{"id":14486,"date":"2024-04-21T07:58:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-21T11:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=14486"},"modified":"2024-04-21T08:09:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T12:09:05","slug":"caitlin-the-gender-pay-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=14486","title":{"rendered":"Caitlin &amp; the gender pay gap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Amazing. Audacious. Awesome. Badass. Confident. Dominant. Elite. Explosive. Extraordinary. Fiery. Focused. Fun. Generational talent. Grounded. Historical. Humble. Impressive. Legendary. Mesmerizing. Must watch. Passionate. Popular. Powerful. Ready. Rock star. Smart. Transcendent. Tremendous. Unselfish. Wow.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so is a simple splattering of the many words used to describe women\u2019s basketball\u2019s newest, biggest star, Caitlin Clark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clark leaves college as the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer. Male or female. This past week she was the first pick in the 2024 WNBA draft. With a shooting range that is oft jaw-droppingly successful, Clark has captured the country\u2019s attention. People are paying exponentially more attention to women\u2019s basketball, which South Carolina coach Dawn Staley \u2014 one of the best in the business \u2014 says, &#8220;Caitlin Clark is the sole reason why viewership has shot through the roof for our game \u2014 <strong>the sole reason<\/strong>.\u201d The public is noticing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In their newfound attention, they have noticed far more than Clark\u2019s fantabulous flair. One aspect that created quite a bit of commentary in the week that was, was the pay disparity between the male and female professional basketball leagues. Take note:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The average four-year salary for the top draft picks for the NBA is $36.5 million (according to Spotrac).&nbsp;The average WNBA four-year salary for its top 2024 draft picks is<strong> <\/strong>$327,119.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Caitlin Clark, absent endorsements (which will indeed be sizable), will make $76,535 this summer. Comparatively, the NBA&#8217;s top pick, Victor Wembanyama, had a base salary of more than $12 million.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As the public noticed the disparity, a plentitude expressed their outrage, including whoever mans Pres. Biden\u2019s X\/Twitter account, saying \u201ceven if you\u2019re the best, women are not paid their fair share.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had to chuckle. The Intramuralist has been a WNBA fan since its inception 28 years ago (go Fever!). The pay gap has always been present. In fact, roughly half the league\u2019s 144 players supplement their income by playing overseas the rest of the year. Perceiving unfairness takes minimal effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So let\u2019s make sure we\u2019re comparing apples to apples, an always wise act when expressing emotion. A few facts that aid in providing context:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The WNBA plays 40 regular season games. The NBA plays 82.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The average WNBA game attendance last season was 6,615 fans. The average NBA attendance was 18,324.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>WNBA television viewership was up last year, averaging 505,000 viewers per regular season game. Last year\u2019s NBA numbers were over 1.62 million.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The WNBA generates $60 million in revenue. The NBA brings in <strong>$10 billion.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The WNBA is subsidized by the NBA, which provides the women\u2019s league over $15 million annually.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Friends, the WNBA is not profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NBA subsidizes the WNBA because the revenue gained via WNBA ticket sales, merch and broadcasting isn\u2019t enough to independently sustain league operations. Their audience is significantly smaller; their fandom is smaller. In other words, the pay gap is based not on emotion but on economics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some have suggested the female players just want the same percentage of revenue as NBA\u2019ers receive, who net near 50%. The hurdle in that logic is that revenue must be gauged against profit, and if an organization isn\u2019t profitable, it would be imprudent to apply the same revenue sharing strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As said, the Intramuralist is a fan. And indeed, I am especially excited to see Caitlin Clark on the hardwood in Indiana this summer. I am also excited to see how her talents and resulting popularity transcend enthusiasm for women&#8217;s basketball.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Magic, Bird and Michael. Kobe and Curry. And more. Each expanded the NBA audience. The bigger the audience, the larger the revenue. The larger the revenue, the more the profit potential. The more the profit, the bigger the players&#8217; payout. The WNBA is not profitable. Yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My hope is as Caitlin Clark\u2019s professional career takes shape \u2014 similar to what we witnessed in her final year of college \u2014 the audience increases, the profits are abundant, and women are paid more comparably to the men. That makes economic sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazing. Audacious. Awesome. Badass. Confident. Dominant. Elite. Explosive. Extraordinary. Fiery. Focused. Fun. Generational talent. Grounded. Historical. Humble. Impressive. Legendary. Mesmerizing. Must watch. Passionate. Popular. Powerful. Ready. Rock star. Smart. Transcendent. Tremendous. Unselfish. Wow. And so is a simple splattering of the many words used to describe women\u2019s basketball\u2019s newest, biggest star, Caitlin Clark. Clark leaves &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=14486\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Caitlin &amp; the gender pay gap&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14486"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14495,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14486\/revisions\/14495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}