Lisa Borders, president of theWNBA, has even directlypointed to sexismas a driving reason for the discrepancies between the earnings ofmale and female players. How are you supposed to get nice equipment when you dont have the money to pay for it. I have zero doubt that one day she will prove herself worthy as an employee and that over time her compensation will match her production. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the new game.] The NBA doesn't even do that much compared to other jobs and sports. Against The Men By: Dave Seminara June 29, 2017 10 min read Over the next fortnight at The Championships, more commonly known as Wimbledon, 256. According to a 2014 study by the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, Women sports receive only 4 per cent of all . WNBA stars including Aja Wilson, Brittney Griner, Liz Cambage and Skylar Diggins-Smith have all spoken out about WNBA salaries compared to their NBA counterparts. James reportedly walked away with $370,000, while Bird only collected $11,356. It all has . Last year, total attendance for the WNBAs 12 teams reached 1,574,078, with an average attendance of 7,716 fans a new high for the 21-year-old league. Yes, Tennis Earnings At The Majors Are Biased. I know this is a controversial statement because women are never supposed to ask for more than they have, lest they be ungrateful for whatever theyve been given thus far. For example,last month theWNBAaveraged 250,000 viewers per game with a high of 378,000. The NBA usually brings in about 2 million viewers that want to sit down and watch the NBA. It took the NBA 72 years to get to where the league is today, while the WNBA is only in its 21st season. We over here looking for a [million] but Lord, let me get back in my lane. When she received pushed back on comparing her valueto one of the greatest players of all time, she responded Ohh, its about skill set? Sue Bird once said, We dont need anybody to feel bad or have sympathy for us. These numbers are justified too. If we assume the average hasn't changed, with 148 players in the league the total salaries paid to players in 2018 is about $11.1 million. The fact that NBA players get a much larger piece of the revenue pie does seem to say something about how each respective league values its players. In her defense, Wilson is a 21-year-old athlete who probably hasnt thought a great deal about economics. about what they have said to make them seem petty or jealous. Of course, the NBA rakes in far more revenue. But WNBA players only take less than 25 percent of the total earnings of their league. As fans, we deserve to see them playing at their highest level after a restful off-season. The more your business brings in, the more it can afford to pay its employees. Its understandable for someone in her position to be envious of the paychecks earned in major professional sports leagues. The organization exists to increase the number of events and the number of awards for women, as well as offering equal prize money to achieve meaningful equity in competitive surfing.. As a result, the WNBA is a little short on cash. Pay disparities between men and women is totally unfair in most arenas, but NBA star Draymond Green argued a valid point as to why NBA player salaries outweigh their WNBA counterparts. The team went on to earn the gold at the world championships, then captured its first Olympic gold in 20 years by defeating Team Canada in PyeongChang. Your email address will not be published. The segment came on the heels of the WNBA Players Association telling the league that they are opting out of the current collective bargaining agreement. This season, the maximum veteran salary is $115,500, not including potential bonuses. They shouldnt have to work so hard for so little. For decades, sports media figures have argued that interest drives coverage. At that point, whatever their salaries currently are will disappear completely. Women represent 44 percent of NFL fans, while 28 percent of women say they follow pro baseball, and 29 percent report that they follow the NBA. They deserve to be paid well. The WNBA has also been eager to experiment with social media and new streaming platforms to connect with fans. well these wnba players are going on live tv saying they want a pay increase by comparing themselves to the nba salaries. Grls smh, Lucky Jan 30, 2022 at 3:54 pm, basketball girl Feb 11, 2022 at 10:43 am, Hayden Feb 18, 2022 at 1:56 pm, David Feb 23, 2022 at 9:15 am, Lmao everything he said or typed here were cold hard facts. But let's talk about the competitiveness of the field for a minute, because, arguably, it's true: In many sports, the difference in skill and ability between the top women's athlete, and say, the 100 th-ranked women's athlete, is a much wider gulf than the same comparison between male players of similar ranks.For instance the recent women's football World Cup match between the #1 . And shes not arguing they deserve NBA-sized salaries. Heres the thing: the WNBA is not nearly as profitable as the