wnba players stood up for themselves, now its paying off
The 30th WNBA season will get underway on the heels of yet another phenomenal NCAA Women’s Final Four and a collective bargaining agreement that dramatically increased player pay, and backpay for now retired players.
While haters questioned why the women needed a larger share of television revenue because “the league loses make money” that is not how rev shares work and Google can easily explain it to you. However, the money is deserved because as a longtime viewer of men’s and women’s basketball, the women’s game is on fire. There is a new generation of players and coaches who don’t require the same soft sportsmanship of modern athletes that was once a required norm.
That physical play can be attributed to several factors including the fact that many young girls are getting their reps on the court on boy’s AAU basketball teams because girls teams don’t exist at the same volume as boys teams. With the surging popularity of the WNBA and the innovative Unrivaled League founded by future hall-of-famers Naphesia Collier and Brianna Stewart women’s basketball shows no signs of slowing down.
WNBA players were leaving everything on the court every night while making minimal salaries. Now that they will be compensated in better alignment with the value of the product they provide fans should expect the game to continue to grow because pay is the only form of compensation that matters.
Employees across the country should take a cue from WNBA players who have been responsible for ousting owners who made bigoted comments about marginalized communities, creating a competitive league that offered a better fan experience and found a regular tv spot to build a proper fan base with better pay for a shorter season that provided an opportunity for lesser-known players to flex their on-court skills. Those instances and other clear signs of player solidarity led to better pay in the OG league, celebrating its 30th season with preseaon games at the end of April and the first regular season games on Friday, May 8.
