{"id":329994,"date":"2025-12-04T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T13:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329994\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T13:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T13:00:08","slug":"114k-from-wnba-16m-from-sponsors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329994\/","title":{"rendered":"$114K From WNBA, $16M From Sponsors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt was a frustrating season on the court for Caitlin Clark<\/a>, as a series of injuries limited her to suit up in only 30% of Indiana Fever games during the 2025 WNBA<\/a> regular season. But she crushed it off the court, thanks to an endorsement portfolio that pushed her total earnings to an estimated $16.1 million, topping her own record for a WNBA player set last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe breakdown: $16 million from sponsors and $114,000 from her W playing salary and bonuses. In percentage terms, it\u2019s 99.3% from endorsements and 0.7% from the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\n\tClark ranked No. 6 in Sportico\u2019s highest-paid female athletes<\/a> of 2025, up four spots from her debut on the list in 2024 at $11.1 million<\/a>. This was the first full year of endorsement contracts she signed in 2024 when she was drafted first overall by the Fever. She also signed new partnerships with Ascension St. Vincent and Stanley.<\/p>\n

\n\tClark\u2019s existing sponsors included Gatorade, State Farm, Wilson, Panini America, Hy-Vee, Xfinity, Gainbridge and Lilly. In August, Nike<\/a> announced Clark as its latest signature athlete, with a new signature logo, a collection of sportswear and apparel, and a signature sneaker to debut in 2026. She was the only WNBA player to crack the top 15 earners, with New York Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu falling just short.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe WNBA is in the midst of negotiating<\/a> a new collective bargaining agreement, and both the league and players union agree that salaries are headed up multiple times their current level to catch up to soaring revenue and franchise valuations. But the structure of a final CBA is still a work in progress.<\/p>\n

\n\tClark\u2019s Fever salary set off a national conversation when she was drafted, as her professional debut triggered the league to smash all kinds of records for viewership, revenue and engagement. Her rookie base salary was $76,535, and she made $78,066 in 2025 as part of a four-year, $338,056 deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe earned a trio of bonuses that pushed her W pay over $100,000. Clark was sidelined, but the Fever won the league\u2019s midseason Commissioner\u2019s Cup final, and each player earned a $30,000 bonus. \u201cYou get more [money] for this than you do if you\u2019re the [WNBA Finals] champion,\u201d Clark\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0during the postgame celebration. \u201cIt makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year the WNBA Finals lengthened to a best-of-seven contest for the first time. As a result, the league increased the prize pool. The Fever reached the semifinals but fell to the Las Vegas Aces with Clark still sidelined, and each player netted $3,435. Clark was also voted to the All-Star Game, which carried a $2,575 bonus per player.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are myriad other playing bonuses for WNBA players, as well as several marketing ones. A Player Marketing Agreement (PMA) pays players up to $250,000 to serve as brand ambassadors for the league and its partners. The PMA was first implemented ahead of the 2022 season, but star players sometimes stay out of the program if they already have deep sponsorship ties and off-court earnings.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe CBA also has a Team Marketing Agreement (TMA) that pays a maximum of $4,000 per week with a team eligible to spend up to $150,000 for all players in a given year. It is not clear if Clark received any of the Fever\u2019s 2025 TMA dollars.<\/p>\n

\n\tClark is far from alone as a female athlete who makes more from sponsors than playing. The top 15 women made an estimated $249 million in 2025, with only 30% coming from prize money and salaries\u2014it\u2019s 72% for the top 15 men<\/a>, thanks to soaring team sports salaries. Gymnast Simone Biles ($11 million) made all of her income off the mat in 2025, while freeskier Eileen Gu made just 0.1% of her $22 million on the snow. Tennis legend Venus Williams ($10.2 million) was at 2.1%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a frustrating season on the court for Caitlin Clark, as a series of injuries limited her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[1760,13218,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-329994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-caitlin-clark","9":"tag-nike","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}