NBA. She joined the Journalism program because loves to Former Vice President, Mike Pence, is attempting to fight a subpoena requested by the Special Counsel regarding former president Donald Trumps activities after the 2020 Chinese Balloon Shot Down by F-22 After Days Traversing the U.S. With college application season nearing an end, Centreville senior stress levels have reached their peak as students frantically try to maintain their high first semester Theatre Centreville Presents Mutually Assured Destruction, FCPS Welcomes New Misgendering and Deadnaming Policy to Punish Students (Update), OPINION: Increasing Usage of Social Media, CVHS Student Opinions on College Admissions and Standardized Testing, Donald Trump is Holding the Republican Party Back, Opinion: Walking Has Many Health Benefits, Opinion: Why The Minions Franchise Has a Positive Affect On Our Society, Opinion: Why Dr.Oz Shouldnt Win the Pennsylvania Senate Election, Opinion: Why Players in the WNBA Should Get Paid More, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window). The Players Association wants a higher share of the estimated basketball-related income (EBRI). LeBronJames is one of the greatest athletes in human history, but if his sport of choice generated the public interest theWNBAhas, he would not be signing a $154 million dollar contract. I see and hear promos for the Washington Mystics, the local WNBA team, all the time. Theyre making the most of it while they can. Yet, they still choose to play in the US because . 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. So much talent seems to go to waste because so many girls dont get drafted since theres not enough space in the league. Athletes have short careers. "There need to be more women . So even relative to other non-major professional leagues, theWNBAstruggles for relevance. WNBA players want their equal pay, but no one wants to watch their games. Hell yeah. They are not going to watch a game where the best team in the league would lose by 30 to the best high school team in the nation. 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. Machen Sie das auch? For that to happen, the WNBA needs to make a new deal with its players. The NBA's average attendance is 17,760, the WNBA's 6,535. Thats far away from here, but thats what were fighting toward.. After winning in Indian Wells at the weekend, Djokovic said: "We have much more. It is simply because the WNBA is not as good as the NBA and you cant get viewers when there is a better alternative. For the sake of the future of the WNBA and its need to stop the top players from skipping entire seasons, maybe the league should want the same thing. These women should be paid more. What a laugh. Last week, this exciting season of the WNBA ended after the Seattle Storm swept the Washington Mystics to win their third championship. The NBA makes a profit. According to Bird: So, I thought that it needed . Jahniya Marion is a Junior at Centreville High and enjoying her first year on the Journalism staff. Prior to this season, Cambage last played in the WNBA in 2013. The success of this campaign resulted in the WNBA being the first pro league to take part in the NYC Pride Parade in 2016. Ninety-five percent or higher of sports media content is focused on men, even though women make up 40 percent of all sports participants. In the past, some top male players including Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have claimed men should earn more as they attract more people. 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. WNBA players want what NBA players spent decades trying to obtain. Liz Cambage, WNBA player for the Las Vegas Aces, spoke on how her head coach, Becky Hammon, is making 4 times her salary. Perhaps higher pay in the WNBA would keep stars like Cambage in the league. But using league revenue, economics professor Dave Berri was recently able to calculate a significant gender wage gap in another respect. They have higher travel expenses. 2023 Womens Sports Foundation. I want to get paid in my country.". And its something were going to keep trying to push and push and push until we feel that everything is equal. This year, the WNBA gave companies the opportunity to sponsor a second jersey patch, while offering sponsors the chance to include a logo on the court during games that dont air on ESPN. There need to be more women and more people of color hired so we can curate our own sports stories. Furthermore, two years earlier, the league studied its fan base and discovered that 25 percent of WNBA fans identified as lesbian. Kelseys been in the WNBA for 5 seasons with a career average of 12.4ppg but she put up an average of 20.2 points/game in the 2022 season. On average, WNBA players make $75,000 a year in the league, with only a few players earning as much as $113,000. All they want is better pay equity. When it comes to me and my opinions, I strongly believe women should be paid the same amount as men maybe even more. WNBA players, who continue to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with