why wnba players should not be paid more

News coverage of women's sports seems to have shifted considerably in just the past few years, though there aren't any published studies yet to say by just how much. Note: This piece has been updated with a response from the WNBA indicating that the league does share its financials with the players union. They could make the WNBA season longer than 36 games, which might allow for more time for fans to become invested in teams. 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. Now, Team USA is in Spain, about to play in the. Iowa's transfer portal options? Van Lith to LSU?: Women's college 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. 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. Indeed, in the developed world, we work much less than our ancestors did, and we do it for a far higher standard of living. jsemu2 gba emulator. But the league has agreed to prepare and promote players for coaching and other jobs in the offseason. From the point of view of the team owners, the measure of output that matters is the revenue the players generate. What if non-player. Copyright 2008-2023 BroBible. The WNBA's current collective bargaining agreement won't 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. 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. And shes not arguing they deserve NBA-sized salaries. WNBA players arent asking for NBA level compensation. Top players earn vastly more, such as Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook, who make $48 million and $47 million a year, respectively. Taylor remains the backup, but maybe for one just one more season, as this is the last . 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. Of course, a bump to 50 percent of WNBA league revenue isnt realistic, because theres a difference between revenue and profit. But that is still a pittance. One might argue that male players produce more points. Sue Bird and her WNBA colleagues want "the same media coverage and the corporate sponsor looks" as the NBA receives. "The NWSL has the opportunity to be the best league in the world," says Becca Roux, executive director of the U.S. Women's National Team Players Association. Last month, Russian authorities arrested WNBA star Brittney Griner at the Moscow airport after they found cannabis vape cartridges in her luggage. Do you really compare yourself to the NBA?' Instead, the federation proceeded to file thousands of pages of documents asserting that, as one motion put it, "WNT and MNT players do not perform equal work requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions." 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. The squads face different adversaries, at different levels of competition, on different schedules, including World Cup cycles in different years. . 1 pick in the NBA draft in 2012. In 2015, the WNBA averaged 202,000 viewers on ESPN and ESPN2. As totals, these numbers are considerably smaller than for the men's game, but they are also generally growing much faster. She is the second-highest-paid player on the team just behind Aja Wilson who earns $202,155. Many of the women dont get lucrative endorsements, and getting into broadcasting or some other sports-adjacent field once they retire is not guaranteed. He certainly was right about that. As Gulati put it: "I believed that the MNT's participation and success in their tournament would result in the receipt of substantially more prize money from FIFA than the WNT's participation and success in their tournament. Why WNBA stars play overseas, and how the WNBA is trying to deter them In the same way, if you're the only fan you know of a new sports team, your experience will be extremely limited. 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. At peak popularity, marketability and leverage, they are also seeking more equitable spending on coaching. U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner held that the women's national team had agreed to the terms of the deal that paid them. The maximum veteran salary is $113,500. (In its most recent fiscal year, ending in March 2019, the USSF paid $304,113 to current men's coach Gregg Berhalter for four months of work, $241,869 to former coach David Sarachan, whom Berhalter replaced in December 2018, and $1.475 million to former coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who was fired in 2016. Even compared with other fields traditionally dominated by men, it's far harder for women to break into the upper ranks of compensation in sports. Male vs Female Professional Sports Salary Comparison They have different collective bargaining agreements with U.S. Soccer, which pays base salaries, NWSL subsidies and performance bonuses to women while compensating men through much larger bonuses. As a point of comparison, the NBA didnt draw crowds of this size until its 26th season, when the league averaged 8,061 fans per game. On May 1, a federal judge sided with U.S. Soccer on most of the key issues at stake in the lawsuit. Professor of Educational Psychology & Higher Education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. And so these women are playing year-round, which is terrible for your body. Critically, they have called on U.S. Soccer to spend more on marketing, in part by investing much more in the NWSL. And while companies have shown more interest in backing female athletes recently, men's leagues and teams still captured 93% of the $31 billion that corporations around the globe spent on sports last year, according to a November 2019 report by the German research firm Statista. 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. The first two categories were exactly the same for each, but the final two were markedly different. While equal pay for equal work has emerged as a rallying cry in the ongoing struggles of women athletes, equity doesn't always, or even often, mean literal equality across all sports. Im not going to call out some of the bad NBA players we got in commercials but yall know who they are.. Consequently, it is not surprising to learn that in 1970-71, NBA players were paid 27 percent of league revenue. If the WNBA doesnt figure this out, players are going to opt out of the league. But once two sides establish good faith in a negotiation, both can see spending -- or sacrifice -- as an investment. "Their attendance is. In 2017, for example, a majority of the most popular sports sites on the Internet didn't dedicate even one page to a women's sport or league, according to research by Berri. That's the chain reaction of network externalities. The deal also pioneers a range of provisions important to players who are mothers or potential parents. While men have always played on grass, FIFA staged the 2015 Women's World Cup at arenas with artificial turf, which American striker Sydney Leroux, one of dozens of athletes who protested, likened to "running pretty much on cement." 