{"id":14003,"date":"2025-07-21T23:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T23:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14003\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T23:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T23:04:08","slug":"the-2025-wnba-all-star-game-sent-a-clear-and-urgent-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14003\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2025 WNBA All-Star game sent a clear and urgent message"},"content":{"rendered":"

With \u201cPay Us What You Owe Us<\/a>\u201d emblazoned on their black T-shirts, the WNBA All-Stars<\/a>\u2019 demand to the league was direct and unapologetic during Saturday\u2019s game. But the shirt \u2014 while buzzy, memorable and viral on social media \u2014 wasn\u2019t the players\u2019 power play. Rather, the game\u2019s the thing. <\/p>\n

If you were confused about why the game \u2014 usually deliciously punctuated<\/a> with rough-and-tumble<\/a> activity \u2014 lacked defense, or why, when Team Clark captain Caitlin Clark, during a halftime interview<\/a>, laughed off the need for defense and instead called for more 4-point shots, you weren\u2019t the only one. (Granted, we were blessed with Kelsey Plum\u2019s hilarious hug-and-run foul on former teammate A\u2019ja Wilson in the first quarter.) Figuratively scratching my head through halftime, I finally realized the players\u2019 strategy, brilliantly Shakespearean. The shirts were the teaser. The game was the direct action.<\/p>\n

Currently, the players earn less than 10% of the league\u2019s total revenue, according to MarketWatch. For comparison, their male counterparts in the NBA receive roughly 50%.<\/p>\n

The game itself was the most significant demonstration of the players using their collective power amid ongoing collective bargaining negotiations that have left players frustrated, with New York Liberty\u2019s Breanna Stewart calling the latest meeting on Thursday between players and the league a \u201cwasted opportunity.”<\/a> The existing collective bargaining agreement will expire at the end of the 2025 season, and the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) and the league have been in talks about what a new agreement<\/a> looks like as the league experiences unprecedented growth and appeal. The minimum salary for new WNBA players is a meager $66,079<\/a> \u2014 far below the six-figure income<\/a> needed to rent an apartment in most major U.S. cities.<\/p>\n

The no defense, score-as-many-points strategy sent the league a clear message: You can divide us into teams, but you cannot divide us as a collective. The record-breaking final score \u2014 151-131<\/a>, Team Collier \u2014 reflected this strategy. The combined total of 282 points is absolutely absurd. Yet the total is a demonstration of the power of collaboration, of solidarity in practice, no matter how seasoned a player is, no matter if they are a rookie or a team captain. Like the point total, the message was: together they rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the growth in the league and as it stands, the current salary system is not really paying us what we\u2019re owed,\u201d WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike, a Seattle Storm forward, said<\/a>. \u201cWe want to be able to have that fair share moving forward, especially as we see all of the investment going in, and we want to be able to have our salaries be reflected in a structure that makes sense for us.\u201d Ogwumike elaborated that part of the stalemate<\/a> is that the league is offering a fixed-growth system, while the union demands a flexible-growth system that reflects the upward trajectory of the league.<\/p>\n

The players\u2019 top demand is for a greater percentage of the league\u2019s total revenue that accounts for the league\u2019s skyrocketing growth and popularity. According to Deloitte<\/a>, the WNBA\u2019s revenues this year are projected to surpass $1 billion, up from $710 million in 2024. Figures<\/a> for TV viewership and game attendance are both up by more than 20% this year. And media deals struck with Disney, Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal last year are valued at roughly $2.2 billion<\/a>, with renegotiations with networks CBS and ION estimated to raise the total to $3 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Currently, the players earn less than 10%<\/a> of the league\u2019s total revenue, according to MarketWatch. For comparison, their male counterparts in the NBA receive roughly 50%<\/a>. Hence, the WNBA players\u2019 T-shirts, which smartly avoid the trite and reductive language of equality and instead demand to be paid a greater percentage of the total revenue that respects their dignity and reflects their value. The language is brilliant because it not only circumvents idiotic and illogical assertions<\/a> that the players shouldn\u2019t get a bigger piece of the pie because the league has failed to turn a profit in past years, it also allows the players to imagine their own compensation and benefits framework based on their own values. The sky\u2019s the limit \u2014 not patriarchal standards.<\/p>\n

The fact of the matter is that without the players, the league is nothing. It simply doesn\u2019t exist. \u201cPay us what you owe us, or we don\u2019t play\u201d is the underlying message. And it is a credible one, since players have already discussed the possibility of striking<\/a> prior to the start of next season.<\/p>\n

The All-Star Game showcased the players\u2019 solidarity as they push for greater respect, recognition and compensation from the league. Kudos to the players \u2014 their game spoke louder than their shirts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With \u201cPay Us What You Owe Us\u201d emblazoned on their black T-shirts, the WNBA All-Stars\u2019 demand to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-14003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}