Caitlin Clark is here. Can the WNBA business thrive?

The business of women’s basketball is booming. And as the 2024 WNBA season starts, many are wondering if the sport is entering a new economic era.

The arrival of stars like Caitlin Clark, the former University of Iowa phenom who is now a rookie with the Indiana Fever, has boosted interest and ticket sales. All teams in the competition will make charter flights for the first time this season, team sponsorship is to grow, and major players are racking up endorsement deals. A new TV deal could fill the coffers and further improve the league’s profile.

But there are still hurdles the league must overcome before it reaches the kind of status enjoyed by other professional sports leagues. The average WNBA salary is around $120,000, far lower than that of the NBA, and the relatively low salary has traditionally driven even the highest-earning players to play overseas in the offseason to earn extra money. The league has long had stars, but has struggled to market their skills and personalities to a wider audience.

How the WNBA responds to the current moment – ​​and approaches its more prominent place in the media landscape – could have a significant effect on the league’s future.

An opportunity to profit.

More than 18 million people, a record, watched the University of South Carolina defeat Clark and Iowa in this year’s NCAA women’s tournament final, compared to the roughly 10 million who watched the 2023 title game, which was also a record. This year, for the first time, more people tuned in to watch the women’s final than the men’s final.

Clark has had a unique impact. In her four years at Iowa, she broke the Division I scoring record for men and women and led the Hawkeyes to back-to-back national title games. She also helped sell out arenas and boost television ratings, becoming one of the most visible stars in all of college sports. According to a March Survey Under the leadership of Seton Hall University’s School of Business, Clark was the best-known college basketball player in the country, with 44 percent of Americans saying they had heard of her.

Supporters of the WNBA hope the growth in the college game translates to the pros. Last year’s finals attracted an average of 728,000 viewers per match, the highest number in 20 years.

Players say they can already feel a difference. Former Seattle Storm and University of Connecticut star Sue Bird said in an interview that the WNBA is being taken more seriously by fans compared to 2002, when she entered the league. The general sentiment at the time, Bird said, was that “you took a step back” after playing college basketball.

“They were used to a certain standard in college, and now they see that in the WNBA,” Bird said.

And so far, interest in Clark appears to have spread to the league. A record 2.5 million people watched the WNBA draft on April 15, when Clark was selected No. 1 overall. Three of the Fever’s first four games will be broadcast nationally on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, and the other was on Amazon Prime. As proof of the league’s growing popularity, the Bay Area will to get a WNBA team in 2025, and another team is reportedly planned for Toronto.

WNBA players – even stars – don’t make much money.

When the Indiana Fever selected Clark in the draft, many, including President Biden, were shocked to learn her starting salary: $76,535.

Clark’s college recommendations – worth more than $3 million, according to To3a site that tracks name, image and likeness deals for college athletes — and the deals she’s signed since arriving in Indiana make her base salary a small portion of her total compensation.

Base salaries in the WNBA range from approximately $64,000 for rookies drafted the third round to about $240,000 for veterans. Of the approximately 144 players in the league, 22 make more than $200,000 annually, and 78 make less than $100,000, according to Spotraca site that keeps track of player contracts.

Players can earn more, with bonuses for those who win individual awards and whose teams are successful. The league pays a small, rotating cohort of players a total of $1 million each season to participate in league-wide marketing partnerships.

But lucrative sponsorship deals are not a reality for the majority of players in the league. Some see the promise of sponsorship as the wrong solution to improving player pay.

“The new message around a player in the new rookie class is, ‘Don’t worry about the top pick because she can make up to half a million dollars,’” said Terri Jackson, executive director of the WNBA players. union.

In turn, players have sought refuge abroad and started playing for teams in countries such as Russia, Turkey, China and Australia. They pay more than the WNBA. Brittney Griner played in Russia while she was in prison for nine months.

Today, about half of WNBA teams share ownership with an NBA team, and in some cases, facilities and front offices. That includes the Fever, who share ownership and facilities with the Indiana Pacers. Ownership of the WNBA itself is still divided between the collective 30 NBA teams and 12 WNBA teams. In 2022, the WNBA announced $75 million in new investments from more than two dozen investors, including NBA and WNBA team owners.

New deals can change things.

The leagues remain worlds apart when it comes to revenue. But proponents of higher salaries for WNBA players point out that they have a lower share of league revenues than NBA players, 10 percent compared to about 50 percent.

Media rights, a major source of revenue for sports leagues, are currently being negotiated for the NBA and WNBA. The two leagues generally have rights agreements together.

The current contract expires at the end of the 2024-25 NBA season, at which point the WNBA could for the first time opt to separate its agreement from the NBA

The league should prioritize expanding its fan base and promoting its stars, as the NBA did in the 1980s with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, said Len Elmore, a former NBA player and associate professor at Columbia’s Sports Management Program University.

“Television rights are what has catapulted salaries in the NBA,” Elmore said. “It comes down to having those players, and it comes down to TV.”

The current collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and the union that represents the players governs player compensation. Chiney Ogwumike, a forward for the Los Angeles Sparks, said the WNBA’s recent growth supports the players’ argument that they should receive a larger share of league revenues.

“The numbers support that players are finally being rewarded as a source of income,” she said in an interview.

Recommendations are an unpredictable phenomenon.

As the profile of the college game has risen, stars have made millions from endorsements. For example, Angel Reese, who is now in her rookie season with the Chicago Sky, had NIL deals worth a reported $1.8 million while at Louisiana State University.

But more and more endorsement deals are happening with WNBA players. Clark is reportedly signature a $20 million deal with Nike. The company also makes a signature shoe featuring Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson.

Research has consistently shown that women’s sports receive a fraction of the media attention that men’s sports receive, limiting their reach and ability to attract new fans. That has changed in recent years, with global sponsorship of female athletes increasing 22 percent by 2023, according to SponsorUnited, which tracks corporate sponsorships and deals.

But now there’s an advantage for companies in that quest. Compared to leagues like the NBA and NFL, “it’s not as messy,” said Sarah Lane, chief marketing officer at CarMax, which became a partner with the league in 2021.

Bird said she was optimistic that the current crop of rookies, combined with the league’s existing stars, would bring more attention — and sponsorship — to the WNBA.

The current stars, Bird said, “have a certain value, both in their playing and in their marketability, and that will only make the pot and the pie bigger for everyone else.”