\tCelebrate the financial uprising of the WNBA, if you must. Yet just because the women finally were paid doesn\u2019t mean the league suddenly surges between May 8 and mid-October. The trick is to avoid the snobby undermining of entire seasons, with women\u2019s basketball already lagging behind the thunder of what\u2019s happening in American sports.<\/p>\n
\tWhen Opening Night arrives, competition includes the NBA playoffs, an MLB season, the NHL playoffs, the golf and tennis majors and the emergence of 47 World Cup nations to join Team USA. Then what? The NFL and college football never go away, followed by baseball\u2019s postseason. Sure, it\u2019s sweet justice that Caitlin Clark, A\u2019ja Wilson and other stars will make $1.4 million this year with new super-max contracts.<\/p>\n
\tThat is far less than an NFL punter makes, or a baseball utilityman. Bronny James earns $1.955 million when he no longer is used by the Los Angeles Lakers. Please acknowledge where the WNBA stands right now \u2014 contrary to incessant ego-babble \u2014 after the approval of a collective bargaining agreement extending through 2032.<\/p>\n
\tHow does the commissioner, still Cathy Engelbert, band together with freshly committed owners and keep selling the sport to TV viewers and arena audiences? When the players receive 20 percent of gross revenue and benefit from a 364-percent increase in their salary cap, they\u2019ll need to average more than 1.2 million viewers on broadcasts. Last year, Clark\u2019s team in Indiana scheduled nine games in bigger-than-usual buildings.<\/p>\n
\tThis year, the number was reduced to four.<\/p>\n
\tDesperation was the reason for last week\u2019s handshake. I wasn\u2019t kidding when I wrote Clark was better off starting her own league, knowing how prominent she is in March ads and how Nike is retailing her signature sneaker for $140. At least her salary will soar above the $78,066 she made last year. That said, paying her $1.4 million \u2014 and around $2.4 million in seven years \u2014 remains a mockery. She\u2019s the one who lured 18.7 million viewers for her final game at Iowa, the one who dealt with sick foes beating her up during pro games.<\/p>\n
\tBut Engelbert said Clark should be on her \u201cknees\u201d for the media deals she formulated, according to Minnesota\u2019s Napheesa Collier. The commissioner\u2019s departure can\u2019t happen soon enough, with my thought-out successor \u2014 Barack Obama \u2014 still in play if he prefers. \u201cThis Collective Bargaining Agreement represents a defining moment in the WNBA\u2019s 30-year history,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cSince its inception, the WNBA has been shaped by extraordinary athletes who believed in the league\u2019s future. The agreement is a testament to that belief and to the tremendous progress we have achieved together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Players Association is thrilled to cut a deal that preserves the players\u2019 existential place. \u201cThis transformational CBA delivers consequential economic progress and expanded benefits that support players on and off the court,\u201d the union said. \u201cIt builds a stronger foundation for today\u2019s players, the next generation, and those who helped build the WNBA. It affirms the strength of our union and the power of our collective voice. Now, it is time to get back to the game and the fans we love, competing at the highest level, and showing exactly what this league can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSaid Nneka Ogwumike, Players Association president: \u201cWe came in understanding that engagement and participation were key. We were always true to our process, and we were going to end the process in the way we know our governance to work. With ratifying the vote, with getting voter turnout. I will say there were a lot of outside forces that were trying to, you know, crack our foundation. Didn\u2019t work. We stood strong. And I feel like we can\u2019t necessarily see them as roadblocks or obstacles, it just really bolstered and fortified exactly how union-strong we are. I mean, one thing about athletes is that we have stamina.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe were going to make it to the end no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tI\u2019ll watch Clark until she\u2019s 90, as she tries to escape more injuries. But the country has had a taste of Wilson, Collier, Breanna Stewart and Paige Bueckers \u2014 will we want more, or assume the league is secondary? The sports dollar has too many options. It could be the WNBA has peaked.<\/p>\n
\tSo teams fly on charter flights. So life insurance increases to $700,000 a player. Mental health has been addressed. Training is on the plateau of other leagues. Beautiful, for all.<\/p>\n
\tBut I want to know if players who complained for months \u2014 years \u2014 will improve the splendor of performance. A $7 million salary cap, five times bigger than last year, means owners will spend to win. Do not forget the massive question about a 364-percent hike in salary cap.<\/p>\n
\tWill Americans even care?<\/p>\n
\t###<\/p>\n
\tJay Mariotti, called \u201cwithout question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,\u2019\u2019 writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk\/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrate the financial uprising of the WNBA, if you must. Yet just because the women finally were paid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-557041","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\/557041","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=557041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}