The 2019 NBA Finals averaged a little more than 20 million viewers per game; the 2019 WNBA Finals averaged about 400,000 viewers per game. 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. They go through and make the same sacrifices as men to get what they want. For that to happen, the WNBA needs to make a new deal with its players. She is a WNBA champion, a 3-time Russian . The Greatest Food Debates Of All Time, Answered Pineapple On Pizza? Last year, the average WNBA salary was US$71,635, and this year appears to be closer to $75,000. 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.. If Women and Men athletes were paid more equitably then Britney wouldn't . (For the record, I have seen WNBA games.). Answer (1 of 22): I will be as objective as I can be. And I know you know what that box could have inside. There need to be more women and more people of color hired so we can curate our own sports stories. Proclaiming that women should get paid as much as men is a great way for a man to demonstrate his feminist bona fides. We need to come together as one and fix this problem. Elizabeth Cambage #8 of the Dallas Wings in action during a recent Dallas Wings Vs New York Liberty. [+] Prior to this season, Cambage last played in the WNBA in 2013. As many may not know, men get paid way more money than women's basketball does. If WNBA players demand a higher salary that would match the NBA, the league. Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. In order to make a living playing basketball, most WNBA players compete overseas during the offseason to supplement their WNBA income. This also helps explains whye-sports playersare making more money than the best players in theWNBA. The WNBA does not have the amount of television contract and sponsorship money to warrant paying players more, having a longer season, and/or make other investments to the league. They watched the Jordans and the Lebrons, and they are never going to turn their back on them for a game where the players are barely dunking. Meanwhile, for the upcoming NBA season, the minimum salary . All they want is better pay equity. That is more than $92 million a year for the rights to televise the USGA's championships, including the men's and women's U.S. A 47 point difference is absolutely terrible. Therefore no one watches it, on the other hand, NBA generates more revenue of $7.92 billion per year than the WNBA. Since the NBA formed the WNBA I can't see how they could not just pay the men less to pay the women more. At the same time, The Guardian recently reported that in the 2018 fiscal year, USWNT head coach Jill Ellis was paid less than several U.S. Soccer mens coaches, including U-20 coach Tab Ramos. Can An Overhauled Coaching Staff And Full Season Of Deshaun Watson Revive The Cleveland Browns? That is 1 million in just a year, while for a regular season they get paid $400K in just a year. There is, however, one sector of the economy inwhich it continuesto be taken seriously: sports. Snyder's success will hinge on getting through to them at a level that Lloyd Pierce never could and Nate McMillan managed for only a limited time. Read about a Freshman's upcoming book (Here), Read about The Pines coming to Bellwood (Here), Read about the NHS Easter egg hunt (Here), Light It Up Blue BluePrints Autism Awareness Initiative. Is it possible, however, that this simply shows an inherent sexist bias by consumers against womens basketball? She joined the Journalism program because loves to Former Vice President, Mike Pence, is attempting to fight a subpoena requested by the Special Counsel regarding former president Donald Trumps activities after the 2020 Chinese Balloon Shot Down by F-22 After Days Traversing the U.S. With college application season nearing an end, Centreville senior stress levels have reached their peak as students frantically try to maintain their high first semester Theatre Centreville Presents Mutually Assured Destruction, FCPS Welcomes New Misgendering and Deadnaming Policy to Punish Students (Update), OPINION: Increasing Usage of Social Media, CVHS Student Opinions on College Admissions and Standardized Testing, Donald Trump is Holding the Republican Party Back, Opinion: Walking Has Many Health Benefits, Opinion: Why The Minions Franchise Has a Positive Affect On Our Society, Opinion: Why Dr.Oz Shouldnt Win the Pennsylvania Senate Election, Opinion: Why Players in the WNBA Should Get Paid More, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window). Specifically, let's imagine the WNBA gave 50% of its revenue to its players. Solely because theyre women? The WNBA will suffer if they dont figure out some way to pay players more. I know Mom just handed you a perfectly rectangular 14-by-8-by-5-inch box covered in brightly colored wrapping paper. Like Russia. NBA players are taller, more athletic, and simply play the game with more aggression. In the WNBA the range of salaries is $117K to $215K for the highest-paid players. The WNBA is 50 years behind in building its brand and working out labor issues. working twice as hard and still getting paid less than male players do. Nows a good time for players to advocate for themselves because the product in the WNBA has never been better. Because we actually play THE GAME. Most men, of course, sign with brands or maybe even run their own. The segment came on the heels of the WNBA Players Association telling the league that they are opting out of the current collective bargaining agreement. 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. The US women's soccer team has brought the conversation to the forefront over the last three years. Women athletes should be paid the same as men athletes. While all four of the major Grand Slam tennis tournaments have awarded men and women equal prize money since 2007 when Wimbledon finally evened its pay gap, the games biggest female stars have not held back when it comes to speaking out about equal pay. Basketball. So, are women better than men at anything? We need a change, and we need people to support us in this change. However, you cannot have equal pay when you dont make enough money to have the same amount of pay. In contrast, NBA players receive about 50% of league revenue. But let's talk about the competitiveness of the field for a minute, because, arguably, it's true: In many sports, the difference in skill and ability between the top women's athlete, and say, the 100 th-ranked women's athlete, is a much wider gulf than the same comparison between male players of similar ranks.For instance the recent women's football World Cup match between the #1 . Those numbers are very surprising to hear but that is just the cold hard truth. Obviously, the players would want to receive a larger share of league revenue. Speci cally, I nd that WNBA rookies are generally overpaid given their on-court production. Basically, they want a fair share of the total revenue of the WNBA. In a way, this strategy makes perfect sense. Except I dont know a single person who believes that women should get paid less than men for being as productive while doing the same job. It is simply because the WNBA is not as good as the NBA and you cant get viewers when there is a better alternative. We need more businesses to sign women and trust them to support their brands. Compare that to the NFL average of $2.7 million (median is $860K), $4.41 million in the MLB, $3.5 million in the NHL, and the average NBA salary is a whopping $9.662 million for the 2022-23 season. According to the WNBA, this was most-watched regular season since 2014, with viewership across ESPN networks and NBA TV up by 31 percent. Seriously, not a single person. Nothing rude there. What many people dont know is that a lot of the current NBA players love watching WNBA games. The new CBA addresses this issue. So is the opportunity to grow the game. 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. As women, we work just as hard or maybe even harder than men do when it comes to achieving our goals. Meanwhile, High Post Hoops reports that the highest paid player in the WNBA -- Chiney Ogwumike of the Connecticut Sun -- is paid $117,500 this year. The money is there. But the notion that women deserve to be paid more just because theyre women is absurd and counterproductive to my daughters future earning potential. The main reason why WNBA players are paid less is WNBA is not as famous as NBA. When it comes to me and my opinions, I strongly believe women should be paid the same amount as men maybe even more. We had incredibly thrilling semifinals series that went a full five games apiece. As Mark Tatum, NBA deputy commissioner, says, The league and its teams are committed to an open and good-faith negotiation that is rooted in the financial realities of our business., The pushback on that, and one of the more prominent arguments utilized by those who advocate for higher WNBA salaries, is that the NBA doesnt promote the womens league enough. This year in the 2022 playoffs, Ja Morant is the starting PG for the Memphis Grizzles. Against The Men By: Dave Seminara June 29, 2017 10 min read Over the next fortnight at The Championships, more commonly known as Wimbledon, 256. Of course TV ratings themselves are less important to this topic than dollars attached to theirtelevision contracts, and to theWNBAs credit, ESPN doubled the value of their contract with the league to $25 million a year in 2016. This means that not only is the average WNBA salary lower than it should be, the top tier female athletes are underpaid! Three teams experienced double-digit growth: Attendance was up 17.8 percent for the Los Angeles Sparks, 15.3 percent for the Connecticut Sun and 12.3 percent for the Minnesota Lynx. The more money that women make, the more respect they will get. She is also not the only one to skip a WNBA season. Some feared that such a campaign could alienate other segments of the leagues fan base. A post shared by Kelsey Plum (@kelseyplum10). This was a stellar season, where the final eight teams that made the playoffs werent determined until the last few games. So yes, it appears NBA referees do make more than a WNBA player. If we also assume that what players have done so far (prior to Friday's games) allows us to forecast each player's final production of wins in 2018 (wins produced can be measured with the player's box score statistics), then here are the fifteen most valuable players in the WNBA (in terms of their forecasted season wins production and the estimate of their salary if the WNBA was paying players like the NBA): It certainly appears that if the WNBA paid like the NBA, the top WNBA players would be paid better than what we think the top NBA referees are receiving. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Athletes have short careers. This topic is brought up at least every year, and nothing has changed. Lebron James is 69 and 250 pounds of pure muscle and can jump 40 off the ground. After all, sponsors want exposure for their brand. Cant pay them the same as NBA players, thats just daylight fraud, Nate Jun 3, 2022 at 3:22 pm. It was reported that Sylvia Fowles was paid $600,000 to play in China a few years ago. Thats far away from here, but thats what were fighting toward.. They deserve to be able to play the game they love without needing to get a second job to pay the bills. The average viewers on television was 171,000 in 2017 (2018 does appear to be higher averaging 266,300 viewers) WNBA plays 34 games in regular season. 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. What would Cambage and other WNBA stars be paid this year if the league gave 50% of its revenue to its players? Machen Sie das auch? 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. 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 results suggest that WNBA star players and starters are generally paid according to their respective levels of productivity, although there is evidence that ine ciencies exist with regards to rookie compensation. They have security concerns because of their fame. So we need a change, and we need it now. Compared to the average salary of $7 million in the NBA, this seems outrageous. Women have all of those qualities. This would give them the opportunity to negotiate a new deal that increases the salary cap, along with maximum and minimum salaries. That same year, however, only 2 percent of airtime on the stations flagship show, SportsCenter, was allocated to womens sports. Due to this situation the question has surfaced of, Should women basketball players be compensated the same as mens? The contract, which runs through 2027, pays. Plenty of signs indicate that will happen, and it should. Starting, we need more people advertising and supporting the WNBA, and not only when its beneficial for them. Get it together. This should not be tolerated. Im sorry, the WNBA is awful compared to the NBA. But using league revenue, economics professor Dave Berri was recently able to calculate a significant gender wage gap in another respect. Ninety-five percent or higher of sports media content is focused on men, even though women make up 40 percent of all sports participants. 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