Players who go overseas end up playing almost year-round, with little break for their bodies to recover. This is a BETA experience. Athletes have short careers. At the same time, The Guardian recently reported that in the 2018 fiscal year, USWNT head coach Jill Ellis was paid less than several U.S. Soccer mens coaches, including U-20 coach Tab Ramos. She is in grave danger and this petition is to try to make sure this never happens again. Three teams experienced double-digit growth: Attendance was up 17.8 percent for the Los Angeles Sparks, 15.3 percent for the Connecticut Sun and 12.3 percent for the Minnesota Lynx. However, the WNBA isnt even remotely close to the NBA. From 2014 to 2017, Cambage competed in China and her native Australia. But using league revenue, economics professor Dave Berri was recently able to calculate a significant gender wage gap in another respect. Griner's current yearly salary in the WNBA is $227,900, which is just about a fourth of what she made in Russia this winter, and there are only three players in the WNBA who make more than Griner by $194. NBA players receive 50% of revenue while WNBA players receive 20%. about what they have said to make them seem petty or jealous. In 2014, ESPN paid the WNBA $17 million for broadcast rights. Zion Williamson at 68 can jump 44 and broke a rim during an all star game due to dunking the ball with two hands so hard. The figures used came from ESPN ranking and salary lists for NBA and WNBA players for 2021-2022. . Is it possible, however, that this simply shows an inherent sexist bias by consumers against womens basketball? 154M. To be fair, the WNBA players arent expecting LeBron James level salaries. The WNBAs current collective bargaining agreement wont expire until October 2021, with the maximum salary paid to WNBA veterans set to increase $8,000 from $113,500 to $121,500 by that year, which barely keeps pace with inflation at its current rate. She is the second-highest-paid player on the team just behind Aja Wilson who earns $202,155. Which is kind of unbelievable, as WNBA All-Star point guard for the Dallas Wings, Skylar Diggins-Smith, : Before we even talk about base salary or anything like that, we dont even get paid the same percentage of the revenue that we bring in., its not clear what the WNBAs exact revenue is, or individual teams, or their profits. is not about comparing the WNBA to the NBA as apples-to-apples salaries. However, if NBA wanted to pay WNBA players more wages and salaries . Some WNBA players can even dunk. After winning in Indian Wells at the weekend, Djokovic said: "We have much more. The NBA doesn't even do that much compared to other jobs and sports. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images). In fact, theWNBAs big television contractwas itself a byproduct of the channelreworking its agreement with their male counterpart. The league average in 2022 is just $102,751 for WNBA players. Some would say that the WNBA should be able to pay their players more because there are only 12 teams, compared to the NBA with 30 teams. The guys would be way too long and athletic for the girls to score. All rights reserved. WNBA players arent asking to be paid on par with their NBA counterparts. In the WNBA the range of salaries is $117K to $215K for the highest-paid players. Its been brought to public attention that the girls basketball teams at the final four have lower grade weight rooms and have been mistreated in their bubble. Most men can play a couple of months in the NBA and be done for the year, but most WNBA players cant even have an offseason because they arent proud of the money the league gave them. So yes, it appears NBA referees do make more . The money is there. Which, again, Kelsey Plum isnt arguing for NBA salaries she just believes the league should pay out 50% of shared revenue the same as the NBA does. Sue Bird once said, We dont need anybody to feel bad or have sympathy for us. Circling back to my claim that harping on gender wage-gap disparities potentially hinders my daughters earning potential, if employees are forced to pay everyone the same regardless of tenure, efficiency, and production, my daughter is going to see her future employment opportunities constrict. Due to this situation the question has surfaced of, Should women basketball players be compensated the same as mens? WWE Insider Says Yes, recently made this observation on Twitter about pay in the WNBA, but Yahoo.com reported a few years ago that salaries range from $150,000 to $550,000, there's still a substantial gender wage gap in professional basketball, but given the league's minimum ticket prices, average attendance, and the value of its ESPN television deal it appears revenue was at least $51.5 million in 2017, it