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Dollars to donuts the same people posted comments on articles about trans athletes.
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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Isn't that irrelevant if the league isn't making money though? People watch the NBA. They don't watch the WNBA. The comparison you should be drawing for "enough" would be other niche sports nobody watches like bowling or whatever.
people are watching the WNBA though. the two best selling items in the basketball world are courtney clark's ball in size 29.5 (traditionally referred to as the men's size) and Sabrina Ionescu's unisex shoes. men are hooping with a woman's ball in a woman's set of signature shoes. women are hooping with a men's size ball in pickup games. any time i want to talk hoops with anyone we talk FIBA and WNBA because that's what we're all watching because we can access it and because it's the style of hoops we're playing.
the math the owners are saying that there's no money to be made in womens basketball and the lived reality people are experiencing aren't mathing. i'm not saying it rivals NBA basketball in finance and viewership, but i am saying the women are right to say the cash isn't flowing how it should and someone's lying about where all the money went.
The sales aren't quite apples to apples. Very few WNBA players have the same marketability as a decent NBA player. Clark is a generational talent and the face of the league, but adding up the revenue of a bottom tier NBA roster dwarfs her. For reference, she brings in about 26% (!!!) of all WNBA's $200M revenue, while the lowest revenue NBA team (the Pelicans) brings in $272M.
You are right that the compensation doesn't match up however. Clark's rookie contract is $80k/yr for her $52M contribution compared to (minimum) $1.1M/yr for those Pelicans players contributing $18M.