As WNBA expansion continues, ownership of the NWSL's KC Current — which includes Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany — has met with the WNBA and is in contention to bring the league's next franchise to Kansas City. Mahomes also co-owns the KC Royals and Sporting KC. pic.twitter.com/9kd2VXzWR3
Originally Posted by HonestChieffan:
28 years and never made a profit.
The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is projected to lose around $50 million in 2024, which is a five-fold increase from its average annual loss. This is despite the league's recent growth in popularity, which has led to record viewership and attendance
Loser forever
Do a little research into the numbers and you will come to realize what I did. The WNBA is lying about it's numbers. They're lying so that they don't have to pay their players more. They kept saying oh we are operating with a $10 mil loss, but then revenues supposedly doubled from 2022 to 2023? They went from bringing in $100 mil/yr to $200 mil a year and they're still operating at a loss? This year they made more than ever and somehow they're at a $50 mil loss? I don't buy it.
"Perhaps most important, in July the league secured a historic media-rights deal. Until this summer, their TV deal was valued at about $60 million per year, a sum many saw as undervalued. Consider that Major League Soccer, founded just before the WNBA and averaged hundreds of thousands fewer viewers last year, sold its media rights to Apple TV in 2022 for an annual $250 million, or $2.5 billion over the decade-long contract. But the league's new deal was negotiated this summer as part of a $77 billion package with the NBA. Some $2.2 billion of that will go to the WNBẢ over 11 seasons, averaging about $200 million a year less than Major League Soccer, but a little more than three times its current haul."
"Perhaps there’s the rub. The WNBA’s collective-bargaining agreement, ratified in 2020, is set to expire in 2027, but the union has the option to opt out in November. That opens up the players to renegotiate in 2025, potentially securing higher salaries and more favorable marketing agreements. “It sounds like it’s likely, from the comments that we’ve heard from the players, that they’re ready to renegotiate,” Rizzotti said. “It’s a favorable time for the players and the owners to come to a new agreement.”
A new contract would give the players an opportunity to address a long-running concern: they still don’t receive, as the Los Angeles Sparks’ Chiney Ogwumike put it, an “equitable share of basketball-related income” under their current agreement. Even as the WNBA’s earnings have exploded, player compensation was already set by the 2020 bargaining agreement. As a result, their salaries as a share of total revenue have trended down, rather than up — from 11.1% to 9.3%."
They will opt out of the current there current CBA and hopefully get the owners to open up the books. [Reply]
Originally Posted by HonestChieffan:
28 years and never made a profit.
The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is projected to lose around $50 million in 2024, which is a five-fold increase from its average annual loss. This is despite the league's recent growth in popularity, which has led to record viewership and attendance
Loser forever
Yeah but as dlphg has said, that’s based on the old tv deal. The new tv deal is substantial and at the minimum probably makes it profitable. That’s not even factoring in that it’s not just Caitlin clark, but there is a wave of highly marketable players coming out of college where women’s basketball is really thriving. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
Yeah but as dlphg has said, that’s based on the old tv deal. The new tv deal is substantial and at the minimum probably makes it profitable. That’s not even factoring in that it’s not just Caitlin clark, but there is a wave of highly marketable players coming out of college where women’s basketball is really thriving.
The WNBA will never approach the success of the NBA for the same reason the UFL will never approach the success of the NFL: It's an inferior product with inferior athletes. [Reply]
Women's basketball is absolutely thriving. The year before Caitlin Clark came in the WNBA had there highest revenue ever and doubled it from $100 mil to $200 mil. I have no desire to watch it, but that doesn't mean other people don't. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThrobProng:
The WNBA will never approach the success of the NBA for the same reason the UFL will never approach the success of the NFL: It's an inferior product with inferior athletes.
No shit? Who said it's be anything close to the NBA? [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThrobProng:
Shouldn't that be the goal? If you're setting the bar lower just because they're women...that's pretty sexist.
It's fine to have goals. At some point reality comes knocking, however. WNBA will never be as successful as NBA because the majority of people that watch sports want to watch the absolute best at it and that doesn't involve women. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jd1020:
It's fine to have goals. At some point reality comes knocking, however. WNBA will never be as successful as NBA because the majority of people that watch sports want to watch the absolute best at it and that doesn't involve women.
Men's March Madness rakes in far more money than the WNBA, and they aren't considered anything close to the best.
Originally Posted by sedated:
And Japanese/Latin baseball leagues will never be as popular as MLB, is that racist?
Let me know when some women from the WNBA make it onto NBA rosters. [Reply]