thesch | Bulls

226 | 6 hours ago

Minimum above 300k is great, good for them

TemperedTorture | Spurs

135 | 5 hours ago

I’m glad that despite all the negative press and even personal attacks directed at so many of them, they stuck to their goals and came to an agreement in the end.

Kapono24 | Pistons

44 | 5 hours ago

It really is impressive. Feels like the NBA pre-mega TV deals when, and don’t get me wrong they still made great money, the new deal ensured guys in the future will make way more money, even if the guys who bargained it won’t see it. A lot of the women now will still prosper from it, but it feels like they set up the next generation with this deal even better.

mercfan3

1 | 14 minutes ago

That’s the thing. Being a woman’s professional basketball player is a way to make a lot of money now. That means investment in the sport from everyone.

I’ve been a fan of that league for 20+ years, and I remember Diana Taurasi making 35K her rookie season. She won an NBA all star competition and actually made more money from that. It’s just crazy growth that I didn’t think I’d ever see in such a short time span.

Interested to see in what they do with the younger players. I know the union was advocating for a DRose type of change to rookie contracts. Because of NIL, the league owes a lot of its rapid growth to them. (Juju and Fudd are very popular players in their own right who will be pros soon too.)

SiphenPrax | Knicks

27 | 4 hours ago

So many clowns online were sucking off the billionaires and hoping the players wouldn’t get paid more. They lost and the people that won are both players and the future players that will be able to keep playing basketball past college since they’ll actually get paid more moving forward.

bwrca

11 | 3 hours ago

We were having ‘the Wnba is not profitable’ arguments here damn near everyday for weeeeks. Glad they getting their bag.

killersky99

6 | 3 hours ago

It’s a win for everyone when the wealth is distributed to more people rather than hoarded by few.

heat_fan_ | Raptors

85 | 5 hours ago

Hey good for them

FOURTH_DEGREE_

72 | 5 hours ago

Great for them. Unity works.

OrangeJr36 | Heat

40 | 5 hours ago

When workers stand together, they win.

Shingorillaz | Timberwolves

32 | 5 hours ago

I don’t know what it is about the Wnba that brings out people willing to eat C-Suite overlord shit directly from the anus. Wait I do know. Anyways congratulations to the players.

504090 | Thunder

15 | 3 hours ago

I’ve been on r/NBA for a while and the discourse used to be even worse. People here were straight up praying for the WNBA to fail lol, going on & on about subsidization without realizing there are subsidized NBA teams as well

SleepingAntz | Wizards

8 | 3 hours ago

Tbf I feel like it’s really two different discussions that get mixed with each other: 1) What should WNBA players make? and 2) Do I care if they make more or less than what they “should” make?

Like a frequent talking point is “they play the same sport so they should make the same amount as NBA players” which obviously doesn’t make sense financially, yet. The WNBA just doesn’t make enough in revenues for players to earn that kind of salary. That’s how I feel about question 1.

But for Question 2…if the CBA came out today and the WNBA somehow did manage to negotiate equal pay to NBA players, would I care? Absolutely not! I wouldn’t give a shit. I would say good for them.

But you have a lot of freaks who for some reason actively root against these leagues and want them to fail.

JKC_due | San Francisco Warriors

1 | an hour ago

Exactly. The whole “they’re subsidized by the NBA” thing is such a load of horseshit. Like why do you care how the league (ie a bunch of billionaires) is spending its money? How does that affect you even one bit?

TemperedTorture | Spurs

2 | 34 minutes ago

“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

Ppl were making these exact arguments about black male players not deserving equal pay just a 30-40 years ago. Same arguements about viability, low income and team profitability. They pull out the same playbook every time when it comes to CBAs.

And now some, very few thankfully, men are making these arguments about women players.

Ingramistheman

31 | 5 hours ago

These are monumental wins for the players and for the future of women’s basketball.

Ryoga476ad

26 | 5 hours ago

Do I understand correctly, players will get 20% of the revenues? Starting point for the players was 40%, the League 15%, IIRC.