the league, also have been outspoken about the wage gap between their pay and that of the men's teams. The maximum veteran salary is $113,500. We might not get it today, but we want a future better for maybe my daughter, or her daughter, and so thats what we really are fighting for, Serena told CNBC. They're better at dealing with kids. Over in the WNBA, total revenue hit $60 million in 2022. Are there men that cook well and deal with kids well? In the WNBA the range of salaries is $117K to $215K for the highest-paid players. As women, we have to fight, Diggins-Smith told Bleacher Report. Imaging being a player in the WNBA who maybe will make 150,000 a year for no other reason than gender. Its not a matter of gender either, its just more people are entertained by the NBA. The Women's National Basketball Association only generates $60 million per year. If you've ever gone to a high school football game, you've probably seen some of the . Boys and men pick on the league every day. And Britney Griner, in an interview with Landon Buford, echoed the sentiment . Some WNBA players can even dunk. The simple fact is that more people want to watch the NBA. The most points scored in an NBA game was 100 points and the most scored in a game was 53 points. But interest is also clearly driven by media: If a network highly values a property, itll market and promote it as a way to build an audience. Why WNBA players should be paid more? The WNBA according to the league the WNBA has yet to make a profit.. The combined salaries of Stephen Curry and LeBron James in 2017-18 likely exceed the entire revenue of the WNBA. NBA players receive 50% of revenue while WNBA players receive 20%. No one cares about the WNBA and no one watches their games lol. Basketball is a game of athleticism and skill. Fact is the average WNBA salary, slightly less than $100,000, is roughly 1.5 percent of the average NBA salary, which exceeds $7 million. From 2014 to 2017, Cambage competed in China and her native Australia. Sue Bird is 59 and 150 pounds and I think we can all agree she doesnt have a 40 vertical. is not about comparing the WNBA to the NBA as apples-to-apples salaries. For example, the average salary for a WNBA player is just over $100,000. Every once in a while, you'll get someone who claims WNBA players should be paid like LeBron James and other elite NBA talent. We need to come together as one and fix this problem. The league has more gay players and fans, percentage-wise, than any other major professional sport. The financial success of professional athletes has almost nothing to do with their talent and everything to do with the entertainment the public receives from it. In 2019 the NCAA lost $2.8 million on the womens basketball tournament. Both basketball stars won their fourth championship in October but earned very different bonuses. The off-season should be to rest their bodies and fulfill their contractual obligations for promoting the WNBA through appearances and community outreach as role models to young athletes and to spend time with their families. On average, WNBA players make $75,000 a year in the league, with only a few players earning as much as $113,000. It's not entirely clear what NBA referees make, but Yahoo.com reported a few years ago that salaries range from $150,000 to $550,000. Until they get it, some of the worlds best female basketball players will be walking off of planes and onto courts as they meet the demands of a year-round basketball schedule. Women work hard to get what they dream of. Not surprisingly, sponsorship revenue, in turn, has grown. Most people will say a lot of our income comes from the number of people we get at our games or maybe even the fact that we cant afford to have our games channelized on national TV. This has ledDavid Berri ofForbesto argue that becauseWNBAsalaries make up less than a quarter of league revenue, as opposed to the NBAs 50 percent split, theWNBAis clearly exploiting their players. working twice as hard and still getting paid less than male players do. The latest example of this economic fallacy emerged when Aja Wilson of theWNBAs Las Vegas Acestook to Twitter to pokeLeBronJamessnew contract with the Las AngelesLakers. The NBA loves supporting women, like Kyrie Irving, who is a professional mens basketball player who currently plays for the New York Nets. The money is there. , in large part, for the financial security it provides. It is ridiculous to continue this argument. I feel like were getting there.. After they won the World Cup in 2015, it was revealed that the US women's team were paid a . Undermining Berris position, though, is the simple observation that revenue is not the same as profit another measure by which theWNBAhasconsistently struggled. . And while that's not a dollar amount to sniff at, these women only have so long to earn money off their . And no one wants to see the WNBA die, least of all the players., The WNBA will suffer if they dont figure out some way to pay players more. And I dont want to lose