fbpx

why wnba players should not be paid more

    why wnba players should not be paid more

    It would seriously impair our ability to support our mission and invest in these other critical developmental areas.". Putting together all of the factors that affect league revenues -- investment, time and media -- it's apparent that most women's sports have struggled for years with what the Statista report calls a vicious cycle, which reverses the pattern that college softball has experienced. For instance, NBA teams took in a total of $8.8 billion this year, according to Forbes. Last year, Minnesota Lynxs Seimone Augustus told The Undefeated that the reasons players continue in the league is for history and for the future. UFC Star Hannah Goldys Latest Bathing Suit Photo Goes Viral, Antonio Browns AFL Team In Chaos Amid Suspensions, Reports Of Players Not Being Paid, Former Teammate Appears To Confirm Rumors About LeBrons Meme-Worthy Pregame Ritual, It Took Trevor Bauer Just 3 Starts To Tick Off One Of His Japanese Teammates, Country Star Lainey Wilsons Latest Tour Outfit Goes Viral, Fans Had Some Wildly Differing Reactions To Emma Watson Launching Her Own Gin Brand, Hungry Museum Visitor Eats Viral Modern Art Piece That Once Sold For $120K, Mark Wahlberg Addresses Rumors Of An Entourage Reboot And How Hed Feel About It, Charge Up Your Summer With 5-hour ENERGY For A Chance To Win An Electric ATV, Get These Ultra-Tough GORUCK Backpacks At Huckberry Before Theyre Gone, Catch These Movies FREE On Plex This May Before Theyre Gone, BKFC 41 Live Stream How To Watch On FITE TV. And for the first time, gamers could play with WNBA players in NBA Live 18. Under the old CBA, athletes who had children lost pay when they lost work time; now they will have maternity leave with full compensation, plus space set aside in arenas for nursing. Demanding that female players be paid what they deserve is not about comparing the WNBA to the NBA as apples-to-apples salaries. That risk/reward ratio, combined with restricted-free-agency rules, has created more incentive to tank for teams in the WNBA than for those in any other major sport. Many NBA players are vocal in their support of the womens league because of the quality of play and because they understand the hard work these women put into their game. Theyre making the most of it while they can. Consequently, it is not surprising to learn that in 1970-71, NBA players were paid 27 percent of league revenue. The rate continues to go up this season, as shown by . 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. In actuality, the WNBA's all-time assists leader said she believes that calls for equality between men's and women's professional basketball are less about exorbitant salaries than about equal investment and exposure for the WNBA. Total attendance in the WNBAs 21st season was 1,574,078, with teams averaging 7,716 fans per game. When Carlos Cordeiro, then president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, began speaking in front of City Hall, shouts drowned him out: At that time, U.S. Soccer was already battling the women's national team in court, after all 28 members sued their national federation in March 2019 for "purposeful gender discrimination." But the league has agreed to prepare and promote players for coaching and other jobs in the offseason. On May 1, a federal judge sided with U.S. Soccer on most of the key issues at stake in the lawsuit. The raw numbers make it easy to assume that women make less money simply because fans prefer men's games -- that pay follows revenues, and revenues follow popularity. Bird said direct comparisons like the one above "comes back on me.". But the NBAs politically correct heart has room to grow a few sizes. FIFA commingles broadcasting rights and sponsorships for the men's and women's tournaments. That's the chain reaction of network externalities. Bangladeshis are exceptionally active due to the countrys primary industries which require physical labour. Obviously, if a player can only negotiate with one team, their salary will be depressed. Many of the women dont get lucrative endorsements, and getting into broadcasting or some other sports-adjacent field once they retire is not guaranteed. The two sides channeled that willingness into the areas Engelbert and the league's negotiators discussed with Jackson, Ogwumike and the players, and reached an eight-year agreement in January. In 2015, the WNBA averaged 202,000 viewers on ESPN and ESPN2. It's when the number of people with them grows that the devices become valuable. The WNBA has reached an agreement with the players union to phase in pay rises, getting the average up to $130,000 and the top players over $500,000 by 2027. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson One might argue that male players produce more points. This was a stellar season, where the final eight teams that made the playoffs werent determined until the last few games. WNBA players arent asking for NBA level compensation. He estimated that WNBA player salaries constitute 22 percent of league revenue, while NBA player salaries amount to roughly 50 percent of league revenues. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. 