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The WNBA expands again [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-07-01

With the assault on large parts of our culture a nice counter trend is happening that should be celebrated.

With the massive success of the Golden State Valkyries and Portland’s ticket deposits. The WNBA seems poised for a successful expansion and announced returns to Detroit and Cleveland plus entry into Philadelphia. While much of the media will attribute this the Caitlin Clark she is only a part of the growing interest and more of a viral pathway to something that had been growing and stabilizing. What I find most encouraging is how much its recent success is built on history and growing player and fan power forcing the issue by demonstrating demand.

The WNBA has had a series of fits and starts but there actually has been steady progress. Part of that is due to the slow but steady relinquishment of control by the NBA. It is no longer seen as merely a public relations cost and has evolved with ownership that has a direct interest in the teams as teams. Even if that is under the same hat as the same the local NBA franchise ownership. Along side that the players have had and continue to develop more control. The league is composed more and more of people who came up through its ranks and not outside of it. That has allowed the players and style to evolve truer to itself and less of a vision of what it should be.

But a professional league of course all devolves to money. As it stands right now 60% of the revenue generated by the League goes to the NBA and outside investors. The players have been advocating for as long as there was a league not for pay equity to the NBA but for revenue sharing equity. The actual pay scale is and always has been a joke. Until very recently even the very top stars had to pay overseas where they would make more than the could staying home. This meant that there was never an off season. With its small size, short rosters and hard caps the WNBA always had more talent available to it, the supply always exceeded the demand. What it didn’t have was the established stars staying home to leverage that power off season. This really started to change last decade. First the growing social activism by the players really started to break through. This was always true but as the Minnesota Lynx began their dynasty led by Seimone Augustus along with her teammates brought that much more to the fore. While that was to an extent for the times acceptable to the League they did not want it to get out of hand. That was followed by Diana Taurasi finally accepting the bonus offer made by her European team to sit out the WNBA season. This offer was for more than the WNBA max salary and Taurasi at the time said that a decade of no offseason was enough. Now with Maya Moore stepping back from the game to pursue her activism, the League was faced with two of their most bankable stars willing to step away as the grind was just to much and other interests much more important. While the 2020 CBA (collective bargaining agreement) attempted address some of the issues it was more of a patch and during the pandemic the League was in a stronger bargaining position because of the worldwide lock downs. What they thought would help them is coming back to really haunt them.

Two major changes out side of the League are also having a major impact. First is the NCAA compensation changes. The Name Likeness and Image settlement has allowed incoming Rookies to make significant bank before joining the league. In addition those now more available individual deals along with team awards the settlement opened up is not only marketing incoming talent increasing of interest, but putting advertising pressure on the League to allow that talent time to exploit that investment. Big international brands like Nike and Pepsi may of in the past accepted a star like Maya Moore playing in China or Europe, but AT&T and State Farm are much less willing to have Caitlin Clark do so. The other major change is the advent of Unrivaled. while its eventual fate is unknown it is well capitalized and player driven so for now at least it allowed some of the games biggest stars to stay in the US for a condensed 3 on 3 season and to make more than their WNBA salaries. Paige Bueckers this years top WNBA draft choice for example has signed to play next year for a salary that will pay her in one year more than her entire four year WNBA rookie contract. With its basically a two month all star showcase starting after the holidays in the midst of the NBA grind and the end of football, ending just as March Madness heats up the content fill and cross marketing opportunities give it every chance of succeeding and the players another bargaining point. For the new CBA. And this time I doubt the League will be able to only give the players 9.6% of the BRI (basketball related income). For the NBA that split is 50% to the players. Tonight’s in season tournament championship the Commissioners Cup (on Amazon Prime) will award the winners $30,000 + $5,000 in crypto. For a player at minimum (all to many) that represents over ¼ of their salary. Even for a player at supermax it represents 14%. The League will look very different with Napheesa Collier (current leading MVP candidate and co-founder of Unrivaled) openly talking potential strike the players are not going to be easy this time.

This in no way should diminish Caitlin Clark’s impact. She came to prominence just as things were changing. While there unfortunately was a tinge of small Red State vs Big Blue state and Great white hope attached to that. It had nothing to do with her and all to do with the Times. All that has really fallen away and a large amount of the fans that may have brought to the game have really stuck around. Most of that political baggage has transformed into common sports fandom complaints as the game has sucked people in. That should give us a lot of hope. The political divides can be bridged by just a bit of joy. We can all complain about the Refs together.

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