The viewers of WNBA, have grown tremendously to watch the talented women compete. The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov, recently reported that the WNBA’s new media package will be 2.2 billion over the course of 11 years, and with an average of 200 million a year. The NBA approved and helped arrange the WNBA’s new media package with Disney, NBC and Amazon for eleven years. However, ESPN, NBC, and Amazon will continue to have their own WNBA packages.
When the WNBA was created it had to be signed off by the NBA for their approval of the concept. As the WNBA expands into new media deals and teams the NBA governors are to sign off on the media rights on. Unfortunately, the deals will not be set in stone until Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT also sign off, due to them having the same rights for NBA packages.
The present WNBA 50 million annually media deal is set to end just after the 2025 season with Amazon, ION, Disney, CBS. The streaming fees will most likely end up increasing from what it is now.
Players in the WNBA have been experiencing a wide pay disparity for several years. Being highly underpaid compared to the NBA players who receive a higher income. According to Spoctrac, the highest NBA player makes 51.9 million and the highest paid WNBA player only makes 242.2k.
As the League only has a few spots within their roster spots on teams, money for players is very limited . The WNBA players ultimately opt to play overseas during the offseason for the bigger salary.
“I’ll say this…the whole reason a lot of us go over is the pay gap,” explained Griner back in April. “A lot of us go over there to make an income, to support our families, to support ourselves…and it’s a shame that we have to leave our families for holidays. I mean you’re missing everything being away. And at the same time, as much as I would love to pay my light bill for the love of the game, I can’t, you know?”
For years the gender bias of sports was prolonged by viewers who didn’t see the value of women’s sports. The difference in the Tv deals was a big reason why many fans weren’t able to keep up with the WNBA games unless going in person.
“It should come as no surprise that there’s such a huge gap between the NBA and WNBA.” explained Rob Parker, a nationally syndicated radio host for Fox Sports and a sports media professor at the University of Southern California.“The attendance is low. The television ratings are low. So it’s no shocker that there’s no money there for the women,”
Despite the history of the small number of viewers who tuned in for the games, this is no longer the case. The WNBA has expediently increased in viewers throughout the whole season. Viewers have been finding out the veterans who are dominating the league.
Fanbases have followed the popular rookies like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink and Kamilla Cardoso etc. this new attention has caused the spotlight to shift from the NBA to the WNBA competitive matchups.
The Fans loved when Clark went against Reese in college during the NCAA National Championship and Final Four. As 12.6 million viewers watched the back and forth game ended with a LSU 102-85 win. Similar matchups with the South Carolina rivalry with LSU also gained tons of viewers throughout the years.
Back in May, when Reese and Cardoso were drafted to the Chicago Sky together, fans dedicated themselves to supporting them. The Sky’s first preseason game vs the Minnesota Lynx wasn’t streamed on the League pass. This didn’t stop viewers from finding a watch the Skyscrapers compete against the Lynx. 434,000 viewers came together to watch a pixelated live stream on instagram.
“Anybody that watched it should send three bucks to the person, I don’t even know who it is,” Reeve said. “I think that what I would say is that the growth is happening so fast. It’s so accelerated. And I’ve been saying this in our own organization — that business as usual isn’t going to work anymore”
Sold out or changing arenas usually happen when the Indiana Fever plays teams, it tends to be filled with Clark’s supporters. WNBA teams have moved their games to several different arenas multiple times just to keep up with the fans who come out. Clark’s jersey was immediately sold out after being drafted as the Number 1 overall pick to Indiana Fever, in this year’s draft.
The WNBA has had plenty of talent throughout the years before the rookies came. Even though women’s sports are just starting to receive the recognition that they deserve, some of the greats in the sports were missed.
This new media package could mean a great deal for players earning bigger salaries, teams expanding rosters and more overall for the league. Many talented players were cut due to the few roster spots over the years.
Kierra Richardson is a Journalism student at Ohio State University desiring to work in sports media.