_Wash | Timberwolves

44 | 5 hours ago

starting point for the league was 15% of net revenue (and the inability for the players to audit the revenue lol) and it was 40% of gross for the players

this is likely 20% of gross which is a win for the players

airtime25

12 | 5 hours ago

I am surprised the article isn’t specific about net or gross revenue.

neat_stuff

15 | 5 hours ago

I don’t think that detail has been officially disclosed yet so nobody knows for sure.

airtime25

2 | 5 hours ago

Probably! It seems like the biggest hurdle between the union and the owners was that point so I’m just curious where it fell.

hoopaholik91 | West

1 | 3 hours ago

Has to be gross right? 7M * 13 teams is $90M. $450M gross revenue considering they have a $200M TV deal seems about right.

Ryoga476ad

5 | 5 hours ago

It was 70% of the net, something the player estimated being 15% of the gross.

HipnotiK1 | Knicks

2 | 3 hours ago

% of Revenue is harder to justify being anywhere close to ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ if the league isn’t profitable.

For example if a business has a revenue of 10 mil and pays it’s employees 2 mil, but the net profit is break even- you can’t justify the employees making 5 mil - the company would bleed 3 mil a year.

Where it gets more complex is the idea that the “companies” aka Teams increase in value over time, despite not “making money”.

TwoLegitShiznit

1 | 4 hours ago

So still better than the UFC 👍

BogotaLineman | Nuggets

1 | an hour ago

Crazy, almost like unions work

StraightCashH0mie | Hawks

21 | 5 hours ago

If WNBA can be self-sustaining with its own tv deals, more power to them.

Banichi-aiji | Thunder

1 | 21 minutes ago

I’ve read some articles that hypothesize the WNBA media deal (more accurately, the part of the NBA deal) is less than they could get as a stand-alone product.

mercfan3

1 | 11 minutes ago

Yup. The NBA really likes to sell to the media that they provide a year round product, which is something no other league can provide. The NBA isn’t going the WNBA favors anymore, they’re profiting off of them.

But viewership wise, the W should be getting about 10% of the media deal the NBA has. They get 2%.

MG_MN | Timberwolves

-5 | 4 hours ago

Yeah should be interesting to see if they NBA no longer has to subsidize it

BoneDollars | Spurs

7 | 5 hours ago

That’s awesome. That’s no second job money.

mauerfan | Timberwolves

6 | 5 hours ago

Good shit. As long as WNBA is making money they should be compensated accordingly.

DrOz30

-5 | 5 hours ago

And if it isn’t ….????

mauerfan | Timberwolves

11 | 4 hours ago

Idk I don’t write the checks 🤣

Icy-Mortgage8742 | Warriors

13 | 4 hours ago

Idk how you think employment works (this is Reddit after all) but every startup (which is essentially what the WNBA is because they aren’t publicly traded) is running off investor money until they can perfect a product that can help them profit on their own, and it’s not really for you to judge it’s for the investors to decide.

As with any startup, a lack of profit doesn’t justify paying the EMPLOYEES less. People can still get promotions and raises within a company and the compensation of the employee basically has jack shit to do with pure profit when you wouldn’t even have a company without them.

paatreek | Bulls

4 | 4 hours ago

a 30 year old “startup”?

knowtoriusMAC | Knicks

0 | 4 hours ago

Is MLB publicly traded? Because that would be like a 110 year old startup according to that guy.

Icy-Mortgage8742 | Warriors

-2 | 4 hours ago

Bro doesn’t know what a startup is. A private company that doesn’t fold is a startup, it just has super dedicated investors.

DrOz30

-2 | 4 hours ago

Hahahah brotha you’re comparing company start ups to the wnba ?!?! hahahah. Who’s judging ? The product had been terrible/bad for years and years until a college athlete and a college rivalry sparked some momentum into the league. It’s all about demand , if big IF the demand is there the league will thrive if not it will continue to be subsidized and IF it was run like an ACTUAL business it would be disbanded. But funny trying to explain business concepts lolol, if a company bled that much money for years millions upon millions … it would be bankrupt or in the case that’s a publicly traded company the stock would collapse and the board of investors would riot

NuclearGhandi1 | Knicks

3 | 4 hours ago

They’re set to make money this season when the new tv deal kicks in

DrOz30

-2 | 3 hours ago

Exactly this is based off last season , let’s see where they go. Is this a flash in the pan moment ? Is it sustainable long term ? What happens if clark an reese arent the face of it anymore ?What if the ratings don’t deliver ? Personally I don’t care, if it succeeds then great if not then oh well.

