her recent MLB and NHL drafts. I contributed to that. The Indiana Fever's ticket to drafting Clark last weekend is one of the hottest in sports. Sportico reports that Clark's jersey is already sold out, but Dick's Sporting Goods plans to sell Clark's jersey at all of its 724 stores once it is back in stock. Last year, the company sold WNBA merchandise only in select stores.
However, despite the widespread adoption of women's basketball, Clark enters a league that faces serious financial deficiencies, with players not being adequately compensated compared to the level of men's basketball. has not been completed.
“It's not enough,” Hall of Fame basketball player, Olympic gold medalist and NCAA champion Nancy Lieberman said in an interview. “We have to be better.”
It could take years to renegotiate the flow of funds for all significant deals between players, leagues, broadcast partners and other business interests.
Currently, WNBA players remain bound by the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) they signed in 2020, which governs their overall salary terms.
Although the revenue generated by the WNBA has increased since the deal was signed, it still pales in comparison to the revenue generated by the NBA.
The WNBA is expected to bring in between $180 million and $200 million in revenue for the 2023 season, according to a Bloomberg News report last year.
A WNBA spokesperson declined to comment on the report, which has not been verified by NBC News. A spokesperson also declined to discuss the league's finances.
The WNBA's revenue will match the NBA's roughly $10 billion for the season ending in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.
The WNBA's decline in revenue is the main reason for the pay disparity between the leagues that is currently making headlines nationally, and why rookies, including Clark, will be making a base salary of just $76,000 this season. is.
Of course, Clark will earn far more than that through outside sponsorship deals. And she will be eligible to receive a series of performance-based bonuses worth at least her $500,000, as well as marketing agreements with the team, the Fever and the league itself.
However, it will most likely still be below the NBA's current league minimum of around $1 million. Technically speaking, NBA rookies make slightly more than that. The exception is players in the NBA's lower level, the G League. They typically earn a seasonal salary of about $40,000.
Salary levels are not the only disparity between male and female basketball players.
NBA players share basketball-related revenue, such as broadcast rights and jersey sales, about 50-50 with owners.
The CBA signed by WNBA players only allowed revenue sharing if certain revenue criteria were met. And so far, they haven't delivered, a WNBA spokesperson acknowledged.
WNBA players can opt out of the CBA after this season, but they are likely to do so given the huge growth the women's game was experiencing even before Clark captured America's attention.
The hope is that with Clark and other young stars entering the league, more money and better conditions will be available to players in the near future.
In particular, the WNBA is prepared to negotiate new broadcast rights that increase the league's value to the point where the revenue-sharing standard becomes moot, assuming that standard still exists.
Ironically, the fate of the WNBA remains in the hands of the NBA, which controls more than 40% of the women's league.
That's why Terry Carmichael Jackson, executive director of the National Women's Basketball Players Association, called on the NBA to put the WNBA at the forefront.
“It's time for the NBA to recognize the integral role of WNBA players in shaping the future success of our league,” Carmichael Jackson said in a statement to NBC News.
She added, “We must recognize that valuing WNBA players and paying them multimillion-dollar salaries requires stronger broadcast contracts. It strengthens the business case and recognizes their value. “It is absolutely necessary to have the players at the negotiating table in order to improve their performance.”
Asked for comment, an NBA spokesperson referred NBC News to the WNBA.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement regarding the collective bargaining agreement: “We continue to look beyond the requirements of the CBA to find ways to return some of the growth we have experienced to our players.” said.
We are “increasing playoff bonuses by more than 50% and providing a $4 million budget charter.” [flight] “A full playoff program, all back-to-back games that require air travel, and a Commissioner's Cup Championship Game program,” Engelbert added.
WNBA players don't necessarily seek the same level of compensation as NBA players. Rather, as Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plumb said on an episode of the Las Vegas-centric “The Residency Podcast,” “we're looking for a payout equal to the revenue that's distributed.”
Lieberman, a Hall of Famer, said he is reluctant to make the investments needed to bring the game to the forefront on TV and elsewhere.
“Being a guru can be very lonely,” she says, adding that her success often comes from decision-makers (mostly men) who “take a leap of faith.” he added.
Lieberman's comments echoed those of University of Connecticut women's coach Geno Auriemma, who offered more explicit criticism of the WNBA's growth efforts.
“The WNBA is going to have to do a great job of marketing them,” he said in a press conference this month, referring to players like Clark and Huskies star Paige Bueckers. “And I don't think the WNBA has done a great job of marketing individual star players.”