why wnba players should not be paid more

But on a fundamental economic level, it is wrong, and the disparities we see between athletes salaries illustrate why. 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. 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. Now, comparing the finances of the U.S women's and men's national soccer teams is complicated. Sabreena Merchant is a women's basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. To assess the new landscape and figure out just how it's changing, we talked with athletes and their advocates and opponents, and scoured academic research, court papers and financial documents across women's sports. FIFA's own audience reports, however, show the value of women's soccer already rising rapidly. The biggest lesson: Today's athletes are asking for something even bigger than the strict definition of "pay equity." For instance, FIFA says the 2018 men's World Cup generated $5.4 billion in revenue. Therefore, it is not surprising the WNBA pays lower salariesIn 2017, the WNBA posted its highest attendance in six years. The highest-paid players in the WNBA make less than 14 percent of that. Bird said direct comparisons like the one above "comes back on me.". In October 2018, the G League announced it would provide new contracts worth $125,000 for elite prospects -- which meant it would pay some 18-year-old men more than any woman had ever earned from the WNBA in a year. But suddenly the USSF has a new president in Parlow Cone and a new CEO in William Wilson, formerly an executive at Wasserman and MLS. Not to discredit any work that they've put in, but you have women playing year-round basketball going overseas to have more opportunities for higher wages. This was a stellar season, where the final eight teams that made the playoffs werent determined until the last few games. For all that backbreaking labor, in Bangladesh, it was just $662. I just got the same amount of rings, maybe more. 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,. It felt like records were set on an almost weekly basis. Successful sports build enough familiarity and loyalty that their followers spread, find one another and reach a critical mass that, like a chain reaction in a nuclear power plant, creates a new energy that feeds on itself over time. 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. For decades, sports media figures have argued that interest drives coverage. And theyre not done. The base salary for WNBA rookies varies on when (or if) players were selected in the WNBA Draft. ", The salary gap between men and women athletes echoes the huge difference in revenues between men's and women's sports. The league has more gay players and fans, percentage-wise, than any other major professional sport. TV viewership tells a similar story. And the highest paid players in the WNBA this season will earn an annual salary of $234,936, according to HerHoopStats. Engelbert wrote those items down. They should fight for it because theyve earned it. Not so, says Dave Berri, economics professor at Southern Utah University. According to a 2012 report in The Lancet, Bangladesh has the most physically active population in the world. The number of major league pitches clocked at 100 mph and faster more than tripled over three years, from 1,056 in 2019 to 3,348 last year. Theyre making the most of it while they can. NBAs teams generated $5.9 billion in revenue in 2015-16. In 1953, at the same stage in its timeline, the NBA had total revenues of less than $16 million in today's dollars, according to data collected by the House Judiciary Committee in 1957, and drew only 3,583 fans per game. Most Bangladeshis earn a living through agriculture, primarily cultivating rice and jute but also maize and vegetables. So not only are the players taking home 30% less than their NBA counterparts its 20% of a much smaller pie. MALE AND FEMALE athletes are paid on entirely different scales, to the extent that examples can seem literally unbelievable. Leading WNBA players were stunned, but they took note of the NBA's terminology, which was full of words like "development," "programmatic opportunities," "supporting infrastructure" and "tools for top young players to grow." Yet as WNBA players came to a crossroads in 2018, nobody told their union leaders to demand million-dollar salaries. Playing overseas in Europe, Asia, or Australia can often pay substantially more than playing in the United States. We had incredibly thrilling semifinals series that went a full five games apiece. Barkley reiterated his feelings by expressing how he doesnt get how some NBA players earn more sponsorship deals than superstar WNBA players. ABOUT US. "We have to consider why the revenue is different, what bias and discrimination are in play," says Lindsay Kagawa Colas, senior vice president for women's sports at Wasserman, whose clients include a bevy of the WNBA's biggest stars, such as Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore, as well as gymnast Katelyn Ohashi and swimmer Simone Manuel. THE CHANTS BEGAN almost as soon as the U.S. women's soccer team won the World Cup last July. There are different ways to weight these audience eyeballs and viewing times, and to project future statistics. But the risk also offered reward: 15 million Americans self-identify as LGBTQ, and they represent a market segment worth around $830 million. In 1881, Freidrich Engels wrote an article for the Labour Standard titled A Fair Day's Wages for a Fair Day's Work. You still hear the phrase today. But the truth is more complicated, because a league's financial data also embeds its history, opportunities and labor relations. In short, NBA players made 100x more than their WNBA counterparts in 2019. In other words, if the WNBA doesnt figure this out, players are going to opt out of the league. At the same time, there's very little downside if a player happens to go bust, because even top rookies earn only about $50,000 a year. 