the WNBA or miss out on seeing the best female basketball players playing in the league. She was returning to Russia to fulfill her contractual obligations to her Russian Team. Rachel Nichols, Adrian Wojnarowski, Stan Van Gundy and Chauncey Billups of The Jump discuss the news that the Women's National Basketball Players Association has opted out of its CBA, in an. We need more businesses to sign women and trust them to support their brands. Kelsey Plum currently makes $200,000/year as a point guard for the Las Vegas Aces. Britney Griner at 68 does nothing but rim grazer dunks. If we also assume that what players have done so far (prior to Friday's games) allows us to forecast each player's final production of wins in 2018 (wins produced can be measured with the player's box score statistics), then here are the fifteen most valuable players in the WNBA (in terms of their forecasted season wins production and the estimate of their salary if the WNBA was paying players like the NBA): It certainly appears that if the WNBA paid like the NBA, the top WNBA players would be paid better than what we think the top NBA referees are receiving. Playing overseas in Europe, Asia, or Australia can often pay substantially more than playing in the United States. "The International Cricket Council funded all the men's teams to fly business class but, only paid for the women's teams to fly economy class" (Wigmore). There is no difference between the girls college tournament and the WNBA. Like Russia. Now, Team USA is in Spain, about to play in the. In contrast, NBA players receive about 50% of league revenue. Since the NBA formed the WNBA I can't see how they could not just pay the men less to pay the women more. As many may not know, men get paid way more money than womens basketball does. If the WNBA doesnt figure this out, players are going to opt out of the league. Marketing researchers have discovered that consumers respond more favorably to marketing initiatives that cater to their identities. While leading to the WNBA finals in a sell-out game, Kyle Lowry, Ja Morant, Ty Lue, Alvin Gentry, and Demarcus Cousins all attended the WNBA finals this year. Answer (1 of 2): The WNBA is heavily subsidized by the NBA; but for this fact, the WNBA would have folded a long time ago. I can't even fathom why anyone would need to be paid $42 million while other players of the same talent would be paid so much less. They say we are boring or dont play the game the right way. If Women and Men athletes were paid more equitably then Britney wouldn't have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. In order to make a living playing basketball, most WNBA players compete overseas during the offseason to supplement their WNBA income. Yes they are. Be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray, Twitter Bans Sen. Mike Lee After He Shared Federalist Article Criticizing Biden Foreign Policy, Making Tiger Woods Apologize For Teasing Justin Thomas Is Ridiculous, Congress Should Subpoena MLBs Rob Manfred To Admit All-Star Georgia Boycott Was A Partisan Pretense, Theres Nothing Controversial About Bethany Hamiltons Stand For Womens Sports, A Star NFL Player Choosing To Drive A Kia Is Not As Silly As It Seems, EXCLUSIVE: House Weaponization Committee To Focus On The Twitter Files In Second Hearing, 5 Things Aaron Rodgers May Have Encountered During His Darkness Retreat, Federal Court Says Pro-Life Maternal Care Centers Dont Have To Hire Abortion Activists. For that to happen, the WNBA is not about comparing the WNBA doesnt figure this out, players going... This problem WNBA player is just over $ 100,000 to go to waste because so many girls get! Million per year: the WNBA is only in its 21st season in China and her native.! 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Team USA is in Spain, about to play in the WNBA & # ;! Wnba doesnt figure this out, players are going on live tv saying they want a increase... Of course, the league 17,760, the maximum veteran salary is $ 115,500, including... Not just pay the men less to pay the women more comparing themselves to the NBA the... So we can all agree she doesnt have a 40 vertical there men that cook and... Simply because the WNBA I ca n't see how they could not just pay the men less to its... Their brands stars won their fourth championship in October but earned very different bonuses miss out on seeing the female... A 21-year-old athlete who probably hasnt thought a great deal about economics either, its just more of... The first pro league to take part in the league every day but using league revenue only collected $.! Needs to make a profit sit down and watch the NBA salaries have work. Basketball-Related income ( EBRI ) the NYC Pride Parade in 2016 from 2014 to 2017, Cambage competed China... Its 21st season the simple observation that revenue is not about comparing the WNBA in.. Go to waste because so many girls dont get drafted since theres not enough space in league... Down and watch the NBA and her native Australia Journalism staff Marion is Junior!