OT Caitlin Clark's WNBA rookie contract breakdown released

[One_and_Done]

Lol so you are saying the players should be playing for free?

How many companies start off losing money for a long ass time? It's called being a startup and being propped up by VC money. WNBA is no different and yet they should be ponying up for Caitlin given her importance. They are lucky that she didn't choose big 3 or a oversees league didn't over her the bag.

Hopefully Caitlin elevates the status of the league but overall wanna is fortunate that Nike exists to pay her what she is really worth.

Your "real worth" is what the market for your services are. As a player the market for her services is relatively low, because nobody watches the WNBA and it loses money. As a celebrity her market value is much.higher, but it has relatively little to do with how good she is in the WNBA. She's being paid for being a charismatic winner companies can market, and as long as she doesn't damage that image too much in the WNBA it won't really matter if she's not a top 20 player. Good for her.

If the women's league wants to make more money they should just form a pro-leagur from the top college teams. That's how alot of old football leagues started. Then once it's stable you add some non-college based teams in big markets.

Her real worth is a lot closer to her free market endorsement money than her WNBA salary. Without rookie scale contracts or a maximum salary she would ask for and receive a seven figure yearly contract, easily. She’s getting extremely scammed by being a transcendent athlete

If she wants more money she's free to try and get a higher offer from another sports entertainment company; I hear the Russian leagues are recruiting.

You're getting confused again by not understanding the WNBA is all 1 business. Her "real worth" is what the market will pay her. WNBA salary scales indicate this is what she's worth. If she was not a rookie she'd make more, but it's also fair to say if true market forces applied to the WNBA it wouldn't exist at all. It's the runt of the litter surviving off the teat of the NBA.

[Shock Defeat]

Overpaid given the league loses money.

Lol so you are saying the players should be playing for free?

How many companies start off losing money for a long ass time? It's called being a startup and being propped up by VC money. WNBA is no different and yet they should be ponying up for Caitlin given her importance. They are lucky that she didn't choose big 3 or a oversees league didn't over her the bag.

Hopefully Caitlin elevates the status of the league but overall wanna is fortunate that Nike exists to pay her what she is really worth.

Your "real worth" is what the market for your services are. As a player the market for her services is relatively low, because nobody watches the WNBA and it loses money. As a celebrity her market value is much.higher, but it has relatively little to do with how good she is in the WNBA. She's being paid for being a charismatic winner companies can market, and as long as she doesn't damage that image too much in the WNBA it won't really matter if she's not a top 20 player. Good for her.

If the women's league wants to make more money they should just form a pro-leagur from the top college teams. That's how alot of old football leagues started. Then once it's stable you add some non-college based teams in big markets.

That's not true at all. Caitlin has already made the Fever more money in ticket sales than her annual salary. That shows that she is not paid what she is worth whatsoever.

Your argument about the WNBA not existing at all is irrelevant and wrong. Tons of companies exist while not making any money, are you arguing that those companies shouldn't exist? Caitlin Clark is worth a lot of money to the WNBA. She is not being paid what she is worth.

[One_and_Done]

Lol so you are saying the players should be playing for free?

How many companies start off losing money for a long ass time? It's called being a startup and being propped up by VC money. WNBA is no different and yet they should be ponying up for Caitlin given her importance. They are lucky that she didn't choose big 3 or a oversees league didn't over her the bag.

Hopefully Caitlin elevates the status of the league but overall wanna is fortunate that Nike exists to pay her what she is really worth.

Your "real worth" is what the market for your services are. As a player the market for her services is relatively low, because nobody watches the WNBA and it loses money. As a celebrity her market value is much.higher, but it has relatively little to do with how good she is in the WNBA. She's being paid for being a charismatic winner companies can market, and as long as she doesn't damage that image too much in the WNBA it won't really matter if she's not a top 20 player. Good for her.

If the women's league wants to make more money they should just form a pro-leagur from the top college teams. That's how alot of old football leagues started. Then once it's stable you add some non-college based teams in big markets.

That's not true at all. Caitlin has already made the Fever more money in ticket sales than her annual salary. That shows that she is not paid what she is worth whatsoever.