Online_Commentor_69 | Raptors

2 | an hour ago

brother the tv deal is for 10 years. the bag is already secured. not to mention this league is majority owned by the NBA and the tv money is negotiated together, so if the NBA wants the WNBA to “make more money” they can do that by changing internal accounting.

DrOz30

0 | an hour ago

There are a lot of stipulations into those contracts , What happens if the product completely bombs on ratings ? The nba definitely wants the wnba to make money 💰 that’s for sure. There has been a huge marketing push this last two years, let’s see how ratings do once the dust settles

Online_Commentor_69 | Raptors

2 | an hour ago

buddy how are TV ratings doing in general right now? do you know? what are the most demanded properties in television? do you know? what is going on with the cable and broadcast TV landscape with respect to rights fee and the cable bundle right now? do you know? what about the introduction of streamers like netflix and amazon into the conversation, what impact is that having?

rights fees for live sports (all live sports) are only going one direction. this is plainly obvious to anybody paying attention to the issue, which you clearly are not so why don’t you just let this go?

DrOz30

0 | an hour ago

Huh ? I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me to let go ? Let go of what lol ? You are right, rights fees are going up due to the introduction of legal gambling in sports meaning a lot more money going into sports a, it’s very plain to see for anyone paying attention ….

Online_Commentor_69 | Raptors

1 | an hour ago

sports gambling has precisely nothing to do with media rights fees brother. it’s that other stuff i mentioned.

DrOz30

0 | an hour ago

I think you severely underestimate the impact of gambling in America……specially on sports(like ask Disney if gambling has no impact on viewing rights). But we will agree to disagree on this one

ScaryPillow

0 | 4 hours ago

If only the players could get equity so they can have a slice of the income when it does make obscene amounts of money. The NBA historically didn’t make the money of today, but if those players got equity, they would get a slice.

DrOz30

0 | 4 hours ago

The league wasn’t making money though …… let’s see how the league does once Clark and Reese are out or people loose interest.

BogotaLineman | Nuggets

3 | an hour ago

Yeah and we’ll see how the NBA does after Magic and Bird are out…

DrOz30

0 | an hour ago

Oooo right……. Reddit sometimes lol

Kindarelevanttoo

3 | an hour ago

We still have 0 proof that the WNBA wasn’t making a profit besides “the rich owners said so”. Meanwhile the team valuations continued to skyrocket while the owners were saying this.

No financial statements or anything like that has been shown, yet people still take the billionaire’s words as absolute proof the WNBA has been a money sink for them.

DrOz30

0 | an hour ago

Wth ? There’s public information on that and they had been bleeding money for years lol ….. what does tha have to do with billionaires? It was a subsidized league Lolol what do you think subsidized means lol?

ScaryPillow

1 | 3 hours ago

The thing with equity is you own a slice of the future earnings.

DrOz30

-1 | 3 hours ago

100% true, but if there are no future earnings then ????? That’s why I said let’s see if this is a flash in the pan or a sustainable business model.

ScaryPillow

3 | 3 hours ago

The franchises are going for 500m, it’s only worth that if there are future earnings. Clearly, the equity is worth something.

batmans420 | Pacers

2 | 4 hours ago

Nice

Piersonthefearsome | Thunder

1 | 5 hours ago

My only question is it tied to their TV deal or does the NBA play a part in funding it? They seam to be doing alot better now but historically WNBA hasn’t made much money

couchtomato62 | Warriors

6 | 4 hours ago

Nba should prove that by showing the books. Voodoo accounting.

JALbert | Supersonics

5 | 3 hours ago

The NBA owns 42% of the league (and private investors own another chunk). Only 42% of incoming revenue actually goes to WNBA teams and players.

The NBA owners make $84M of the $200M/yr WNBA TV deal. I guarantee this is more than what the league office may be contributing. On top of that, even when The W was “unprofitable” it has been an extremely efficient marketing expense for expanding basketball fandom with women for the NBA.