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). Las Vegas Aces point guard Kelsey Plum wants to change that. Meanwhile, the Women's Super League in England has gone fully professional. 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Following the success of the 2014 Pride Campaign, the league has continued to reach out to gay fans, promoting stories about their LGBT players, and offering special merchandise for Pride Month and Pride Night games. After pushing their bodies to the limit in their regular season and in an equally demanding World Cup, a whole lot of WNBA players will be spending a significant chunk of their year overseas playing on professional teams and in leagues in order to supplement their WNBA income. These women should be paid more. "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 week, this exciting season of the WNBA ended after the Seattle Storm swept the Washington Mystics to win their third championship. By clicking Sign Up, you also agree to marketing emails from both Insider and Morning Brew; and you accept Insiders. "I'm like, 'Oh, where's our world going?'". As Phoenix Mercurys Brittney Griner wrote on Instagram 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.. . 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. It's not about the amount of effort or the quantity of inputs. This season, Sylvia Fowles led the WNBA in field goal percentage, finished second in rebounding per game, tied for second in blocks per game and ranked fifth in points per game. If the NBA wanted to pay WNBA players more, they could. It felt like, According to the WNBA, this was most-watched regular season since 2014, with viewership across ESPN networks and NBA TV up by 31 percent. Last season, Ogwumike earned $115,000. Just five WNBA teams were playing in NBA arenas, with two others at college campuses, two at casinos, two in G League gyms and the New York Liberty shunted to a 5,000-seat facility in Westchester County, 30 miles from Manhattan. The squads face different adversaries, at different levels of competition, on different schedules, including World Cup cycles in different years. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. | by Yannick Ondoa | Medium Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. This past July, though, Barbosa was waived by the team. 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. The contract, which runs through 2027, pays players an average of $130,000, with the top stars able to earn more than $500,000 through salary, marketing agreements, an in-season tournament and bonuses. 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. The maximum veteran salary is $113,500. Its been five years since I first wrote about how the NBAs management of the WNBA is a circular problem, and while the WNBA has benefitted from some increased visibility since then, the issue of equal pay still looms large. "That meme has just made my comments, like, on another level," she said. A small number of women players are truly dominant at the college level, which makes the first few picks in the WNBA draft extremely valuable. So it doesn't seem the WNBA players are unreasonable to expect to be paid at least 50% of the league's revenue. Which is kind of unbelievable, as WNBA All-Star point guard for the Dallas Wings, Skylar Diggins-Smith, put it recently: 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., Unfortunately, its not clear what the WNBAs exact revenue is, or individual teams, or their profits. 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. Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. They're not just bringing their skills to market, they're trying to make sure the market supports their skills. On the other hand, sports news and highlight segments have historically focused overwhelmingly on men. 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. FIFA commingles broadcasting rights and sponsorships for the men's and women's tournaments. Meanwhile, Steph Curry, the highest-paid player in the NBA, will make $45.7 million this season. And it's not just the rookies. Of course, the sports world is bigger and more lucrative today. That's one kind of equity: equality. Meanwhile, WNBA revenues were probably around $70 million, estimates David Berri, a professor of economics at Southern Utah University and author of numerous studies about women's sports. And men's leagues have proved adept at getting state and local governments to defray the costs of that development. 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. 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. They could, for example, have tighter shorts." While the NBA pays its players roughly 50 percent of the total, the WNBA players are making less than 25 percent of league revenue. Im the highest paid player on the Dallas Wings, and my salary is in the low six figures. As important as the equal pay lawsuit is for the players who are seeking back pay and damages, it's essentially about the past. This per game mark is more than 10,000 fans below the per game mark seen in the NBA in 2016-17. "We're not, and I think we should talk.". But once two sides establish good faith in a negotiation, both can see spending -- or sacrifice -- as an investment. In 2017, the league aired 20 games live on Twitter, while also offering a new fantasy game on the fantasy platform FanDuel. 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.) Like, I didn't make the meme! 