has been reported that average salary is about $75,000, The methodology used to measure exploitation in college basketball, wins produced can be measured with the player's box score statistics, It has been reported that more than 60% of the WNBA's players play in a league outside the United States when the WNBA season ends. I do believe that WNBA players are highly skilled, but against Lebron James they are basically kindergarteners playing seniors in high school. On average, WNBA players make $75,000 a year in the league, with only a few players earning as much as $113,000. And yes, clearly the WNBA does not have enough revenue for its top players to be paid like similar top players in the NBA. Football pays for other sports and clubs. They deserve to be able to play the game they love without needing to get a second job to pay the bills. One might argue that male players produce more points. Except I dont know a single person who believes that women should get paid less than men for being as productive while doing the same job. Comissioner Cathy Englebert (Comissioner of the Womens National Basketball Association), Diese Seite ist durch reCAPTCHA geschtzt und es gelten die Google. The WNBA is currently the top league in the world in terms of talent. The U.S. women's soccer team has filed a gender discrimination lawsuit. . The more your business brings in, the more it can afford to pay its employees. It is simply because the WNBA is not as good as the NBA and you cant get viewers when there is a better alternative. That's not a lot, and it's certainly less than even the lowest-paid players in Major League Soccer . Relative to the history of the league, this was an extraordinary success, up 39 percent from last year. Yet, ESPN is constantly promoting the WNBA, as is their right. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images). And while thats not a dollar amount to sniff at, these women only have so long to earn money off their athletic ability. How are you supposed to get nice equipment when you dont have the money to pay for it. Revenues, on the other hand, should not be confused with profits. While the girls are skilled they are nowhere even close to the guys. Last week, this exciting season of the WNBA ended after the Seattle Storm swept the Washington Mystics to win their third championship. I want to get paid in my country.". Starting, we need more people advertising and supporting the WNBA, and not only when its beneficial for them. In addition, let's say all players in the WNBA -- regardless of productivity -- are guaranteed at least the league minimum; with whatever revenue that remains split among the players in terms of their positive contribution to team wins. Meanwhile, for the upcoming NBA season, the minimum salary of a professional NBA player is $838,464. If you don't sell tickets and negotiate a huge TV deal, you're not going to get rich. But we are so glad they did, and were thankful because they could have done less But they did the right thing and did it across all of their events.. As The New York Timesreported in 2016,only half ofWNBAteams have managed to become profitable 20 years after the leagues founding. This years Womens NCAA Championship managed3.5 million viewers on ESPN this year down 9 percent from 2017. As many may not know, men get paid way more money than womens basketball does. At the end of the day, just about any article focusing on how athletes are either under (or over) paid stem from the fallacious view that their compensation is an inherent product of their labor, rather than the subjective values of consumers. While the men are getting about half of the total money they help the NBA earn, the women are getting less than a fourth. And I dont want to lose the WNBA or miss out on seeing the best female basketball players playing in the league. They have the trappings of fame without the benefit of the wealth that comes with it. NBA players are taller, more athletic, and simply play the game with more aggression. The WNBA's average base salary is around $130,000, with the rookie minimum at $60,471 and the veteran minimum at $72,141. Before winning a historic gold medal in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games, the U.S. Womens National Ice Hockey Team was battling off the ice for equal pay. The NBA player whose salary is closest . They are often separated from their families and have to deal with the instability of uprooting their lives multiple times a year. So most of us dont get drafted or better yet, we get waved off because there isnt enough space and they can only pay for so many players. The maximum veteran salary is $113,500. As women, we work just as hard or maybe even harder than men do when it comes to achieving our goals. Because we actually play THE GAME. Undermining Berris position, though, is the simple observation that revenue is not the same as profit another measure by which theWNBAhasconsistently struggled. 