Your argument about the WNBA not existing at all is irrelevant and wrong. Tons of companies exist while not making any money, are you arguing that those companies shouldn't exist? Caitlin Clark is worth a lot of money to the WNBA. She is not being paid what she is worth.

The WNBA, and the Fever, lose money. You are only seeing one side of the ledger (i.e. what she's bringing in with ticket sales). You're not seeing the huge amount of cost the Fever have on the other side to run a league (doctors, stadiums, other player salaries, planes, insurance, staff, etc). Salary in a market environment is based on profits. If the league isn't profitable normally it goes under. Comparing it to a start up is silly. The league is almost 30 years old at this point. No start up gets to lose money for 30 years; at that point you're no longer a start up, you're a failed business.

[og15]

Speaking of Diana, she's been taking 7-9 3PA/G since back in 2006, she was ahead of the curve even relative to the NBA.

When she took 9 a game in 2006, the next closest person was at 5.4 a game.

[Texas Chuck]

Again if she is generating more revenue than she is costing them, she is making them money. The fact that the enterprise may still not be profitable doesn't mean she isn't.

You know how like big corporations have different divisions and some of them are profitable and some of them are losing money? Or how stores will sell printers at a loss because they made their money back on ink refills?

Wild concept to say she isn't worth her salary when she's already generated signiicantly more revenue than her contract because the league isn't making a ton of money. Giggles.

You know the Mavs lost money every year up until the title under Cuban. Was Dirk not worth his salary then? Of course he was lol.

This isn't that complicated. Some of this anti-woman stance is clouding some judgment.

[One_and_Done]

Again if she is generating more revenue than she is costing them, she is making them money. The fact that the enterprise may still not be profitable doesn't mean she isn't.

You know how like big corporations have different divisions and some of them are profitable and some of them are losing money? Or how stores will sell printers at a loss because they made their money back on ink refills?

Wild concept to say she isn't worth her salary when she's already generated signiicantly more revenue than her contract because the league isn't making a ton of money. Giggles.

You know the Mavs lost money every year up until the title under Cuban. Was Dirk not worth his salary then? Of course he was lol.

This isn't that complicated. Some of this anti-woman stance is clouding some judgment.

The only way you can say she "generates more money than her contract" is if you isolate her from the rest of the cost of doing business, which makes zero sense. I already pointed out what some of those costs were. The fans are not handing over ticket money to watch her take shots by herself on a dirt court. Stadiums, staff, planes, doctors, other players, insurance, ads, etc. All this stuff is necessary to produce the product that fans are actually buying Fever tickets to see.

A big corporation is actually not a bad analogy. Corporations like Boston Consulting have a graduate entry stream. New staff make comparatively low money for the first 3-ish years while they learn to be consultants. Then the money goes up. So basically exactly like the NBA. That's like most large companies after you finish school. The big money comes after you're treaded water a few years at least.

This is not about women. Women make tonnes of money in Tennis for example. If you're generating the big revenue you should make bigger salary. This is about market forces. The WNBA loses money. Clark has little grounds to cry given that dynamic. If they want the female basketball players to make more money I just told you how to do it.

The Mavericks point is a red herring. NBA teams are trophies for mega rich people to buy. If they want to lose money to cover themselves in glory that's their decision, just like someone can overpay for anything. It doesn't mean that should be the baseline for employment contracts, and Cuban paid players what he was allowed to under league rules anyway no different to the WNBA. He lost money because of luxury tax and buying lots of players, not by paying Dirk $80 mill a year. The difference is Cuban could have been profitable anytime he wanted to, whereas WNBA franchises can't be.

[MrBigShot]

Again if she is generating more revenue than she is costing them, she is making them money. The fact that the enterprise may still not be profitable doesn't mean she isn't.

You know how like big corporations have different divisions and some of them are profitable and some of them are losing money? Or how stores will sell printers at a loss because they made their money back on ink refills?

Wild concept to say she isn't worth her salary when she's already generated signiicantly more revenue than her contract because the league isn't making a ton of money. Giggles.

You know the Mavs lost money every year up until the title under Cuban. Was Dirk not worth his salary then? Of course he was lol.

This isn't that complicated. Some of this anti-woman stance is clouding some judgment.

