South Salem High School Basketball Hoop. Photo Taken By Brennea Atchley-Roberts
Recently, the sports media and fans have become increasingly interested in the treatment of female professional athletes. Fresh off of the 2024 season, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has experienced a boom in popularity. However, there are many opinions surrounding the pay of female athletes. Such as, whether or not it is deserved, the popularity of the league itself and where these resources are coming from.
The question whether WNBA players should be paid the same is often talked about. In order to reach any level of equity, the shift from should we to how do we increase equity and the popularity of women’s sports is necessary. Debating between possible answers needs to be abandoned. The focus should be on how to increase the socialization of the WNBA. There is a promising opportunity in women’s sports. There needs to be an increase of awareness and the value of the WNBA, but to also support its athletes.
Should WNBA Players Be Paid the Same?
This question alone is contradictory. There is a reason why there is a severe salary and popularity imbalance between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and WNBA. Many people that have power and influence capable of making changes are under the impression that the solution to this problem is ‘yes or no.’
‘Either or questioning’ is a recurrence our society is well familiar with. The line of inquisition often resulting in no solutions for a problem they pose. It is important to appeal to the businessmen in charge because they are the one truly responsible for changes made. People can make all the protests they want but as long as the businessmen do not benefit, they are not going to get what they want. Making sure the white man in charge understands the true significance of accurate and fair representation for female athletes. How that can impact communities and aspiring athletes is essential for progression towards equity.
There are two ways of thinking one can choose to follow, a business perspective and a social science perspective.
The business perspective’s goal is to maximize profit. They take quantitative and economic measures into account. Making decisions with respect to resources, supply, demand, and salary taken into account. The outcome is lower, unequal salaries, because the WNBA is not at the same scale of the NBA is at. Once a businessman believes the market is stuck and not making money, they will not get involved or pay the people working in this market.
Economically, this makes sense, but the social scientist understands that their goal is to create equal access to resources. Access creates a platform for equity to develop.
The business perspective’s goal is to maximize profit, but this leads to inequality that people often miss. This income inequality stems from a history of oppression. There is a need for reparations. Then communities and players can enjoy the benefits of the social good equality would bring. This would also result in an increase in socialization, then the business market for women’s sports would increase. Everyone involved in the system would make money and reap the benefits of women’s sports.
If they get paid the same should not be the question. Our society, which is ran by businessmen, will come to the same conclusion that there is not enough money being made, and not pay attention to it. This would leave many female athletes without people to identify with, or look up to. These businessmen do not understand the significance of sports and its crucial role in many communities and individual athletes.
A societal shift of if they should be paid the same should become how do we pay them the same.
The goal is to figure out how to achieve this and ask why has not the WNBA grown to the size and notoriety of the NBA, and what can be done to ensure they grow and are compensated equitably.
There should be no discussion surrounding the payment of elite athletes. They are the very top percentile of people participating in sports. Every professional athlete has proved their worth not only to their franchises, but to themselves. Continuing to work after the unrecognized hours of dedication and obsession for their sport. Continuing to pursue athletics without appreciation can be very detrimental to the process, but they keep going. They combat another form of adversity on the existing strenuous commitment of sports. A necessary aspect of athletics is the compensation and reward for the hard work. There is always a reward, a reason to work. Because of that, the athletes in the WNBA, deserve equitable compensation for their contributions to their communities, themselves and teams.
The Fix: How Do We Grow The WNBA?
The Fix: How do we grow the WNBA? (Questions go from “should we?” to “how?”)
Sports have an incredible impact on communities and individuals. The money that sports generates from selling out arenas and tourism benefits the cities with popular franchises. Sports can have a significant role in an individual’s character, often serving as an outlet for expression, competition, stress relief and fulfillment. The dedication, consistency and obsession sports require for an athlete to find success is immense, and a huge factor in the development of young adults.
Having accurate and equal representation of yourself is important, it is important to see someone that looks like you having success.
Initiatives like Nike and TOGETHXR’s Everyone Watches Women’s Sports™ are increasing awareness and generating a sense of pride and support for female athletes and their participation in athletics. About – TOGETHXR.
“With a focus on rich storytelling, TOGETHXR is an unapologetic platform where representation and equality is the norm,” the company states on their website
The company was founded by four prolific, accomplished female athletes, Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel and Sue Bird. TOGETHXR is a media and commerce company that supports female athletes and companies that set forth equal representation. It creates a community where female athletes are treated with respect and given accurate coverage.