Icy_Cook7427

1 | an hour ago

They make as much as MDs now

Reddit_Buff | Raptors

1 | an hour ago

Amazing. With the 300k minimum, there’s no need to play in other leagues come offseason to make ends meet.

kungfoop | Lakers

-2 | 5 hours ago

That’s the supermax?

[deleted]

-3 | 5 hours ago

[deleted]

Danibear285 | Clippers

-19 | 5 hours ago

Glad to see the girls getting what the MNBA has had

Edit: hook line and sinker

Averylarrychristmas | Celtics

9 | 5 hours ago

What the hell is the MNBA?

peanut-britle-latte | Knicks

14 | 5 hours ago

WNBA fans like to troll by calling the men’s association the MNBA.

dylanbackers

1 | 5 hours ago

I always thought that was an ironic troll considering the NBA has never been an explicitly sex-segregated league - only implicitly in that women aren’t seriously scouted by teams. There have been 2 women I believe who were either drafted or tried out for an NBA team (and that was decades ago) so a claim of overt sexism does fall a little flat there (there are MANY other instances of systemic misogyny aka treatment of domestic partners, attitudes towards female refs/coaches/execs/analysts, sexual harrassment swept under the rug cough cough Mavs)

Obviously the existence of a WNBA is good in that it explicitly created the space for interested non-male basketball players, but acting like the NBA outright bars women from their ranks as an actual league policy position is a little silly

Maverick916

-1 | 5 hours ago

MNBA?

Emotional_Refuse9012

-49 | 6 hours ago

Isn’t the league already losing money?

ionospherermutt | Timberwolves

39 | 6 hours ago

Whether the teams are losing money is a distraction pushed by ownership, they’re growing in value massively over the past decade. Valkyries ownership paid a $50 million expansion fee in 2023, now are estimated at $500 million. Admittedly the league fucked up not charging them more and that value also includes other stuff the team owns like facilities, but other franchises have also gone up a ton in value

twovles31

16 | 6 hours ago

Tesla lost money for decades, most companies do. The NBA did as well. You need star power, which Caitlin and others are providing to boost your product. I went to a game last season, and the excitement of the product is really there for the fans.

caper-hamilton | Thunder

11 | 5 hours ago

Someone is making lots of money. The WNBA’s books are private so who knows exactly. The league is estimated to be worth $1.16 billion with the average team worth $269 million. There are going to be, what, 6 more teams? The new TV deal also kicks in this year.

cardinalmidnight

3 | 6 hours ago

It loses money because accountants. The reality is how can you really separate it from the NBA when there is so much overlap.

Whoareyoutho9

6 | 5 hours ago

The nba is keeping it not seperate. Its such a weird dynamic. They want to keep it as an investment but they also shield it from showing its true market value so theres obviously some trepidation from those in the know. The real question for me is: are they hiding it because theyre embarrassed how much money they are keeping from the players/staff or are they hiding it to spare the embarrassment for the league and its players at how much they prop up the league? The narratives and numbers are different depending on who’s being asked when. All we know for sure is we dont have the true numbers because the nba doesnt want them to be known.

Online_Commentor_69 | Raptors

1 | an hour ago

they collected more than 2x the entire salary of the league, under this new CBA in expansion fees last year alone. close to 3x. they’re doing just fine.

[deleted]

-11 | 6 hours ago

[deleted]

RedtheGamer100 | Hornets

9 | 6 hours ago

If you gonna say somethin dumb at least say it in Yoda’s voice 😂

Dangerous_Ad5039

-51 | 6 hours ago

Where is all this money coming from?

803UPSer

57 | 5 hours ago

They just signed new TV deals with Disney and Amazon. NBC deal will start for them this year too.

Dangerous_Ad5039

-77 | 5 hours ago

Nice. So they just got someone else to lose their money instead of them. Pretty smart.

803UPSer

24 | 5 hours ago

No on can really actually verify whether they lose money or not, since all the finances are private. It’s just whatever money magic the league accountants want to tell us.

Dangerous_Ad5039

-35 | 5 hours ago

No they can verify that the WNBA loses money every year. In 2018 Adam sliver said publicly the wnba loses about 10 million dollars per year and in 2024 they were expected to lose 50 million.