1 pick in the WNBA draft in 2012. Only 14 players in the league make $200,000 or more, according to Spotrac data. Those are honorable reasons to stick with the WNBA, but players shouldnt have to choose between these personal anchors to the league and their need to make a living. IN THE UNITED STATES, we have now spent two generations since Title IX raising women athletes to compete on the same footing as men. "I'm like, 'Oh, where's our world going?'". 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. why wnba players should be paid more. This new reality will only be reflected in our future financial results.". Why MLB Pitchers Throwing Over 100 mph Isn't a Novelty Anymore In short, NBA players made 100x more than their WNBA counterparts in 2019. Meanwhile, the U.S. women want more than a new pay structure. But should they be seeing an increase in their earnings? They want a piece of the action. This lack of media coverage has always hampered womens sports. "We're not, and I think we should talk.". 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 . "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. Last year, the average WNBA salary was US$71,635, and this year appears to be closer to $75,000. The biggest lesson: Today's athletes are asking for something even bigger than the strict definition of "pay equity." Its so much wear and tear. Since most major sports are at around 50%, you could look at that and say the players are still leaving considerable cash on the table. 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. The NBA's collective bargaining agreement indicates the players must receive about 50% of the league's basketball-related income. 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. "It's not just FIFA that needs to be clear about the revenue that it's making from the Women's World Cup," says Molly Levinson, spokesperson for the U.S. women's national team. They deserve to be able to play the game they love without needing to get a second job to pay the bills. All they want is better pay equity. For years, the MNT had posted significantly more from events than the WNT -- more than three times as much from 2009 to 2015, according to data from U.S. Soccer. This year, all of the major professional sports leagues had a presence. Why do so many WNBA stars play basketball overseas? - AS USA - Diario AS Giants post-draft depth chart: Deonte Banks is Day 1 starter. What And men's leagues have proved adept at getting state and local governments to defray the costs of that development. Considering the widespread acceptance of something like Engels formula, to say that a hard days work doesnt guarantee a fair days pay is one of the more shocking things an economist can say in polite company. Sue Bird: 'I Don't Think We Should Get the Same Money As NBA Players' And over the next two, it has plans to spend down its surplus, which swelled to more than $160 million after the Copa America in 2016, to about $50 million. 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 all this, Fowles was named league MVP. By clicking Sign Up, you also agree to marketing emails from both Insider and Morning Brew; and you accept Insiders. And I dont want to lose the WNBA or miss out on seeing the best female basketball players playing in the league. The NBA player whose salary is closest to Griner and other top WNBA players is Joe Wieskamp, a forward for the San Antonio Spurs who made $202,068 last year after playing 17 games out of 82 and scoring an average of 2.2 points per game. Sustained exposure has certainly been a boon to college softball, to which ESPN has held the rights for 40 years. "Right now, WNBA fans are just beginning to pass their fan preferences down to their children.". What many of the women are asking for is equity in revenue sharing, as economist David Berri has written about repeatedly at Forbes. To grow the WNBA, he and the owners were prepared to, as he put it, "double down." From 2011 to 2015, the Phoenix Mercury went 19-15, 7-27, 19-15, 29-5 and 20-14. According to Summit Hoops, Fowles was paid $109,000 for all she did in 2017. But in 2007, a furniture-store owner named Hilton Koch bought the club for $10 million, then couldn't pay its bills, and the team was disbanded the following year.) The players wanted a viable league where they could build careers, not just part-time jobs. Of course, the sports world is bigger and more lucrative today. In 2023, the highest average WNBA salary is held by Aces guard Jackie Young as she makes $252,450 per year, according to Spotrac. And it is also contending with at least four other lawsuits, so its legal bills will total about $9 million this year. 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. Diana . There are different ways to weight these audience eyeballs and viewing times, and to project future statistics. And he'll get paid this massive sum to go championship-chasing with an in . It happened again three days later, after a ticker tape parade through New York's Canyon of Heroes honored the four-time Cup winners. What do WNBA players make overseas? Not as much as you've heard Nows a good time for players to advocate for themselves because the product in the WNBA has never been better. It would seriously impair our ability to support our mission and invest in these other critical developmental areas.". She believes the athletes deserve more money. Instead, they have capital inputs and institutions to leverage their labor inputs into far greater levels of output: they can produce far more while working much less. 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. | by Yannick Ondoa | Medium Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. First, we should put the gaps into perspective. Low pay has also warped the women's game itself. Last week, this exciting season of the WNBA ended after the Seattle Storm swept the Washington Mystics to win their third championship. This season, Davis made $27.1 million. It took the NBA 72 years to get to where the league is today, while the WNBA is only in its 21st season. Economy, Not Misogyny, Drives Unequal Pay in Sports While the NBA pays its players roughly 50 percent of the total, the WNBA players are making less than 25 percent of league revenue. And no one wants to see the WNBA die, least of all the players. 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 . Not so, says Dave Berri, economics professor at Southern Utah University. Analysts have noted for years that when it comes to television rights, FIFA has treated the Women's World Cup as an afterthought -- at worst a loss leader, at best a chance for media companies to use women's games to prepare for the men's tournaments. The U.S. women have been playing so well that they now generate nearly as much money as the men on game days, despite typically lower official ticket prices. EXPLAINER: Why WNBA players go overseas to play in offseason Beyond money, a sport needs time to grow into its potential audience. Much more than ever before, the women who become professionals are now building the public support, partnerships and organizations they need to get paid what they are fully worth. Also a six-time All-Star, she had a nearly identical 0.248 win shares per 48 minutes in 2019. is not about comparing the WNBA to the NBA as apples-to-apples salaries. Reach them at sydneymiller@dailynebraskan.com. 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. In August, WNBA president Lisa Borders said, While I encourage WNBA players to speak out on issues important to them, it is equally important that they understand the realities of our business., Nows a good time for players to advocate for themselves because the product in the WNBA has never been better. The answer is that reward is not necessarily proportional to effort. It's not about the amount of effort or the quantity of inputs. The league has more gay players and fans, percentage-wise, than any other major professional sport. This pay gap is very real. With Jones paid to be the franchise quarterback, there should be stability at the position to build around. The U.S.-Netherlands final reached an average live audience of 82.2 million, up 56%. The U.S. womens national soccer team has been fighting for equal pay since 2016, and spring training for Major League Baseball is delayed due to issues surrounding the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners. And that's led to more viewers (Women's College World Series ratings have increased by nearly 40% since 2000), more revenues (up 360% from 2003 to 2016) and, in turn, more broadcasts (more than 1,600 games, including all of the playoffs, were scheduled for this season before the pandemic struck). So this much is clear: Whenever and however sports reemerge from the deep freeze of the coronavirus pandemic, women's leagues and federations will face changing expectations as they answer the basic question of how to compensate their players. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Eagles trade up, pick Georgia DT Jalen Carter in NFL draft Yes, the flights may have given the New York Liberty an unfair advantage in games, but how do you not look at this situation and realize that the issue isnt the team thats chartering the flight, but rather the collective bargaining agreement that does not allow charter flights for the WNBA while private planes are the norm for the NBA? Furthermore, two years earlier, the league studied its fan base and discovered that 25 percent of WNBA fans identified as lesbian. Charles Barkley on WNBA Stars: 'Y'all Should Not Have to Go to These Of course, the NBA rakes in far more revenue. Worldwide, 18% of university presidents, 11% of astronauts who have been to space and 6% of major-company CEOs are women. Players who go overseas end up playing almost year-round, with little break for their bodies to recover. Sabreena is an alum of Duke University, where she wrote for the . "However, it is not reasonable or fiscally sound for U.S. Soccer to make up the gap. There was a problem saving your notification. Kelsey Plum currently makes $200,000/year as a point guard for the Las Vegas Aces. As one writer explained. It all. The new WNBA calendar will make it harder to play overseas and stateside in the same year, which could force athletes earning big money internationally to make some tough decisions. But in a sense, it doesnt matter. 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. What part of fining the New York Liberty $500,000 for taking charter flights to games is politically correct? Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. 2023 NBA Free Agents Who Would Be Foolish to Change Teams 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. But they were just as concerned about the relentless everyday signals that ownership -- which is split 50-50 between team owners and the NBA -- was running the league on a shoestring. 2023 ABG-SI LLC. In an interview with comedian Adam Ray on his "About Last Night Podcast," the legendary Seattle Storm point guard and four-time WNBA champion explained her stance on equality in basketball. If WNBA players demand a higher salary that would match the NBA, the league could not afford it because the WNBA simply does not bring in the same amount of money as the NBA. * Mina Kimes talks with two-time World Cup and Olympic soccer champion Julie Foudy for a candid, inside look at the battle over fair pay for female players. I do not know if the difference in demand for mens and womens basketball is because of a difference in the quality of the product or because of sexism on the part of consumers. Meanwhile, for the upcoming NBA season, the minimum salary of a professional NBA player is $838,464. How much do WNBA players make? Top 10 salaries, max contracts, rookie why wnba players should be paid more - look.perfil.com top 7th grade basketball players in illinois. WNBA Star Argues Why Players Deserve To Be Paid More Like The NBA To secure international friendlies, the men's team pays and sometimes earns appearance fees, which don't exist for women. WNBA players want to be paid more, but can the league accommodate them? "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.
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