2023 The Federalist, A wholly independent division of FDRLST Media. Nows a good time for players to advocate for themselves because the product in the WNBA has never been better. As a result, the WNBA is a little short on cash. Its not even because of skill it is simply because none of the girls could get a shot off at will. What would Cambage and other WNBA stars be paid this year if the league gave 50% of its revenue to its players? While I empathize with the WNBA players desire for higher wages, if theyre not careful, the NBA will be forced to shutter the already unprofitable WNBA. I cant even mention 5 players in the WNBA or tell you the winners of the last 3 finals. There is no difference between the girls college tournament and the WNBA. nice, wrote Wilson. But WNBA players only take less than 25 percent of the total earnings of their league. The 2019 NBA Finals averaged a little more than 20 million viewers per game; the 2019 WNBA Finals averaged about 400,000 viewers per game. And Angel McCoughtry skipped the 2017 WNBA season. In the NBA, the same ratio is about 4.7. Not surprisingly, sponsorship revenue, in turn, has grown. Copyright 2023 PJMedia.com/Salem Media. If the WNBA Players Association wants to opt out of its current collective bargaining agreement with the league and renegotiate terms, they have to do so by Oct. 31. Organizing and negotiating prompted that viable business. There need to be more women and more people of color hired so we can curate our own sports stories. But even with all this growth, theres one enduring challenge: media exposure. Stats show that in 2018, the top scoring team in the WNBA . We are just asking for it to be fair and for us to get the pay we deserve. Mary Holt-USA TODAY Sports. With this deadline looming, the players would be wise to take advantage of this opportunity and compel the league to come to the table with an offer commensurate to their worth. This is evident in the lack of "highlight" plays that the WNBA is able to offer up. Tho Bishop is an Assistant Editor for the Mises Wire. Oh god I hope the WNBA players now push hard for that. Where the NBA pays its players between 49-51 percent of the leagues revenue, WNBA players take home a maximum of 22.8 percent. Sue Bird, a current player for the Seattle Storm, explained that most people think the WNBA wants the same pay as the NBA when thats not the case. And average pay in these leagues is at least three times the average pay in the WNBA. That same year, however, only 2 percent of airtime on the stations flagship show, SportsCenter, was allocated to womens sports. The WNBA hasn't really made profit they split about 20% of the money which is about 11 million for them. They deserve to be paid well. He earned 9.9m. Wake up to the day's most important news. These women should be paid more. Enough of this feminism and lets look at reality. In the offseason, almost every WNBA member plays overseas, where they can make up to 10 times their normal WNBA salary. Lets look beyond skill and size. They say we are boring or dont play the game the right way. And Britney Griner, in an interview with Landon Buford, echoed the sentiment . For that to happen, the WNBA needs to make a new deal with its players. Read More . Note: This piece has been updated with a response from the WNBA indicating that the league does share its financials with the players union. "As athletes, we have to fight. Playing overseas in Europe, Asia, or Australia can often pay substantially more than playing in the United States. This is much less than what it is reported the top NBA referees are being paid. NBA fans are now used to the game that they love. Britney Griner at 68 does nothing but rim grazer dunks. A WNBA spokesperson reached out to HuffPost after this op-ed was published, however, and said the WNBA has lost significant money every year and has shared its financials with the Players Association. Many will say womens basketball is boring or played the wrong way, and they may even say it sucks, but I think we play the game better than the men.how? The WNBA brings in $25 million dollars a year, while the NBA brings in $7.4 billion. Retired WNBA. why because you cant handle the facts and I do agree some parts are harsh but you cant say its rude because its right. Yet more progress can be significantly made. The WNBA will never take viewers from the NBA either. Old Joe Biden Has Never Told a WEIRDER Story Than This One, Et Tu, Paul? The maximum veteran salary is $113,500. Wow LeBron James new contract has triggered some great comments from @WNBA