RestaurantOne9

23 | 5 hours ago

https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/48014819/union-wnba-made-enough-money-revenue-sharing

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/now-know-wnba-turning-profit-190909015.html

Maybe you should get up to date and realize those are out of date talking points, bozo

spiderpigface | Nuggets

15 | 5 hours ago

You’re parroting the completely unverified talking points that the owners pushed to gain favor

Dangerous_Ad5039

-5 | 5 hours ago

And they pushed it because they were…… losing a bunch of money 🤯

spiderpigface | Nuggets

9 | 5 hours ago

No, they pushed it because they were making money and didn’t want to pay players more. Stop believing everything billionaires say

Dangerous_Ad5039

0 | 5 hours ago

Yeah cause the owners would be against something that is making so much money 😂. They’ll pay nba players 70 mil a year but they wouldn’t give a wnba player a mil if they were making money? Got ya. Maybe the WNBA is killing it and the NBA owners are just haters.

spiderpigface | Nuggets

12 | 5 hours ago

They literally are making that much money. Mark Davis bought the Aces for 2 million and they’re worth an estimated 300 million now. The owners weren’t against making the money, they were against sharing the money

couchtomato62 | Warriors

5 | 4 hours ago

It cost 250 mil in fees to just get a franchise. You sure they losing money? Valkyries sold out every game last year and frankly they have a better atmosphere than the current warriors.

803UPSer

7 | 5 hours ago

Again, unless we can see the books, with the WNBA operating as a partial subsidiary of the NBA, accountants can move whatever money around to make whatever they need look like it’s losing money. Maybe not. But it’s speculation and hearsay.

What we do know, is that they’ve signed massive TV deals that will lead to a fixed increase in revenue over the next decade. There’s more money coming in.

Edit: and Silver’s comments are from almost a decade ago. If you take the time to look at up to date information, they made enough money this year to get an extra $8 million distributed to the teams.

couchtomato62 | Warriors

1 | 4 hours ago

Lol

Ingramistheman

20 | 5 hours ago

You know you could just not comment right? If you dont like something then just dont click it

Dangerous_Ad5039

-22 | 5 hours ago

Maybe take your own advice my heart

Ingramistheman

23 | 5 hours ago

No because I think it’s important to call out douchebags. You’re not cool for talking shit about the WNBA.

Dangerous_Ad5039

-11 | 5 hours ago

Keep up the good work. You’re doing great.

Ingramistheman

6 | 5 hours ago

Thank you

TemperedTorture | Spurs

16 | 5 hours ago

The rich ass mfing owners and their TV deals.

YpsitheFlintsider

10 | 5 hours ago

Probably not from anyone on Reddit

tenisplenty | Jazz

8 | 5 hours ago

Tickets to sold out arenas. A multi billion dollar broadcast deal, brand endorsements, etc. Same place the money comes from in other pro sports leagues.

FlipMoBitch | Bucks

4 | 5 hours ago

Gross revenue

bucaqe | Lakers

2 | 4 hours ago

They signed a 200m per year broadcast deal for 11 years

Icy-Fan-2639 | Lakers

-26 | 5 hours ago

They operate at a loss. Is there a shell company involved pumping them money

TemperedTorture | Spurs

14 | 5 hours ago

So did Amazon, Netflix, OpenAI, Microsoft, Apple and thousands of other companies operated at losses for years that none of you ever cared about operating at losses.

But certainly do when it comes to the WNBA for an extremely obvious reason.

mikesh8rp | Knicks

5 | 4 hours ago

These talking points also ignore the shady accounting that goes on with sports teams to benefit their owners, similar to what goes on in Hollywood. Owners can inflate costs for things like marketing, or have separate entities they also own charge exorbitant fees, so that they can manage their tax liability.

Taking a billionaire owner at their word about a team “losing money” is absurd.

HighGuysImHere

4 | 5 hours ago

Yeah, the NBA

StrokingCats

-62 | 5 hours ago

The wnba loses money and is subsidized by the nba

alyosha_pls

35 | 5 hours ago

He said the thing!

StrokingCats

-37 | 5 hours ago

Wasn’t aware this fact triggers Redditors so badly

YpsitheFlintsider

18 | 5 hours ago

No, just nobody cares

StrokingCats

-31 | 5 hours ago

Judging by all the comments and downvotes it appears a lot of you care.

