The unprecedented consideration Caitlin Clark has dropped at girls’s basketball has additionally put the large wage disparity between the WNBA and the NBA beneath the microscope.
The College of Iowa star was taken by the Indiana Fever with the No. 1 overall pick of the WNBA draft on April 15 after a season wherein she set information on the court docket and in the television ratings for ladies’s basketball.
She is predicted to signal a four-year, $338,000 contract with the Fever as a part of the WNBA’s rookie wage scale, in keeping with Spotrac, a web site that tracks participant contracts throughout a number of sports activities.
She is going to earn $76,535 in her rookie season this summer season, which has many Clark followers outraged on the comparatively small quantity given her affect on the game.
Many Clark followers weighed in on social media and expressed dismay at her low pay in comparison with what NBA draft picks make.
“These girls deserve a lot extra…Praying for the day,” Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson wrote on X.
“Aint no motive i ought to have the next wage than Caitlin Clark man,” one other fan wrote.
“To everybody trashing Caitlin Clark’s wage, I agree and need higher for them,” one other individual wrote.
TODAY’s Hoda Kotb additionally did a double take when she noticed that wage determine, in comparison with the life-changing riches that high NBA draft picks earn.
“After I noticed the quantity, $76,000 within the first 12 months and $78,000 within the second 12 months, and $85,000 within the third 12 months, for any individual who’s now the face of girls’s basketball, it appeared type of ridiculous,” Hoda mentioned on TODAY Tuesday. “A man who’s within the NBA, first 12 months, they will get $10 million.”
The No. 1 total decide in final 12 months’s NBA draft, San Antonio Spurs rookie star Victor Wembanyama, has a four-year, $55 million contract wherein he earned $12.1 million in his first season, in keeping with Spotrac.
Whereas Clark will most definitely make tens of millions from endorsements, there’s a big gulf between her wage and her NBA counterparts.
Stephen Grasp, a professor of sports activities advertising and marketing and media at NYU’s Stern Faculty of Enterprise, mentioned the first approach for the WNBA to spice up pay is to get a bigger tv contract and improve ticket gross sales.
“There simply hasn’t been sufficient time to catch up when it comes to these media rights offers,” Grasp, who additionally labored for the NBA and the scores agency Nielsen, tells TODAY.com. “These offers are completed so lengthy upfront, and so they’re taking a look at historic numbers once they’re evaluating bids on these rights.
“The NBA’s deal relies on the historical past of the NBA drawing a sure stage of viewership and sponsorship, promoting out arenas, and being an total a part of the zeitgeist.”
The league hopes Clark can be a driving power in that push, as 36 of the Fever’s 40 video games can be on nationwide tv this season.
The hype over Clark’s addition to the Fever was so excessive that the staff packed its home arena with followers watching the draft on Monday evening, though the occasion was in New York Metropolis.
The WNBA at the moment makes about $60 million a 12 months from its media rights, a contract that is set to run out in 2025, in keeping with Front Office Sports.
As compared, the NBA is within the midst of a $24 billion tv deal that pays $2.7 billion yearly. Plus, the league is predicted to command between $60 billion and $72 billion when it renegotiates its TV deal this summer season, in keeping with Sports Business Journal.
For WNBA salaries to get within the ballpark with NBA salaries, Grasp mentioned, viewership must rise dramatically.
“(The rise in scores) can’t be 5-10 %,” Grasp mentioned. “It must be like 400 or 500 % progress.
“If Caitlin Clark is ready to assist take this to a billion-dollar entity, she ought to receives a commission, and all of the gamers ought to receives a commission extra,” he mentioned. “The pie could be a lot greater to separate.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. Extra from TODAY:
