Insincere morons the world over feigned faux hysteria at Caitlin Clark’s new WNBA salary after it was revealed she would make roughly $76,000 a year in her first four years with the Indiana Fever.
Clark’s star has been shining so brightly that she’s renewed an age-old argument about the gender pay gap. Her celebrity status even prompted President Biden to weigh in.
“Women in sports continue to push new boundaries and inspire us all. But right now we’re seeing that even if you’re the best, women are not paid their fair share. It’s time that we give our daughters the same opportunities as our sons and ensure women are paid what they deserve,” Biden tweeted Wednesday.
Women in sports continue to push new boundaries and inspire us all.
But right now we’re seeing that even if you’re the best, women are not paid their fair share.
It’s time that we give our daughters the same opportunities as our sons and ensure women are paid what they deserve.
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 16, 2024
Other disingenuous dingbats joined in with a chorus of melodrama, fomenting phony outrage over the star’s WNBA salary. (RELATED: ‘Be Funnier Dumb*ss’: Caitlin Clark Dunks On ‘SNL’ Castmember)
“For Caitlin Clark to make only a FRACTION of what her male counterparts make is beyond outrageous. It’s 2024. The time to dismantle the gender pay gap and give women equal opportunity was years ago. Let’s get it done NOW,” Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Lori Trahan tweeted Thursday.
For Caitlin Clark to make only a FRACTION of what her male counterparts make is beyond outrageous.
It’s 2024. The time to dismantle the gender pay gap and give women equal opportunity was years ago. Let’s get it done NOW.https://t.co/khvBX6wuiM
— Lori Trahan (@RepLoriTrahan) April 18, 2024
Well, I have a simple solution for Biden, Trahan and everybody else clutching their pearls: get season tickets. I’m not sure if Biden has ever attended a WNBA game in his life. He certainly hasn’t done so as President. The Daily Caller reached out to Trahan to ask if she had ever attended a game or supported the WNBA financially in any way, but did not hear back by time of publication.
Biden and Trahan are hardly outliers. Of the scores of people complaining about the alleged pay gap, almost none of them actually attend WNBA games. The math simply does not add up. The best WNBA team in terms of average attendance, the Las Vegas Aces, still averaged less than 10,000 fans per game last season, according to Statista.
While the league is growing in popularity, the whiners’ complaints far outpace their willingness to actually support the league financially. That lack of support leads to far lesser premiums in value on in-game advertisements for the league’s partners, in turn leading to a significantly lower revenue stream than their male counterpart, the NBA.
As a matter of fact, compared to their NBA colleagues, the women are actually overpaid.
As you can see here, the pay gap is actually in reverse. Like in real, actual, no bullshit reality, the WNBA players are making a higher proportion (.16%) of league revenue than the NBA players (.096%) pic.twitter.com/SRyPZ5XAMR
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) April 17, 2024
WNBA players make a higher proportion of their league’s revenue than the NBA players do, according to data on team salary numbers collected by the Daily Caller from Spotrac. The NBA brought in over $10 billion in revenue last season. The WNBA, meanwhile, was expected to bring in just two percent of that at $200 million, Bloomberg previously reported.
Now, the WNBA is certainly on the rise. Their $200 million 2023 revenue is up over 200 percent from their 2022 number of $60 million, according to data from the World Sports Network and Bloomberg. That’s great and it’s a sign of the growing appetite for women’s athletics. But it’s still small fry compared to the NBA.
Trahan calls for “equal opportunity” for women in sports. I would argue they have exactly that. Clark is a perfect example. She just signed an eight-figure deal with Nike rumored to be in the $10 to $20 million range. Where’s the outrage for all the girls who don’t get shoe deals? What about the endorsement gap?
There’s no such thing. Clark earned every penny she got from Nike by being the most electric, exciting women’s basketball player the world has ever seen. And Nike will capitalize on that, make her the face of a number of campaigns and sell the bejeezus out of some sneakers because of it. As they should. (RELATED: America Is Finally Talking About Womens’ Basketball But Some Scolds Still Aren’t Happy)
If folks want WNBA players to make as much as NBA players do, they need to put their money where their mouth is. Patronize the games. Buy every jersey. Drain your wallet at the concession stands. I have never, in my life, seen a kid — boy or girl — walking around the city with their favorite WNBA player’s jersey on. Have any of these scolds bought their kids a Elena Delle Donne or Skylar Diggins jersey for Christmas? Instead of blaming some nameless, faceless invisible force of inequity for your gripes, how about you take some responsibility, JOE, and say “hell, you know what, I’m doing all this complaining, but I’ve never even been to a game. Maybe it’s high time I actually did something about the thing I’ve been complaining about.”
That would for sure be a good start. But, as I expect the vast majority of these people are more interested in competing in a dedicated whine-off than actually fixing any problems, I won’t be holding my breath.