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. "No one should expect any women's sports league to have the following we see in men's professional sports today," Berri says. As Berri puts it: "Men love investing in men's sports.". Until recently, it seemed that, at least from a business perspective, FIFA pursued that strategy because the money it brought in from the men's tournament dwarfed that from the women's game. She is the second-highest-paid player on the team just behind Aja Wilson who earns $202,155. Piece together all of these revelations about how the highest level of women's soccer has been functioning and you'll notice a new horizon is looming for the sport. Last week, this exciting season of the WNBA ended after the Seattle Storm swept the Washington Mystics to win their third championship. Last year, Delanie Gourley, a star pitcher in National Pro Fastpitch softball, disclosed that she makes less than a Yankees bat boy. Players in the WNBA get paid significantly less than NBA players, have less opportunities for branding partnerships and support, and are arguably putting more on the line than their male . Where is the fair days wage for the fair days work? And I dont want to lose the WNBA or miss out on seeing the best female basketball players playing in the league. And while thats not a dollar amount to sniff at, these women only have so long to earn money off their athletic ability. "The good news is that folks outside the federation, from sponsors to broadcasters to partners, are incredibly bullish on the U.S. women's national team and on women's football," Levinson says. The ability to turn inputs into outputs is what economists call productivity. As David Berri wrote for Forbes recently. Over in the WNBA, total revenue hit $60 million in 2022. While speaking with WNBA legends Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, the NBA legend called out American companies for not investing more in the WNBA, because, otherwise, the players could earn enough money to not have to play in international leagues in the offseason. "It's more merit-based, it will make us feel more professional and well-established, and kids are going to be able to see you can have a full-on career in the WNBA.". Has commitment been equal? If there's a way forward, it might be thanks to one more surprise from the past few months: The WNBA's new CBA is fundamentally different from every past labor agreement in women's sports. It has lost the support of the men's national team, which has accused U.S. Soccer of "working very hard to sell a false narrative" and called for a sharp increase in women's compensation. In a way, this strategy makes perfect sense. This has been a common complaint from some of the best. Last season, Ogwumike earned $115,000. As important as the equal pay lawsuit is for the players who are seeking back pay and damages, it's essentially about the past. Nancy Lough does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Finally, sports need media to reach their full potential. Any sport needs three kinds of support to grow into a large-scale, sustainable business. By clicking Sign Up, you also agree to marketing emails from both Insider and Morning Brew; and you accept Insiders. Today, grassroots support for the national teams seem to be at parity. Matches across the 2019 Women's World Cup, for example, had an average live viewership of 17.3 million people, a whopping 106% more than the 2015 WWC. ", FIFA has a notoriously checkered past with women athletes. These deals have been great for teams -- and for MLS; its expansion fee has rocketed to $325 million. The WNBA is a great product but yall should not have to do to these crap countries to make money, Barkley said. However, in the 1971-1972 season the year the NBA started drawing the same number of fans that the WNBA attracts today the average salary was $90,000, which would equate to roughly $500,000 today. Diggins-Smith has made hundreds of thousands of dollars during her five seasons in the WNBA, yet she feels its unfair that she makes considerably less than NBA players. And if Russian police detaining one of the most prolific dunkers in womens basketball who makes four times her U.S. salary by playing overseas in the offseason isn't enough to make people realize we need to be paying WNBA players more, I dont know what will. The women's national team filed a wage discrimination act against US Soccer, and in turn received a significant raise, increased game bonuses, improved per diem stipends, better travel benefits,. The NFL was the same age in 1943, a year when it fielded only eight teams, including the Brooklyn Dodgers, and averaged a third of its 2019 per-game attendance. The WNBA players get paid less than $80,000 averagely in 2019-20, while NBA players earned $7.4 million averagely in the same period (Berri, 2020). The biggest lesson: Today's athletes are asking for something even bigger than the strict definition of "pay equity." It took the NBA 72 years to get to where the league is today, while the WNBA is only in its 21st season. This is about more than pay; it's about recognition for their hard work as athletes. That is a staggering gap. But when it comes to getting the kind of daily, comprehensive news, analysis and statistics that multiple media outlets and platforms routinely provide for men's teams, most women's sports still lag. That includes outlays by committed owners with deep pockets, rather than the unstable financing that has so often plagued franchises in women's sports. Please, enable JavaScript and reload the page to enjoy our modern features. Of 199 countries for which the World Bank has GDP data for, in 2012 Bangladesh ranked 175th. Critically, they have called on U.S. Soccer to spend more on marketing, in part by investing much more in the NWSL. It is true that on average, female athletes are paid far less than male athletes. "These are businesses, and none of us are out there saying we want to be paid the exact same as the men," says 17-year WNBA veteran Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm. Last month, Russian authorities arrested WNBA star Brittney Griner at the Moscow airport after they found cannabis vape cartridges in her luggage. A post shared by Kelsey Plum (@kelseyplum10). Can you guess in which season they rested Diana Taurasi and earned the league's No. And no one wants to see the WNBA die, least of all the players. Not surprisingly, sponsorship revenue, in turn, has grown. They are often separated from their families and have to deal with the instability of uprooting their lives multiple times a year. But because the WNBA has a strict salary cap that . Sue Bird and her WNBA colleagues want "the same media coverage and the corporate sponsor looks" as the NBA receives. Yet much progress has been made on this front, and the league has found particularly innovative ways to promote its players, grow its fan base and tap into new revenue streams. So Barbosa will be paid nearly five times what the WNBA MVP earned, and Barbosa wont even play for the Suns. 'Thank you to Auntie Shania': Washington State team sees its idol, Fantasy women's basketball: Why to focus on guards early in your draft. In 2017, ESPN stayed with a WCWS game that went to extra innings instead of switching to a previously scheduled MLB broadcast. The disparity is so wide that the money pulls skilled men into a career in sports, while the lack of money makes it impossible for many talented women to earn a living as an athlete. At the end of the day, people will still complain that the WNBA is boring, less competitive and that theres no dunking. AT THE NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte in 2019, where athletes met to discuss their collective bargaining agreement, NBA commissioner Adam Silver ran into Terri Jackson, executive director of the WNBA Players Association. It's not about the amount of effort or the quantity of inputs. Clearly, the WNBA still needs to work on establishing its long-term viability, and some might argue that the players shouldnt request raises until the league has become more financially stable. "This new CBA is going to dramatically change how this league operates," Bird says. TV viewership tells a similar story. MALE AND FEMALE athletes are paid on entirely different scales, to the extent that examples can seem literally unbelievable. Dallas Wings point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith recently told Wealthsimple that she wanted to be paid like a man. Bird and Ray's conversation stemmed from graphics that began circulating on social media after both Bird, and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James won their fourth WNBA and NBA titles, respectively, during the 2020 season. WNBA players arent asking to be paid on par with their NBA counterparts. Griners 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. Plenty of signs indicate that will happen, and it should. Sydney Miller is a senior psychology major. From the point of view of the team owners, the measure of output that matters is the revenue the players generate. "Their attendance is. Another argument is that women's national teams for sports like soccer have far more success than the men's national team. I'm not going to call out some of the bad NBA players we got in commercials but y'all know who they are." In 2023, the highest average WNBA salary is held by Aces guard Jackie Young as she . As demands for equal pay spark across arenas, boardrooms, TV screens, Twitter feeds and even presidential campaigns, it's time to take a deeper look. As former WNBA President Laurel Richie noted in 2014, For us its a celebration of diversity and inclusion and recognition of an audience that has been with us very passionately.. But there's no clear business reason for FIFA to keep acting like the Women's World Cup is worth less than 10% of the men's game. Suppose we take the various rates of compensation for the men's national team -- bonuses for appearances and wins in friendlies, tournaments and World Cups -- and apply them to the members of the women's national team, player by player. The minimum salary for an NBA player for the 2018-19 season will be $838,464. "I'm like, 'Oh, where's our world going?'". This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except for material where copyright is reserved by a party other than FEE. The first two categories were exactly the same for each, but the final two were markedly different. From 1990 to 2012, for instance, MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL teams got a mammoth $17 billion in public funds for new homes, according to research by economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson. If the WNBA doesnt figure this out, players are going to opt out of the league. Therefore, it is not surprising the WNBA pays lower salariesIn 2017, the WNBA posted its highest attendance in six years. Total revenue for the NBA hit $7.4 billion in 2022. It would collapse without the support of the NBA, and it can't afford to pay the players more. Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. Kevin Durant doesnt produce more basketball per hour worked than Breanna Stewart, the Seattle Storm forward who claimed the WNBA MVP award in just her third season. But in stark contrast the highest-paid WNBA players in 2022Diana Taurasi, Jewell Loyd, and Breanna Stewarteach earned . You can make a case that WNBA players could be paid more, but some people are making an argument that they should be paid the same, or at least similarly. Over the past two years, U.S. Soccer has spent half its budget (which was $131.8 million in 2019) on management expenses and youth programs and devoted less than 30% to athlete pay and benefits. "I say this totally real I don't think we should get the same money as NBA players," Bird said. Thats their prerogative. They cant. The NBA commissioner complained publicly that the WNBA was losing more than $10 million a year, but that number said more about how the women's game was still small scale than about any significant damage to the bottom line of NBA teams. While the NBA pays its players roughly 50 percent of the total, the WNBA players are making less than 25 percent of league revenue. But they were actually paid just $27.7 million. And it is also contending with at least four other lawsuits, so its legal bills will total about $9 million this year. "That meme has just made my comments, like, on another level," she said. Fantasy women's basketball: Will the addition of Candace Parker shake up fantasy values on the Aces? This season, the maximum veteran salary is $115,500, not including potential bonuses. They kept telling her, "This is the legacy we want to protect.". Refresh the page, check Medium 's. 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. Listen. | by Yannick Ondoa | Medium Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. But the number was wrong. Engelbert wrote those items down. And theyre not done. Its true that the WNBA generates about $60 million in revenue per year, while the NBA generates $7.92 billion. This past July, though, Barbosa was waived by the team. 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. Wake up to the day's most important news. Meanwhile, Leandro Barbosa is scheduled to earn $500,000 from the Phoenix Suns in 2017-18. 'Bet on me': Griner seems like old self in first interview since detainment, Serena announces she's pregnant with 2nd child, Healthy Delle Donne excited for Mystics' season, Griner: 1st practice 'everything I wanted it to be', Alcaraz, Swiatek cruise into Madrid round of 16, Hannah Green wins LPGA at Wilshire in a playoff, Halep questions long delay for doping hearing, Suns, Mercury cut cable, moving to new TV setup, How Hailey Van Lith's transfer impacts NCAA champion LSU. The American squad beat the Netherlands 2-0 in the final, capping a month of dominance in which Team USA outscored opponents 26-3. The WNBA continues to trail most professional sports in the United States when it comes to player salaries and compensation. For instance, 994 million people watched at least one minute of the 2019 Women's World Cup on linear television, a 30% increase from 2015, while 3.26 billion watched a minute or more of the men's World Cup in 2018, up just 2% from four years earlier. The WNBA has made strides to increase player salaries and find other ways to compensate players in the last CBA, which was ratified in 2020. On the other hand, some others pay. So what's really at stake? Beyond anticipating the savings from that huge gulf, Gulati had a second simple reason for paying men and women differently: U.S. Soccer replicates the compensation practices of FIFA, the organization that is by far the biggest driver of unequal pay in global soccer. In 2017, the league aired 20 games live on Twitter, while also offering a new fantasy game on the fantasy platform FanDuel. Sabreena Merchant is a women's basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. NBAs teams generated $5.9 billion in revenue in 2015-16. So, if the output of basketball is points, then the pay disparity between male and female players begins to make more sense. Its so much wear and tear. are vocal in their support of the womens league because of the quality of play and because they understand the hard work these women put into their game. They may exert the same physical effort, but far more money is handed over by consumers to the NBA than the WNBA in return for all this. Like, I didn't make the meme! For instance, FIFA says the 2018 men's World Cup generated $5.4 billion in revenue. Jackson posted the phrase "language of investment" on her office wall. Taylor remains the backup, but maybe for one just one more season, as this is the last . The women of the WNBA are simply seeking the recognition they deserve for their performances. And yet, they do it, in large part, for the financial security it provides. Reward is not a function of inputs such as work or effort; it is a function of the outputs, the product. This is something that the 150-ish WNBA players have been fighting to change for quite some time. All Rights Reserved. "When I think of pay equity, I think of the opportunity that the NBA and other male sports leagues have to be successful.". In short, NBA players made 100x more than their WNBA counterparts in 2019. As one writer explained. In 2009, the WNBA decided to include sponsor logos on their jerseys. Shortly afterward, the players opted out of their CBA. FIFA did list $131 million under "total revenue" in its financials, but for some reason, that was merely an investment figure -- how much the organization initially budgeted to spend on the 2019 World Cup, as Rachel Bachman of The Wall Street Journal reported last September. I personally love watching the WNBA because these women are extremely talented shooters, ball handlers and passers and I find the teamwork displayed by WNBA teams to be something that the NBA could take a lesson or two from. Sometimes, it is pretty easy to see why vast amounts of effort generate little output and, hence, low incomes. And while thats not a dollar amount to sniff at, these women only have so long to earn money off their athletic ability. In the court of public opinion, however, something snapped after those March filings. This new reality will only be reflected in our future financial results.". The most common explanation about why players go overseas in the first place is often distilled to three words: to get rich. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Bird said. is not about comparing the WNBA to the NBA as apples-to-apples salaries. But, in comparison, the highest-paid NBA star is Warriors guard Steph Curry, who will earn $48,070,014 this season. . They want more open accounting and less obeisance to FIFA. Meanwhile, for the upcoming NBA season, the minimum salary of a professional NBA player is $838,464. The Athletic, for example, expanded its reporting in 2019 to include regular coverage of all 12 WNBA clubs and women's college basketball. But even with all this growth, theres one enduring challenge: media exposure. This is not what happens as women basketball players would be payed on average around 3.5 million (the average men's salary is 7 million). Then, in a voice mocking the trolls in her mentions, she said: "'Maybe if you had viewership you would have that money. The maximum veteran salary is $113,500. In 2023, the highest average WNBA salary is held by Aces guard Jackie Young as she makes $252,450 per year, according to Spotrac. In this article, we compare salaries in sports like soccer, basketball and tennis, and consider some notable changes over the past decade. Major League Baseball is a $10 billion-in-revenue giant while the NPF players make an average of $5,000 to $6,000 because of the league's low revenue. Of course, the sports world is bigger and more lucrative today. They will also be eligible to get reimbursed for the costs of adoption, surrogacy, fertility treatments and preservation of eggs. As Phoenix Mercurys Brittney Griner, earlier this year, I do believe we should get paid more in the WNBA before players decide to only play overseas and rest our bodies during the summer., Last year, Minnesota Lynxs Seimone Augustus. And men's leagues have proved adept at getting state and local governments to defray the costs of that development. The more exposure they receive, the more theyll dole out the cash for sponsorships, endorsements and advertisements. Indeed, in the developed world, we work much less than our ancestors did, and we do it for a far higher standard of living. According to the WNBA, this was most-watched regular season since 2014, with viewership across ESPN networks and NBA TV up by 31 percent. Athletes were traveling by cramped coach flights, sometimes by bus, and staying in shared hotel rooms and dormitory-style housing. without needing to get a second job to pay the bills. Which leads us here: The average NBA salary is about $7.5 million; according to the league, the average WNBA salary in 2019 was reportedly about $116,000, but a new collective bargaining agreement which runs from 2020 to 2027 provides a 53% pay increase, plus maternity leave at full salary, $5,000 for child care, and as much as $60,000 for This means the average NBA player makes 41 times what the average WNBA player makes. But in a sense, it doesnt matter. "U.S. Soccer has purposefully withheld and obscured the revenues that it has received through similar marketing deals. But by the time Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and their mates were celebrating their triumph, the world knew they would earn just $4 million collectively, a fraction of what their male counterparts had taken home a year earlier. about what they have said to make them seem petty or jealous. "I never would have authorized offering or accepting, and never would have recommended to the board agreeing to, the same bonuses for Women's World Cup play that were contained in the MNT's agreement for their World Cup play for very simple reasons.". Since the WNBA costs $70 million to run, it has technically lost an average of $10 million every year that it has existed which, as one lovely blogger puts it, the NBA subsidizes out of the goodness of its politically correct heart.. Now, Team USA is in Spain, about to play in the. And make no mistake, fans today have more access than ever to the games played by female athletes, because a burgeoning number of networks and apps, hungry to acquire and offer new content, are programming all kinds of formerly "niche" sports. Pay is so low that it has compelled most American athletes to play overseas as well as in the WNBA just to make a living, increasing their wear and tear and their injury risk. "Have investments been equal? Most major sites have now joined ESPN, which launched espnW in 2010, in allocating space to women's sports across multiple dedicated pages, particularly for basketball and soccer. For picks No. And so these women are playing year-round, which is terrible for your body. In recent years, players, teams and even athletes in other sports ice hockey Olympic gold medalists, Canadian soccer pros and W.N.B.A. It felt like, According to the WNBA . Just as the Bangladeshis arent poor because they are lazy, Americans arent rich because of hard work. So it doesn't seem the WNBA players are unreasonable to expect to be paid at least 50% of the league's revenue.

    Economic Opportunity Act Pros And Cons, Who Played Mateus In Rudy, Gippsland Lakes Bioluminescence 2020, Articles W

    Abrir chat
    😀 ¿Podemos Ayudarte?
    Hola! 👋