why wnba players should not be paid more

The athletes are planning to appeal, but at least for the moment, crucial parts of the suit have been dismissed. Once again, though, we don't know expenses in the WNBA. She also said it would be a letdown of all the work the founders of the league put into it if the current players decided to forgo the league for increased earnings.. While the men are getting about half of the total money they help the NBA earn, the women are getting less than a fourth. Last year, the average WNBA salary was US$71,635, and this year appears to be closer to $75,000. ", FIFA has a notoriously checkered past with women athletes. 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. He estimated that WNBA player salaries constitute 22 percent of league revenue, while NBA player salaries amount to roughly 50 percent of league revenues. Stay up to date with what you want to know. But the risk also offered reward: 15 million Americans self-identify as LGBTQ, and they represent a market segment worth around $830 million. 63). 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. Its so much wear and tear. The base salary for WNBA rookies varies on when (or if) players were selected in the WNBA Draft. Jackson met with Engelbert even before her hiring was official and told her the players were concerned about salary and compensation, player experience, and health and wellness. Copyright 2008-2023 BroBible. Which, again, Kelsey Plum isnt arguing for NBA salaries she just believes the league should pay out 50% of shared revenue the same as the NBA does. 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. 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. Many of the women dont get lucrative endorsements, and getting into broadcasting or some other sports-adjacent field once they retire is not guaranteed. Its true that the WNBA generates about $60 million in revenue per year, while the NBA generates $7.92 billion. These women should be paid more. I dont understand why these companies havent been partnering with yall for years and years, Barkley said. In 2021, Tacoma and Louisville are scheduled to open the first soccer-specific stadiums with National Women's Soccer League clubs as their highest-level tenants. 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.. 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. The NBA, which partially owns the WNBA, needs to dedicate more time and money to their female players so they dont have to forgo an offseason and play overseas to support themselves. Cindy Parlow Cone, then U.S. Soccer's vice president, condemned the USSF's legal arguments. At the end of the day, people will still complain that the WNBA is boring, less competitive and that theres no dunking. Playing in other countries during the WNBA offseason can allow players to make double, triple or even quadruple of what they make in the United States. Now, as the league begins a 25th season of soldiering on in the face of those tired arguments, perhaps the time has. 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. Therefore, it is not surprising the WNBA pays lower salariesIn 2017, the WNBA posted its highest attendance in six years. Shes played in Russia for the past seven years, and she makes over $1 million per season. 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. 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 it is also contending with at least four other lawsuits, so its legal bills will total about $9 million this year. UNLPD charges 6 for alcohol, 3 for stadium break-in, window smashing, theft, Five players who stood out at Nebraska footballs spring game, UNL student arrested on sexual assault charges, BREAKING: Nebraska Union, nearby buildings experience power outage, SHARACK: Stop treating UNL students with underrated majors as less than, Proposed new state prison sparks student opinions, Retiring custodians reflect on distinct experience of working at Massengale, Five Nebraska football players given professional opportunities after NFL Draft, St. Ritas Amazing Traveling Bookstore: bookstore on wheels stops at UNL. 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. Players who go overseas end up playing almost year-round, with little break for their bodies to recover. A post shared by Kelsey Plum (@kelseyplum10). Then, in a voice mocking the trolls in her mentions, she said: "'Maybe if you had viewership you would have that money. The Daily Nebraskan (@dailynebraskan) Instagram photos and videos. What many of the women are asking for is equity in revenue sharing, as economist David Berri has written about repeatedly at Forbes. 1-4 in the 2022 WNBA Draft, the base salary is expected to be $72,141 in year one. As Las Vegas Aces forward Kelsey Plum pointed out in 2018, 50% of the revenue in the NBA goes to players salaries, while only 20% of the WNBAs revenue goes to their players. 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. Essentially, the women want to partner in growing their game. Diggins-Smith also spoke about the sheer physical efforts of female basketball players. These short-term issues could blow up U.S. Soccer's priorities, and new labor negotiations are an even bigger threat. In a way, this strategy makes perfect sense. The WNBA is scheduled to play its 24th season this year. 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. It sounds unarguable. U.S. Soccer is at a crossroads: Whatever happens with the equal pay lawsuit, the USSF has to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with the women's national team by the end of next year, and its long-term relationship with the National Women's Soccer League is up in the air. Only 14 players in the league make $200,000 or more, according to Spotrac data. 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). 1 pick in the NBA draft in 2012. Now, Team USA is in Spain, about to play in the FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup which tips off later this week in Tenerife, with the final on Sept. 30. 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. The State . 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. Diana . 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. Or for the USSF to follow FIFA's lead in allocating prize money. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. They want a piece of the action. According to Summit Hoops, Fowles was paid $109,000 for all she did in 2017. 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. 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. 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. The biggest lesson: Today's athletes are asking for something even bigger than the strict definition of "pay equity." The NBA's collective bargaining agreement indicates the players must receive about 50% of the league's basketball-related income. Hart has played at such a high level that his $13 million player option should be declined without a second thought. The WNBA players clearly are not getting that much. Engelbert wrote those items down. Sabreena Merchant is a women's basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. For all this, Fowles was named league MVP. We had incredibly thrilling semifinals series that went a full five games apiece. This past March, the USSF even declared it was entitled to treat men better because of biology: "The overall soccer-playing ability required to compete at the senior men's national team level is materially influenced by the level of certain physical attributes, such as speed and strength.". This is about more than pay; it's about recognition for their hard work as athletes. 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 overall, viewers consumed 2.49 billion hours of coverage across all platforms, a jump of 93%. 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. And the equal pay lawsuit has exposed just how out of whack performance and pay have become in American soccer, legally or not. The interview with Wealthsimple took place a month after Diggins-Smith told a Dallas Morning News writer it was appalling what WNBA players make compared to their male counterparts in the NBA. And it can take decades for leagues and franchises to develop faith and establish their footing. Ertz in, Swanson out: Who will make USWNT's World Cup team after big shake-ups? Why WNBA players are not paid as much as NBA players? 2023 ABG-SI LLC. The squads face different adversaries, at different levels of competition, on different schedules, including World Cup cycles in different years. But the incredible rise in living standards which we have seen since the Industrial Revolution has not been the result of working harder. 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. (Including the very greatest: From 1997 to 2000, the Houston Comets won four straight WNBA championships with a core of Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson, all top-shelf Hall of Famers. These deals have been great for teams -- and for MLS; its expansion fee has rocketed to $325 million. 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. Furthermore, two years earlier, the league studied its fan base and discovered that 25 percent of WNBA fans identified as lesbian. , WNBA players make $75,000 a year in the league, with only a few players earning as much as $113,000. So not only are the players taking home 30% less than their NBA counterparts its 20% of a much smaller pie. 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. John Phelan is an economist at the Center of the American Experiment and fellow of The Cobden Centre. There was a problem saving your notification. According to Forbes magazine, the NBA generated . "I'm like, 'Oh, where's our world going?'". It took the NBA 72 years to get to where the league is today, while the WNBA is only in its 21st season. 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. 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.

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