WNBA Salaries (split from More or Less of Whatnot)

[Frayed Knot]

I'd suggest that the key to women's basketball and any upstart sports leagues is to get out of the gravity well of the dominant leagues and make your own way.

Some may recall that the WNBA was the second pro league. The American Basketball League had launched a year earlier (autumn '96) and
the two were in completion for a few seasons with the ABL paying the better salaries. But they also had a harder time absorbing the losses
while the one with the NBA parent could. The result was the ABL folding after just two seasons leaving female players with fewer choices,
lower salaries, and often the need to play overseas during their 'off-season' in order to make some decent money.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I'd suggest that the key to women's basketball and any upstart sports leagues is to get out of the gravity well of the dominant leagues and make your own way.

I think that this is apples and oranges. Women's basketball is very much unlike any other "upstart" league competing with the establishment. The old ABA, AFL and USFL competed directly with the older established leagues. The players were drawn from the exact same talent pool. Caitlin Clark, on the other hand, was never gonna have the opportunity to choose between playing for either the NY Knicks or the NY Liberty.

Also, trash drafts and let players play where they want. Let them start their own teams if they want.Also, trash drafts and let players play where they want. Let them start their own teams if they want.

This is just a fantasy. Leagues are driven and formed by billionaire owners who commit and invest in franchises. And by extension, cities. The owners will always determine which cities get to have the teams.

[Edgy MD]

As to your first point, there is a reminder up above that there was in very recent history a better-paying women's league that wasn't controlled by the NBA.

As to your second, that's not the way it is in the rest of the world, and if we can accept that anti-trust laws in this country apply, it won't be here.

Also, the two points run contrary to one another. Newer sports don't have to be controlled by anybody. Professional leagues that aren't competing with an old guard can create a new establishment.

[batmagadanleadoff]

How would you have a league where the players decide where the teams play? Owners want stability. Are the owners supposed to move their franchises every coupl'a years at the behest of the players whim or trendy trends? Caitlin Clark might be the greatest thing ever to happen to women's basketball but she has practically zero leverage in telling owners where to put their teams or how to structure the league she wants to play in. In the here and now, she'll play in about as unglamourous of a city as can be in a mostly rural state. Billionaires are paying her less than $100K a year to play and she'll take it because she has no other choice and no other leverage unless she's willing to cut off her nose to spite her face.

[Edgy MD]

How would you have a league where the players decide where the teams play?

Teams offer contracts, players decide whether or not they want to accept them, and the world spins on. It happens all the time.

[Edgy MD]

To be clearer, I didn't mean to suggest the players should decide in which localities teams will be situated, only that they themselves should decide what teams they want to play for.

But yeah, if there's more talent than there are jobs available, start your own team while you're young. The biggest overhead is you and your skills.

[Frayed Knot]

The WNBA will commence using shuttle flights for team trips, rather than sending them commercial, in response to concerns
about player safety. Brittany Greiner, 6' 8" and particularly noticeable on the heels of her legal troubles in Russia, had some
incidents in airports and you have to think that Caitlin Clark will have at least as tough a time moving around anonymously.
This was an issue of growing concern for players as well as a symbol of their second class status compared to the men.

[Frayed Knot]

Indiana Fever average attendance last season = 4,000/g
Attendance last night for C.C.'s first exhibition game = 13,000

[MFS62]

Indiana will be opening the season at the Connecticut Sun.
Local TV has said the game has been sold out.
Later

[Frayed Knot]

You're dead to me Caitlin.

[Frayed Knot]

fwiw, the WNBA is projected to lose $40 million this year, a figure that's down a bit from earlier estimates but still sizable.

[metirish]

Just finding out now that the NY Liberty are WNBA Champions

[Frayed Knot]

WNBA player's union opts to re-open the CBA early.

It's a smart move given that the league signed ramped up new TV deals this year and saw big ratings jumps.
The current CBA will still be on place for the 2025 season so this still has a year to play itself out.