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. First, investment. Can you guess in which season they rested Diana Taurasi and earned the league's No. In the WNBA the range of salaries is $117K to $215K for the highest-paid players. This year, all of the major professional sports leagues had a presence. Griner is a starter for the Phoenix Mercury who averages 17.7 points per game and has won two gold medals with Team U.S.A. in the Olympics. Ertz in, Swanson out: Who will make USWNT's World Cup team after big shake-ups? But using league revenue, economics professor Dave Berri was recently able to calculate a significant gender wage gap in another respect. First, we should put the gaps into perspective. These women should be paid more. B/R Live shows the Women's FIH Pro League, where women's national field hockey teams face off; FloSports streams Premier Girls Fastpitch, a top club softball league for high school and younger players. "However, it is not reasonable or fiscally sound for U.S. Soccer to make up the gap. 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. "So we can build the business, and then when it's really good like the NBA is then we can get that money.". 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? And for the first time, gamers could play with WNBA players in NBA Live 18. 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. "I say this totally real I don't think we should get the same money as NBA players," Bird said. 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. 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 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. But here's the thing. NBC and its fleet of cable channels showed a record 631.5 hours of the 2018 Winter Olympics -- and for the first time ever, a majority of prime-time airtime was devoted to women's sports, according to research by Andrew Billings of the University of Alabama and James Angelini of the University of Delaware. The American squad beat the Netherlands 2-0 in the final, capping a month of dominance in which Team USA outscored opponents 26-3. Please do not edit the piece, ensure that you attribute the author and mention that this article was originally published on FEE.org. Players will also be able to earn up to $250,000 apiece from a $1.6 million pool the league is dedicating to marketing agreements and will gain free agency after five years, down from six. Sue Bird and her WNBA colleagues want "the same media coverage and the corporate sponsor looks" as the NBA receives. Some feared that such a campaign could alienate other segments of the leagues fan base. As an example, the Global Sports Salary Survey (GSSS), produced by the U.K.-based research firm Sporting Intelligence, counted 137,021 men who played professional soccer in the world in 2017 and just 1,287 women -- a ratio of 106 to 1. Id love to have Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi on commercials. Shes played in Russia for the past seven years, and she makes over $1 million per season. And these provisions have tilted strongly, almost exclusively, toward men's sports for decades. 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. And it can take decades for leagues and franchises to develop faith and establish their footing. Critically, they have called on U.S. Soccer to spend more on marketing, in part by investing much more in the NWSL. Only 14 players in the league make $200,000 or more, according to Spotrac data. But the NBAs politically correct heart has room to grow a few sizes. 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. Currently, the NBA pays its players 50 percent of its total revenue. 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. And the equal pay lawsuit has exposed just how out of whack performance and pay have become in American soccer, legally or not. And we need access to better stadiums, facilities and everything that makes a better entertainment product.". However, the players union has the option to terminate the agreement after the 2019 season if they give notice by Oct. 31 of this year. According to Summit Hoops, Fowles was paid $109,000 for all she did in 2017. "Let me stop you," Jackson said. Steph Curry's salary ($40 million) is more than three times as much as what every player in the WNBA earned in 2019 combined ($12.5 million). Pow!) CBS Sports Network struck a deal in 2019 to show 40 WNBA games a year, increasing the number of regular-season contests on national television by more than 60%. Sometimes, it is pretty easy to see why vast amounts of effort generate little output and, hence, low incomes. Sue Bird is one of the greatest players in WNBA history, but that doesn't mean she thinks she and her colleagues in the W should be paid the same as their male counterparts. In the NBA, players take home around 50% of shared revenue and in the WNBA players only take home 20% of shared revenue. NOW WATCH: 11 barbers who do more than just a standard cut, Visit Insider's homepage for more stories, Sue Bird said her legacy is 'already written' and described her last 2 WNBA championships as bonuses because she's playing 'on borrowed time', How the masterminds behind the WNBA's bubble successfully avoided an outbreak in the heart of a COVID-19 hotspot, Russell Wilson said he felt 'like Sue Bird in the clutch' after a brilliant performance, and the WNBA legend explained why that's important, WNBA Finals MVP Breanna Stewart crashed Sue Bird's press conference in a hilarious, booze-filled, post-championship exchange, Sue Bird clarified that she doesn't think WNBA players "should get the same money as NBA players" in an interview with Adam Ray on his "About Last Night Podcast. Meanwhile, the U.S. women want more than a new pay structure. 