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Out of that conversation came the idea for a bold new approach to the WNBA\u2019s labor standoff. Players decided that it was time to stop bargaining primarily behind closed doors and to instead bring their message to the masses.<\/p>\n
Later that same day, players union leaders gave every WNBA All-Star a black T-shirt with the slogan \u201cPay Us What You Owe Us\u201d emblazoned in white letters across the front. The All-Stars unanimously donned those shirts<\/a> during pregame warmups in front of a sellout crowd of nearly 17,000 and millions more viewers watching from home on ABC.<\/p>\n \u201cThe players are what is building this brand,\u201d All-Star game MVP and WNBPA vice president Napheesa Collier said Saturday. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re owed a piece of that pie that we helped create.\u201d<\/p>\n Collier\u2019s comments come at a time of unprecedented growth for the WNBA, accelerated by the popularity of Caitlin Clark and other recent high-profile college stars. The league had a record 2024 season<\/a> with historic viewership, attendance and merchandise sales. Expansion teams will debut in Toronto, Portland, Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland over the next five years. In 2026, the league will begin an 11-year media rights deal worth a reported $2.2 billion.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Eager to cash in on that influx of revenue, the players union opted out of its collective bargaining agreement with the league last year and now must negotiate a new deal before the current one expires on October 31. Players are seeking a drastically improved revenue sharing model that would allow their salaries to grow as the league does. The league has scarcely acknowledged those proposals during early bargaining sessions, players have complained.<\/p>\n [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season<\/a>]<\/p>\n The distance between the union and the league is vast enough that it raises the question: Who\u2019s right? Are WNBA players as grossly underpaid as they claim? Or are they asking for too much given the WNBA\u2019s history of unprofitability and the potential fragility of its recent rapid surge in popularity?<\/p>\n For the past year, Harvard economics professor and 2023 Nobel Prize winner Claudia Goldin has been advising the WNBPA in collective bargaining. Last month, Goldin penned a guest essay<\/a> in the New York Times entitled \u201cHow Underpaid Are WNBA Players? It\u2019s Embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n After examining TV ratings, attendance data and other metrics, Goldin estimated that the average WNBA salary should be \u201croughly one-quarter to one-third of the average NBA salary to achieve pay equity.\u201d In reality, WNBA salaries currently range from the league minimum of $66,079 to a maximum of $249,244. That\u2019s not in the same stratosphere as the NBA, where the league minimum is $1.27 million and the highest-paid superstars will earn more than $50 million apiece next season. <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHow could that be?\u201d wrote Goldin. \u201cThe most likely explanation is that the WNBA is not receiving the full value it contributes to the combined NBA and WNBA enterprise revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n A\u2019ja Wilson and Jackie Young wear shirts saying “Pay us what you owe us” prior to the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game. (Steph Chambers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n (Steph Chambers via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Three other sports economists who spoke to Yahoo Sports agreed with Goldin\u2019s assessment that WNBA players are not being paid what they deserve. As evidence, they pointed to the fact that about 50% of the NBA\u2019s revenue goes to player salaries and that WNBA players take home a minuscule percentage of their league\u2019s revenue by comparison.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cEven without knowing the exact revenues of the WNBA, we know they\u2019re certainly not making even close to 50%,\u201d University of San Francisco professor of sports management Nola Agha<\/a> told Yahoo Sports. \u201cSo they\u2019re absolutely underpaid.\u201d<\/p>\n The WNBA will make at least $500 million in revenue next year, argues David Berri<\/a>, an economics professor at Southern Utah and the co-author of \u201cSlaying the Trolls: Why the Trolls are Very, Very Wrong About Women and Sports.\u201d<\/a> Berri bases that estimate on a report from Forbes<\/a> that places the league\u2019s 2024 revenue at $226 million, another report from Sportico<\/a> that the expansion Golden State Valkyries are bringing in $75 million in their inaugural season and the WNBA\u2019s media rights deal with Disney that will provide $200 million annually.<\/p>\n Say that WNBA players negotiate the right to take 50% of that $500 million, a revenue sharing percentage similar to what their counterparts in the NBA, NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball get. In that scenario, the 168 players on 2026 WNBA rosters would earn an average of $1.49 million \u2014 more than 10 times the league\u2019s current average salary.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly, if the league is going to treat WNBA players like they do the NBA players, there has to be a substantial increase in pay,\u201d Berri told Yahoo Sports.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Of course, evaluating how much revenue any league makes is notoriously tricky because sports accounting always includes some sleight-of-hand tricks and deception. That\u2019s particularly true in the case of the WNBA, whose deeply intertwined financial relationship with the NBA makes it hard to decipher where one league\u2019s revenue ends and the other\u2019s begins.<\/p>\n The NBA founded the WNBA nearly 30 years ago, provides financial support to cover losses and remains a significant stakeholder to this day. Seven of the WNBA\u2019s 13 teams are owned by NBA ownership groups. Last year, the NBA negotiated joint television contracts for the leagues.<\/p>\n Back in 2018, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the WNBA annually loses roughly $10 million per year. Those losses allegedly quadrupled last year, sources told the New York Post<\/a>, citing a rise in expenses like full-time charter flights and the fact that the WNBA\u2019s new media rights deal would not kick in for another two years.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n![\"INDIANAPOLIS,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/04ea5120-67d7-11f0-976b-38f89ac8810e.jpeg\"\/)
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