Your point makes sense to justify an increase to top WNBA player salaries, perhaps more than any other player by a bit, but paying her the type of money she made in college is not feasible with the state of the league.

I think she will elevate the WNBA quite a bit but ultimately we still have to see if in the long term it will result in more fan attendance and viewership. With paige coming in next year I think the future bodes well for that.

[infinite11285]

Reportedly, she signed a massive Nike deal worth $10M, right?

[D.Brasco]

ESPN may be dumping an NHL playoff game due to it coinciding with Clark's debut.

https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/wnba/news-caitlin-clark-s-wnba-debut-game-throws-espn-s-nhl-playoffs-coverage-chaos

The NHL while lagging far behind the NFL and NBA is still considered one of the Big 4 North American pro leagues. The idea of any network bumping an NHL playoff game for a WNBA regular season game would have been seen as trolling had anyone posted that idea even a year or 2 ago.

She is right now before even playing one game, single handedly placing the WNBA on the highest pedestal it's ever been.

[SK21209]

I'm skeptical this level of interest around Clark will continue when she's in the WNBA. I do think part of the huge interest in her at Iowa has been due to the comparative lack of interest in men's college basketball. They've been devoid of true star talent since probably Zion in 2019. She's just been the most fun story in all of college basketball these last two years.

[KembaWalker]

I guess Miami should have offered Messi $12 dollars an hour since MLS doesn’t make any money. That’s all he’s worth

[One_and_Done]

I guess Miami should have offered Messi $12 dollars an hour since MLS doesn’t make any money. That’s all he’s worth

Go deeper.

[dc]

I'm skeptical this level of interest around Clark will continue when she's in the WNBA. I do think part of the huge interest in her at Iowa has been due to the comparative lack of interest in men's college basketball. They've been devoid of true star talent since probably Zion in 2019. She's just been the most fun story in all of college basketball these last two years.

NIL kind of changed things, so there was some changing of guard that fans haven't been used to. Krzyzewski and then Roy Williams retiring, Kentucky (because of NIL) losing their edge. The "familiar" brands of college bball that were easy for fans to latch onto all these years changed.

And yeah, there hasn't been a true men's college superstar since Zion and of course he was one and done. ANT was also one and done and his one year in college was pretty underwhelming.

As for Clark, she needs to play at least at a similar level in the pros as what she did in college, then develop some rivalries with other players. If that happens, then I could see there being a genuine, sustained interest in the WNBA, which is something that's never happened before.

[KembaWalker]

I guess Miami should have offered Messi $12 dollars an hour since MLS doesn’t make any money. That’s all he’s worth

Go deeper.

You're right, Barcelona and PSG had to dump him because they were bleeding money. Hard to believe anyone gave this guy anything more than McDonalds coupons.

[CS707]

She’s worth more in the same sense Wembamyama is probably worth more than his rookie scale contract to the Spurs. That said, suggesting she should be getting 80 plus percent of her team’s salary expense is impractical and tantamount to message board grandstanding. The point of the salary structure is to keep the league in existence and paying her more than what is operationally viable isn’t good for her, the franchise, or the league.

[bwgood77]

Pretty good salary straight out of college. Nice way to earn a living too...doing what you love.

[inquisitive]

Man if I were her I would have gone to the Big 3 for 5 million.

She's getting $10mil in endorsements so why play Big 3? She is on the big WNBA stage.

[ChipotleWest]

Man if I were her I would have gone to the Big 3 for 5 million.

She's getting $10mil in endorsements so why play Big 3? She is on the big WNBA stage.

Are you saying Nike would have no interest in her if she played in the Big 3? She's still losing the 5 million even if she's getting 10 milloin in endorsements UNLESS she can't get them outside the WNBA. I see no reason she couldn't. She's a commodity Nike would still want her in the Big 3, and she'd have 15 million instead of 10 million. And like I said she doesn't have to make a lifelong commitment to Big 3 just do it for one year and Ice Cube even said they'd work around her schedule to do both. She could have 10 mil + 5 million from Big 3 + the peanuts WNBA gives her. Win win win.

[prophet_of_rage]

Why does everybody talk about the 5 million Big 3 offer. It was never really offered.

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[Yoshun]

The salary cap for teams in the WNBA is under $1.5 million.