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. That's the chain reaction of network externalities. New arenas allow teams to improve their game experience, hike prices and build up adjoining land. Spurred by the excellence of the USWNT, the idea of pay equity has taken hold among athletes, fans and sponsors. This is something that the 150-ish WNBA players have been fighting to change for quite some time. In 2014, the WNBA launched the first marketing campaign in professional sports to directly appeal to the LGBTQ market. 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. Meanwhile, Leandro Barbosa is scheduled to earn $500,000 from the Phoenix Suns in 2017-18. 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. Nneka Ogwumike was the No. jsemu2 gba emulator. But the number was wrong. Has commitment been equal? Many of the women dont get lucrative endorsements, and getting into broadcasting or some other sports-adjacent field once they retire is not guaranteed. Nows a good time for players to advocate for themselves because the product in the WNBA has never been better. Bird said. "If players are talking ridiculous salaries ," Silver began. Also a six-time All-Star, she had a nearly identical 0.248 win shares per 48 minutes in 2019. To secure international friendlies, the men's team pays and sometimes earns appearance fees, which don't exist for women. [Harrison Barnes, the highest paid player on the Dallas Mavericks, made $24 million last season. This season, the maximum veteran salary is $115,500, not including potential bonuses. (Blatter is currently in the midst of a six-year ban from FIFA for ethics violations.) The financial disparities between the leagues are undeniable. Where is the fair days wage for the fair days work? 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 . So Barbosa will be paid nearly five times what the WNBA MVP earned, and Barbosa won't even play for the Suns. Jessica Luther is a freelance journalist, an author and a co-host of the feminist sports podcast Burn It All Down.. Is the allocation of the best talent to thinking about ways to grow fan engagement, innovation or player experience happening?". Indeed, the $30 million awarded to all of the athletes combined at the 2019 Women's World Cup would not even equal the $38 million the French national team made after winning the 2018 men's World Cup, where prize money totaled $400 million. As a result of all this, merchandise sales grew by 18 percent in 2017, attendance has increased, more people are tuning in, and players are acquiring significant social media followings. Listen, * Peter Keating joins Mina to discuss the U.S. Soccer's court victory and what's next for the U.S. women's national team. The athletes did want a larger share of league revenues. Consequently, it is not surprising to learn that in 1970-71, NBA players were paid 27 percent of league revenue. 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. 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.. which tips off later this week in Tenerife, with the final on Sept. 30. will be spending a significant chunk of their year overseas playing on professional teams and in leagues in order to supplement their WNBA income. It also includes corporate sponsorship. "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.". 1 draft choice, and in which they won the WNBA championship with Brittney Griner, whom they selected with that pick? 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. 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. Teams will provide housing with two bedrooms for athletes with children, individual hotel rooms on the road and flight upgrades. It took the NBA 72 years to get to where the league is today, while the WNBA is only in its 21st season. Because these women deserve more money. 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. WNT members wore their jerseys inside out in protest. More recently, men's soccer clubs have kept the gravy train rolling. The WNBA players clearly are not getting that much. The WNBA inked a landmark labor deal in January, guaranteeing improved pay and unprecedented health benefits, after its players opted out of their CBA for the first time. She previously covered the WNBA and NBA for SB Nation. One of the reasons we're even talking about equal pay in sports today is because of the courageous fight of. At least not yet. 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. U.S. Soccer's lobbyists even used it to argue that the American women's national team is paid fairly, simply because there's so much less available to pay them. The players wanted a viable league where they could build careers, not just part-time jobs. This pay gap is very real. As for the players, well, they deserve to be able to play the game they love (that theyre good at!) 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. Or for the USSF to follow FIFA's lead in allocating prize money. The rate continues to go up this season, as shown by . For some players, the math just doesn't make sense when they're trying to . Last week, this exciting season of the WNBA ended after the Seattle Storm swept the Washington Mystics to win their third championship. "I think they're going to all drag the federation along, hopefully to a place where there's equal pay and beyond.". And it is also contending with at least four other lawsuits, so its legal bills will total about $9 million this year. * 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. The WNBAs growing popularity has made pay equity a hot topic in the sport, and over the course of this season, several players have drawn attention to the issue.
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