Supermoose7178 | Nuggets

15 | 5 hours ago

it’s just very revealing. it’s something that we already know, and isnt really relevant or constructive to to the topic of the post. so why are you commenting it then? oh yeah, you’re just a misogynist.

StrokingCats

-8 | 5 hours ago

It’s completely relevant lol.

Online_Commentor_69 | Raptors

2 | an hour ago

it’s not a fact buddy. you’re working off of old information.

StrokingCats

-2 | an hour ago

It is a fact lol. Stop coping

Online_Commentor_69 | Raptors

3 | an hour ago

“sToP cOpInG” ok buddy explain what i’m “coping” with here.

StrokingCats

-1 | an hour ago

The fact that the wnba loses money and is subsidized by the nba lmao

GorgoniteEmissary | Warriors

25 | 5 hours ago

I get a good chuckle when I read these type of comments because it shows a complete lack of understanding of why some companies operate at a loss. I promise billionaires aren’t investing in the WNBA purely out of the goodness of their hearts, they do it because they believe getting in now will be profitable long term.

BirdmanTheThird | Wizards

1 | 5 hours ago

Yeah even if they are losing money, it’s clear there’s a reason billionaires are investing. Otherwise, they would be putting money in different women’s sports league.

SMOKE2JJ | NBA

-9 | 5 hours ago

The WNBA was created in 1996… I mean.. you might eventually be right, but I think we are well past the early adopter phase..

spiderpigface | Nuggets

13 | 5 hours ago

The NBA took 40 years and multiple bailouts to have a profitable year

Suspicious-Gur6127

3 | 5 hours ago

Getting a piece of the pie because it’s early wasn’t their point but good strawman.

GorgoniteEmissary | Warriors

2 | 5 hours ago

Whether it will be a massive success is way above my pay grade, I’m just pointing out these investors clearly think there is money to be made and they almost certainly have a better grasp on the financials and the timeline than you or I do.

StrokingCats

-20 | 5 hours ago

I get a good chuckle out of reading cope comments like this

xMrMan117x

12 | 5 hours ago

Explain why the team valuations are going up and billionaires are buying in then?

FOURTH_DEGREE_

21 | 5 hours ago

Your mom is subsidized by me.

Impuls1ve | Lakers

10 | 5 hours ago

Dumb take, and operating at a loss is not a big deal as you think it is.

Here are many NBA teams operating at a loss in 2017:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20747413/a-confidential-report-shows-nearly-half-nba-lost-money-last-season-now-what

Guess those billionaires are just buying shit investments.

StrokingCats

-7 | 5 hours ago

Nuclear cope detected

Witty_Stuff_1055

5 | 3 hours ago

Dude provides you evidence. You: “cOpE”

Just say you’re a woman hating incel and move on.

StrokingCats

-2 | 3 hours ago

Oof sensing projection here.

Ryoga476ad

6 | 5 hours ago

Maybe, but we don’t really know

StrokingCats

-1 | 5 hours ago

Yeah… we do know

DukeOfStuff_ | Timberwolves

2 | 4 hours ago

The NBA took 40 years to turn a profit

FlipMoBitch | Bucks

1 | 5 hours ago

Damn and they’re still gonna get paid a ton of money. Sounds like the men shitty negotiators huh?

misterbluesky8

1 | 4 hours ago

I’m not even a WNBA fan (I only watch Caitlin Clark highlights), but this is dumb. Amazon lost money for years and got tons of money at high valuations. Same with Facebook, FedEx, or pretty much any prominent tech company. But somehow it’s a problem that this one company is valued highly and is getting a lot of TV money?

Is it “coping” when OpenAI gets billions of dollars while operating at a loss? Or only when women’s sports are involved?

StrokingCats

-3 | 4 hours ago

This seems like it struck a nerve for Redditors

misterbluesky8

2 | 4 hours ago

Like I said, I’m not a WNBA fan. I watched like 10 minutes last year. No, I care because I have an economics degree and I enjoy correcting dumb business takes.

StrokingCats

-1 | 4 hours ago

10 minutes last year is more than 99.9% of the population watches it

[Charania] Details of a landmark WNBA collective bargaining agreement

Details of a landmark WNBA collective bargaining agreement, per ESPN sources: