Caitlin Clark is the most famous athlete in women’s sports (the most popular who is actually a female), and she just got drafted #1 overall in the WNBA. But that doesn’t mean everyone is happy.
Clark went to the Indiana Fever with the #1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, a move that surprised no one as Clark was far and away the best player in women’s college basketball and long predicted to go #1.
Caitlin Clark poses with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected as the first overall pick by the Indiana Fever during the 2024 WNBA Draft at Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 15, 2024, in New York City. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Not long after the draft, details of Clark’s contract were posted online.
Clark hasn’t signed the deal yet, though she’s expected to. The contract is standard fare for the WNBA, with the largest single-year payout backloaded into the final option year.
No biggie, right? Wrong!
Social media users who think Clark should be paid much more blasted the deal as an insult to Clark and women.
However, in exhibit #8,009,111 of how women are frequently their own worst enemy, while Clark’s contract pales compared to that of #1 picks in men’s sports, that’s because women don’t support the WNBA! The WNBA, begun by then-NBA Commissioner Davis Stern in 1996, has never turned a profit. And why hasn’t it turned a profit? Because the women the league is designed to cater to do not go to the games, watch the games on TV, or buy the merchandise.
As Bill Burr once asked, “Where are the feminists” who are supposed to be supporting the WNBA?
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Last year’s #1 overall pick in the NBA Draft signed a 4-year, $55 million contract—quite a difference between his deal and Clark’s $338k. You know what else is a big difference? The amount of money the NBA made last year and the amount of money the WNBA made (which still didn’t amount to a profit).
The NBA earned $10.5 billion in 2023. According to reports, the WNBA had revenues between $180 million and $200 million. While this is a significant jump from 2019, when the league earned $102 million, it isn’t even in the same area code as the NBA.
These numbers could and should improve with Clark playing in the league. However, if feminists and supporters of women’s sports really cared, they would have gone up a long time ago.
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