{"id":193655,"date":"2025-10-06T16:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193655\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:49:08","slug":"nba-draws-criticism-for-role-in-wnba-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193655\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA draws criticism for role in WNBA dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

As criticism from players<\/a> is directed at the WNBA and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert<\/a>, the NBA \u201cshould be receiving at least as much — if not more,\u201d according to Lindsay Gibbs of CBSSPORTS.com. It is \u201cnot right to say that the NBA only owns 42% of the WNBA, because multiple NBA owners were part of the equity capital raise,\u201d and many own WNBA teams as well. Today, six of the 13 WNBA teams are owned by their NBA counterparts, and four of the five expansion teams coming in the next four years are run by NBA owners. That means Engelbert\u2019s \u201cboss is NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the rest of the NBA owners.\u201d If Engelbert is \u201cousted — which is what the players seem to want — it\u2019s hard to imagine the NBA hiring someone in her place who would behave any differently\u201d (CBSSPORTS.com, 10\/3<\/a>).<\/p>\n

FOOD CHAIN: In Chicago, Alissa Hirsh noted throughout Engelbert\u2019s tenure, she has \u201chelped steer the league from financial precarity to raking in nearly $1 billion in expansion fees through the end of the decade.\u201d And yet, despite \u201call her savvy, this fact remains: For every dollar that comes into the league, less than 50 cents goes to WNBA teams themselves.\u201d That is because NBA owners are \u201cnot about to give up their controlling stake at a moment when it\u2019s paying dividends.\u201d No commissioner\u2019s \u201cbusiness acumen — not Engelbert\u2019s nor her successor\u2019s — is going to solve that conundrum.\u201d Whoever comes next will \u201cstill be reporting up the same food chain, with the NBA sitting at the top\u201d (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 10\/4<\/a>).<\/p>\n

REVENUE DISPARITY: In N.Y., Mike Lupica noted WNBA players \u201cmake 7% of basketball-related revenue in their league, as compared to 51% for NBA players.\u201d It is \u201cmerely a scandal in broad daylight, before the players stand up and shut the sport down.\u201d Lupica: \u201cIt\u2019s why at this point, there\u2019s a better chance of me being WNBA commissioner next season than Cathy Engelbert\u201d (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10\/4<\/a>). Southern Utah professor David Berri in an opinion piece for the N.Y. TIMES noted the WNBA has \u201clong claimed it can\u2019t give its players the same deal as the men of the NBA because it operates at a loss.\u201d In 2024 — while the WNBA was \u201csetting records for revenue and attendance\u201d — it was reported that WNBA \u201closses had risen\u201d to $50M. The WNBA is a private entity, so it does not \u201dhave to, and hasn\u2019t, released its financial statements.\u201d But given the \u201crapid growth in revenues and franchise values, it\u2019s increasingly difficult to believe it when the WNBA cries poverty\u201d (N.Y. TIMES, 10\/3<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As criticism from players is directed at the WNBA and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, the NBA \u201cshould be receiving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85,5941],"class_list":{"0":"post-193655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}