Why You Have not Paid Attention to the WNBA (and Why You Are Missing Out)
By Austin Schoff
In recent years, the WNBA has been increasingly known for its player activism. From the Atlanta Dream laying the foundation for Raphael Warnock’s shock Senate election, to Maya Moore’s fight to free a wrongfully convicted man, the players have shown a consistent desire to lead the sports world’s fight for equality. Despite this, the WNBA players continue to not receive the equal respect they deserve. Players are forced to fly commercial to games (New York Liberty Governor Joe Tsai was fined $500,000 by the league for providing charter flights to the team last season) and have very low comparative salaries, oftentimes needing to play overseas to maximize their earning potential. This can have very dangerous outcomes - like that of 8x All-Star Brittney Griner who is, as of this writing, being held in a Russian prison. Why are the best players in the world in a sport that America dominates forced to play abroad?
To me, the answer is simple: the WNBA has done a horrible job marketing its players and talent. At a time when the quality of play in the WNBA is the best it has ever been, why do we not see consistent advertisements of games on ESPN? I saw the same Subway commercial with Charles Barkley and Stephen Curry about 40 times while watching Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals (which took place after the end of the NBA season), how come the league could not find time to put a promo up for Sabrina Ionescu? Five time Olympic Gold Medalist Sue Bird had a great Carmax commercial last year; why can’t she be the spokesperson for some other company? If you watch Inside the NBA on Tuesday nights, Candace Parker is a standard panelist. In addition to being arguably the greatest player in women’s basketball history (all due respect to Cheryl Miller), she explains the game of basketball way better than the Thursday night crew (simply google Candace Parker Explains the Pick and Roll to Shaq to see what I mean). For some reason, the WNBA can’t help get her on advertisements.
Because there is no strong secondary income, and the WNBA fails to attract viewers, players are forced to look abroad for extra income. For a large percentage of the WNBA, that means playing in Russia. In 2015, Diana Taurasi sat out the WNBA season to play in Russia, where she made $1.5 million. Her WNBA salary would have been roughly 1/10 of that. Basketball certainly is not more popular in Russia than it is in America - these numbers should easily be reversed.
Fortunately, we are already starting to see some changes in the WNBA’s popularity. Current and Former NBA players (most notably the late Kobe Bryant) have used their platforms to heap praise on the talent in the league and follow the leadership of the players. Furthermore, the composition of team governors has changed to include more independently wealthy owners who view winning as the most important thing and are willing to pump significantly more resources into their teams.
At Couro, one of our main tenants is giving athletes a voice. We hope to bring in as many players to our platform as possible; helping the players earn a larger secondary income, raise league revenues and player salaries to where teams can provide accommodations similar to those the NBA provides, and create a positive feedback loop that can grow the league to a position where All-Pros are not forced to go to Russia to earn their market salaries.