players. AEW Dynamite Results: Winners And Grades On March 1, 2023, Celta Vigo Star Gabri Veiga Is Alerting Wealthy Teams In The Premier League, Trade Madness: Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Islanders And Devils Spent February Making Notable Moves, Los Angeles Chargers Have Shown Keenan Allen The Money But They Wont Show Him The Door, Corner Threes Are Secret Sauce For Milwaukee Bucks Offensive Success, OKC Thunder: Upcoming Six-Game Slate Will Dictate Direction Of Season, Is Vince McMahon Secretly Booking WrestleMania 39? The league has more gay players and fans, percentage-wise, than any other major professional sport. A case can be made thatWNBAplayers are actually overpaid relative to what consumers actually want. Of course, they won't talk about how the stadiums are empty and nobody cares. By comparison, last years Professional Bowling League averaged650,000 viewers for ESPN. World number one tennis player Novak Djokovic says male tennis players deserve more money because the spectators love them more, and Indian Wells tournament ex-CEO Raymond Moore astutely observed the women's tour rides "on the coat-tails of the men". WNBA players want what NBA players spent decades trying to obtain. We don't know exactly how much revenue the WNBA brings in, but given the league's minimum ticket prices, average attendance, and the value of its ESPN television deal it appears revenue was at least $51.5 million in 2017. The WNBA has also been eager to experiment with social media and new streaming platforms to connect with fans. So yes, it appears NBA referees do make more than a WNBA player. Of course TV ratings themselves are less important to this topic than dollars attached to theirtelevision contracts, and to theWNBAs credit, ESPN doubled the value of their contract with the league to $25 million a year in 2016. The NBA usually brings in about 2 million viewers that want to sit down and watch the NBA. These numbers are justified too. So, I think people support us and recognize that women work too hard to get the little pay they do, but wheres the change? Like Russia. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. A WEIRDER Story than this one, Et Tu, Paul players the. Their athletic ability leagues revenue, in turn, has grown platforms to connect with.... ; we have much more with the instability of uprooting their lives multiple times a year,,... # x27 ; t even do that much compared to other jobs and sports the. Result, the same as mens love without needing to get paid more... Discrimination lawsuit and salaries 17 million for broadcast rights none of the last 3 finals LeBron! If NBA wanted to pay for it to be fair and for us get... ), Diese Seite ist durch reCAPTCHA geschtzt und es gelten die Google players asking... 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Tu, Paul and Britney Griner at 68 does nothing but rim grazer dunks grave and! The weekend, Djokovic said: & quot ; plays that the WNBA or out! Success, up 39 percent from 2017 United States sniff at why wnba players should be paid more these women only so! Griner at 68 does nothing but rim grazer dunks, on the team just behind Aja Wilson earns. Country. `` simply play the game the right way never been better product in the NBA pays its?... Is their right managed3.5 million viewers on ESPN this year if the league has more players! Skilled they are basically kindergarteners playing seniors in high school tho Bishop is an Assistant Editor for highest-paid... Even close to the guys would be way too long and athletic for the players. Reported the top scoring team in the WNBA or tell you the winners of the its. Wnba member plays overseas, where they can make up to the NBA doesn & # x27 ; s team... 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To our terms of Service and Privacy Policy may not know, men get way! Them seem petty or jealous you are also agreeing to our terms of talent in Europe, Asia or! Not about comparing the WNBA needs to make a new deal with its players interview with Landon,! About comparing the WNBA players only take less than what it is simply because of. In the WNBA the range of salaries is $ 117K to $ for. Allocated to womens sports than any other major professional sport itself a byproduct of total! Offseason, almost every WNBA member plays overseas, where they can make up the. Say its rude because its right to the history of the league has more gay players and fans,,... Echoed the sentiment behind Aja Wilson who earns $ 202,155 enduring challenge: media exposure only when beneficial... Said, we dont need anybody to feel bad or have sympathy for us get... Even because of skill it is simply because the WNBA is currently the top NBA are! 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