Saturday, June 15, 2024


WNBA backed by Caitlin Clark continues to hemorrhage money despite record attendance and ratings

Mike Bedigan
Thu, Jun 13, 2024

Despite the growing popularity of the WNBA, the league is hemorrhaging money, with losses expected to rise to up to $50m this year, sources have said (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Despite the recent explosion of the popularity of the WNBA, led by stars including Caitlin Clark, the league is hemorrhaging money, with losses expected to rise to up to $50m this year, according to a report.

Popular players such as Clark, Angel Reese and Sue Bird, have all earned individual sponsorship deals off the back of their successes, though the WNBA still lags far behind other major US sports leagues in terms of revenue.


NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in 2018 that the WNBA had lost an average of more than $10m per year since its founding. Sources with knowledge of the figures, who spoke to The Washington Post anonymously, said that that loss was expected to increase five-fold by the end of 2024.

“The truth is, this league would be hard-pressed to exist without the NBA,” one WNBA team executive told The Post. The individual spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the league’s finances.

Last year, the league was valued at between $180m and $200m, according to Bloomberg – a fraction of its male counterpart, the NBA, which earns more than $10bn.

A deal over next year’s broadcast rights to the WNBA, currently valued around $60m, are under negotiation by the NBA, which owns 60 percent of the league.

Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal reported the deal for the NBA will be worth more than $7bn per year – but for both leagues. Value figures for the WNBA have not been assigned specifically, meaning the league’s rising popularity may not factor much into how much money it receives in the deal.

Several media executives have predicted that through the deal the WNBA could triple its annual rights revenue to somewhere between $180m and $200m. According to The Post however, the value of the rights will ultimately not be decided by media companies, but by the NBA.

“If you’re not getting a number from the media companies, then you are hanging on to the NBA,” Laura Gentile, an industry consultant and ESPN’s former chief marketing officer, told The Post.

Sources say that despite its growing popularity, the WNBA is set to lose up to $50m this year (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

“You’re saying it’s a rounding error in the grand scheme of business. Maybe that’s the case, but it doesn’t help the ecosystem grow. Women’s sports want accountability; they want their growth projections to matter.”

Some believe although the NBA may fairly recognize the increasing value and popularity of the women’s league, it will still be somewhat hamstrung by the ties.

“Even if the money is less, I would rather have independent money, because then you have a real business,” David Samson, the former president of MLB’s Miami Marlins, told The Post.

“If a media company says we value the WNBA at X, that’s a real value of what the WNBA’s rights are. Otherwise, it’s like buying social media followers: perceived value but not real.”

Caitlin Clark responds to bigotry in WNBA audience: 'People should not be using my name to push those agendas'

Amid discourse around the rookie phenom, the Fever got their fourth win of the season


Kari Anderson
Contributing writer
Fri, Jun 14, 2024

As discourse around Indiana Fever rookie and women's basketball phenom Caitlin Clark grows louder, some of the discussion has taken an uglier turn into racism and misogyny directed at the rest of the WNBA.

On Thursday, Clark refuted that language, saying that she does not want her name used in that context.

"Everybody in our world deserves the same amount of respect. The women in our league deserve the same amount of respect," Clark said in response to a question from The Athletic's James Boyd. "People should not be using my name to push those agendas."

Clark's response came after an answer to a question asked by The Athletic's Jim Trotter earlier on Thursday, in which Clark said that her name being weaponized is out of her control.

"I'm just here to play basketball," Clark said.

The answer, which some perceived as dismissive of the bigotry pervasive in the conversation, prompted criticism, including from Connecticut Sun guard Dijonai Carrington, who posted about the response on X.

"How one can not be bothered by their name being used to justify racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia & the intersectionalities of them all is nuts," Carrington wrote. "We all have a platform. We all have a voice & they all hold weight. Silence is a luxury."

Boyd asked Clark the more specific question, relating to racism and misogyny, soon after Carrington's post. There, the former Iowa guard was more clear.

"Just treating every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect I think is just a basic human thing that everybody should do," Clark said. "I think it's very simple."

Clark has had to deal with a lot of noise since joining the WNBA in April, most recently around her being left off the Team USA Olympic roster — a perceived snub to many of her fans. Clark herself said that she sees being left off the team as "something to work for."

On Thursday night, Clark and the Fever won their fourth game of the season with a 91–84 victory over the Atlanta Dream. Clark scored seven points on 3-for-11 shooting, adding four rebounds and six assists. Aliyah Boston led Indiana with 27 points and 13 rebounds, followed by Kelsey Mitchell's 24 points.




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