Amongst the noise of the NBA and NHL playoffs kicking off and the start to the MLB season, you might be forgiven if you forgot that the WNBA draft took place on Tuesday, April 14. But allow me to catch you up. For the second year in a row, a practically bona fide superstar was taken in the top spot. For the second year in a row, all the numbers indicate that the sport of the WNBA, along with women’s basketball in general, is growing. And yet, for nearly every player in the league, pay remains an issue.
Let’s address some of the top talking points right up front:
1.) “Well nobody watches them.”
First off, you’re wrong. The draft alone brought in 1.25 million viewers on TV. Let’s compare it to another product on the rise right now: WWE.
The company’s Friday show, SmackDown, racked in 1.5 million viewers for their April 11 broadcast. That number represents the seventh-largest viewership all year for the company, which, at the time of the show airing, was eight days away from the start of their Super Bowl: WrestleMania.
That means that a product on the rise, mere days away from the biggest moment of the year, only just barely beat the WNBA draft in viewership. Here’s the kicker: a report from earlier this year revealed that the lowest a WWE star is paid is $350,000 a year. Paige Bueckers, the aforementioned superstar taken first overall this year, is set to make $350,000 over the course of four years.
But aside from that point, let’s examine the humanity of that argument. The argument, essentially, boils down to the fact that the fans just aren’t as satisfied with the product as they are the NBA, NHL, NFL, etc. Ok, let’s look at that.
What do you do for work? How satisfied, on a scale of 1-10, would you say your boss is with your work on a weekly basis? Should your paycheck be determined by the answer to that second question? If not, then why do you think a WNBA player’s checks should?
2.) “There’s not enough money to pay them like the men.”
Nobody is suggesting that. Or, at least, very few are.
The most common suggestion for a pay raise revolves around WNBA players making the same percentage as their NBA counterparts.
In the NBA, Copper Flagg is expected to be the number one overall pick in the upcoming draft. That’s a position that will net him around $13.8 million in his first year alone. That’s about 0.2 percent of the NBA’s annual TV rights revenue from the deal they signed last year. Meanwhile, Bueckers will make around $79,000, which is just 0.03 percent of the most recent broadcast deal the WNBA signed. In other words, to scale, WNBA players are making 10 times less than their NBA counterparts.
And this is coming at a time of unprecedented growth for women’s basketball. The sport alone is expected to bring in about one billion dollars in total revenue this year. Ratings records are being set, broken, and set again. Some of the biggest stars in college basketball over the last three years have been women. These stars will surely be able to make up for the lost revenue through sponsorship deals, but for the eighth, ninth and tenth woman on the team that option isn’t always there. That’s where the league, whether it’s the WNBA or their NBA counterpart, should step in and make sure that everyone is making enough money to perform at the top of their game.
Not only that, but there’s clearly enough money for women’s basketball. Hours after she was drafted, it was reported that Bueckers signed a deal for the start up 3-on-3 women’s league, Unrivaled. Reportedly, it’s a deal that will net her over $200,000 per year.
3.) “Well I’d just like to see a few more dunks.”
You fucking dunk before you get your paycheck how ‘bout that?
Alright let’s calm down and bring this to a close.
There’s clearly interest in women’s sports, and it’s clear that interest is only rising. And in the world of athletics, where there’s interest there’s money. During its foundational years, the WNBA could skate by without answer the question of why player salaries are so low, but not any more. It was a talking point during last year’s draft, it was a talking point during this year’s draft, and until it gets better, the question of why the WNBA refuses to increase its salaries will continue to come up. It’s time the league do something about it, and reward the players for making the sport all the more interesting for fans.
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