Caitlin Clark wage criticism a ‘false narrative’: WNBA commissioner

The joy round Caitlin Clark being drafted first total by the Indiana Fever within the 2024 WNBA Draft led 2.45 million viewers to tune in, eclipsing the league’s earlier excessive for a draft by 307%, one other indication of the influence that the NCAA’s all-time main scorer in each males’s and girls’s basketball could have on the WNBA.

Clark’s choice additionally put her future WNBA wage within the highlight, resulting in criticisms of her pay not simply spreading throughout social media, however from the White Home as nicely, with President Joe Biden saying on social media that “Ladies in sports activities proceed to push new boundaries and encourage us all. However proper now we’re seeing that even if you happen to’re one of the best, ladies are usually not paid their fair proportion.”

Clark will earn $338,056 over 4 years, in keeping with the WNBA’s collective bargaining settlement. Comparatively, San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama — the No. 1 decide in final yr’s NBA draft — signed a $55 million four-year contract.

Nevertheless, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, talking at CNBC’s inaugural Changemakers Summit on Thursday in New York Metropolis, stated there is a “false narrative” round Clark’s anticipated wage, likening it to the way in which that govt salaries are displayed for public corporations.

“It is proxy season; for a CEO, do you simply put the bottom pay in there? No, you set their bonus, you set their inventory choices, you set all the things,” stated Engelbert, who was named the WNBA’s first commissioner in 2019 after serving as CEO of Deloitte, and was named to CNBC’s first Changemakers checklist earlier this yr.

“Caitlin has the flexibility to make as much as a half of 1,000,000 {dollars} simply in WNBA wages this yr, so that they’re simply taking a look at a base, which is collectively bargained and truly is low, as a result of she’s the primary decide,” Engelbert stated. “However she additionally has thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of {dollars} in endorsements, and truly as a result of she’s declared to turn out to be professional, her endorsements are greater in greenback worth – she has a worldwide platform now, not only a U.S. platform, so she’s going to just do advantageous as nicely.”

Clark had a number of sponsorship offers whereas she was a participant at Iowa with corporations like Nike, Gatorade and State Farm, a part of the NCAA’s title, picture and likeness rules. Whereas a lot of these offers will carry over to the WNBA, her increasing platform can also be serving to to additional develop her portfolio: Clark is predicted to signal a brand new cope with Nike price nicely over $20 million that may even embody a signature sneaker, in keeping with The Athletic. 

Engelbert famous that comparisons between WNBA draftee salaries and comparable salaries for newly drafted NBA gamers or different males’s leagues ought to word that these leagues are “75 to 120 years previous; we’re tipping off our twenty eighth season.” The NBA has round $13 billion in income whereas the WNBA is roughly round $200 million.

“I might say if you happen to take a look at them 28 seasons in, we’re additional forward, however we notice we nonetheless have quite a lot of work to do, and it is all concerning the ecosystem round us that drives income,” Engelbert stated.

The WNBA has two most important income drivers in media rights and sponsorships, and groups have the principle income driver of ticketing, Engelbert stated. 

Presently, the league is engaged on its subsequent media rights deal alongside the NBA, whose unique TV rights negotiating window with ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery is anticipated to run out Monday with out a new deal, opening up the door for different media and tech corporations like Amazon, Apple and Netflix to probably become involved within the bidding. 

The WNBA’s present media rights deal is price roughly $60 million a yr and expires in 2025, and Engelbert stated she expects that to double.

“We hope to at the very least double our rights charges,” Engelbert stated on CNBC’s “Squawk Field” in April. “Ladies’s sports activities rights charges have been undervalued for too lengthy, so now we have this monumental alternative at a time the place the media panorama is altering a lot.”

Engelbert likened the WNBA to a “development inventory,” including that the league, and girls’s sports activities typically, is shedding the false view of it being “a charity or the suitable factor to do to help ladies.”

“We’re a reliable sports activities, media and leisure property,” Engelbert stated.