WNBA players like Caitlin Clark are pushing the league forward, towards more awareness and are helping in the progression towards equality. Clark and others are contributing to the expansion of the WNBA by doing the work of companies like TOGETHXR inside of the league.
Attendance and viewership of WNBA games have increased substantially since Clark’s rookie season. Her exceptional scoring ability from anywhere on the court is intriguing to sports media and fans online. Many online users credit her to being the only reason they are aware of the WNBA, arguing that she is the new face of the league. Players like Clark are important to scaling the net worth and audience reach of the WNBA. She is playing the part of the superstar everyone wants to watch. Her athleticism and interactions with fans and the crowd keeps the thousands of spectators coming back and keeps the WNBA in the lens of millions.
Clark has drawn the attention of many NBA players like Lebron James, who is arguably one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
“Caitlin Clark is the reason why a lot of great things are going to happen for the WNBA,” James said on his podcast, Mind The Game.
The fact is, the WNBA does not have the resources to pay their players the same. Anthony Edwards, a shooting guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA has a contract that could be valued at $260 million, according to ESPN. Edward’s contract alone is worth more than some entire WNBA teams. The NBA brings in billions of dollars in revenue. As of now the WNBA is not on the same level in popularity and does not have the reach the NBA has. Because of that they are not making nearly as much money.
Clark, TOGETHXR, and the companies that they support are what will change the league because they are growing their audience, popularity and increasing their relevance. All of which are vital components to making money. Once the WNBA starts to make money, the businessmen in charge will finally be involved, and make an effort to grow the organization even more.
The Fix (Part 2): The Future and Appealing to the People in Charge
According to the United Nations, there are 172.78 million females in the United States of America. Women make up around half of the total population of one of the most influential countries in the world. There is a large market for women’s sports. Making an effort to capitalize on the opportunities presented with this widely unprioritized market could be very beneficial for both the athletes and the economy surrounding athletics. There are many financial opportunities in women’s sports, we as a society need to take action and grow this business.
Realizing the benefits of women’s athletics will create an opportunity to make profit, from stadium sales, tourism and advertising. An increase in socialization and subsequently, profit and popularity will allow the league to pay their players more equitably.
In addition to supporting female athletes and growing the financial opportunities of the WNBA, there are ways that we can make the game itself more exciting and appealing for viewers.
The WNBA should make women’s basketball a different sport than men’s, similar to what collegiate softball has done. To create an environment that encourages more explosive scoring and competitive play, there needs some elements of the sport that needs to be changed.
Softball has made the outfield and infield smaller, decreased the distance between bases and has made the bats and balls larger. Since then, the sport has grown in popularity as fans can be more engaged with the game.
“ESPN PR released data from Wednesday night’s matchup between the Texas Longhorns and Texas Tech Red Raiders, and 2.1 million viewers watched, becoming the most-watched WCWS Game 1 ever,” Nicole Reitz wrote in Sports Illustrated.
The problem for most viewers of sports is that it is too slow and boring.
Making measures to keep crowds not only coming back, like Caitlin Clark, supporting athletes outside of the games. TOGETHXR keeping fans there and engaged is important to growing the WNBA.
One idea would be to lower the height of the rim. It stands at 10 feet for both men and women in both leagues.
The rim is the same height for both genders, despite a height imbalance. The average WNBA player is 6 feet tall, while the men’s average height is 6-foot-6 inches. While a difference of six inches does not seem that significant, there have been only 37 dunks in WNBA history. Since the 2001-02 season, the NBA has averaged 8,000 or more per season. Britney Griner, center for the Atlanta Dream, has made 25 of the 37 dunks in the history of the WNBA. Griner is 6-foot-9 inches tall, significantly taller than her competition, and some NBA players. She is one of the few players capable of making memorable plays and dunks in the paint. Height serves as a significant advantage in scoring. So, the WNBA should lower the rim height in order for more players on the court to make more baskets.
This would be beneficial to the league because explosive plays like dunking bring in crowds.
Dunks are arguably the most explosive way of scoring in basketball. They demand a great amount of effort and force to drive down the paint and sometimes jump over another defender. For example, a lowered rim height would allow for easier scoring. This allows a larger pool of professional players not only dunk the ball, but they would score more points in an exciting way, not just statistical outliers like Griner.
More scoring means more viewership, and more viewership means more money, and more popularity. Taking initiatives to make the WNBA as appealing as possible. Supporting and compensating its athletes equitably are what the league should be doing.
