Caitlin Clark salary criticisms a ‘false narrative,’ says WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert

The pleasure round Caitlin Clark being drafted first total by the Indiana Fever within the 2024 WNBA Draft led 2.45 million viewers to tune in, eclipsing the league’s earlier excessive for a draft by 307%, one other indication of the affect that the NCAA’s all-time main scorer in each males’s and ladies’s basketball can have on the WNBA.

Clark’s choice additionally put her future WNBA salary within the highlight, resulting in criticisms of her pay not just spreading across social media, however from the White House as properly, with President Joe Biden saying on social media that “Women in sports continue to push new boundaries and inspire us all. But right now we’re seeing that even if you’re the best, women are not paid their fair share.”

Clark will earn $338,056 over 4 years, in line with the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement. Comparatively, San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama — the No. 1 choose in final 12 months’s NBA draft — signed a $55 million four-year contract.

However, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, talking at CNBC’s inaugural Changemakers Summit on Thursday in New York City, mentioned there’s a “false narrative” round Clark’s anticipated salary, likening it to the way in which that government salaries are displayed for public firms.

“It’s proxy season; for a CEO, do you just put the base pay in there? No, you put their bonus, you put their stock options, you put everything,” mentioned Engelbert, who was named the WNBA’s first commissioner in 2019 after serving as CEO of Deloitte, and was named to CNBC’s first Changemakers listing earlier this 12 months.

“Caitlin has the ability to make up to a half of a million dollars just in WNBA wages this year, so they’re just looking at a base, which is collectively bargained and actually is low, because she’s the number one pick,” Engelbert mentioned. “But she also has millions and millions of dollars in endorsements, and actually because she’s declared to become pro, her endorsements are higher in dollar value – she has a global platform now, not just a U.S. platform, so she’s going to do just fine as well.”

Clark had a number of sponsorship offers whereas she was a participant at Iowa with firms like Nike, Gatorade and State Farm, a part of the NCAA’s name, image and likeness regulations. While lots of these offers will carry over to the WNBA, her increasing platform can be serving to to additional develop her portfolio: Clark is anticipated to signal a new cope with Nike value properly over $20 million that may also embody a signature sneaker, according to The Athletic. 

Engelbert famous that comparisons between WNBA draftee salaries and comparable salaries for newly drafted NBA gamers or different males’s leagues ought to notice that these leagues are “75 to 120 years old; we’re tipping off our 28th season.” The NBA has round $13 billion in income whereas the WNBA is roughly round $200 million.

“I would say if you look at them 28 seasons in, we’re further ahead, but we realize we still have a lot of work to do, and it’s all about the ecosystem around us that drives revenue,” Engelbert mentioned.

The WNBA has two primary income drivers in media rights and sponsorships, and groups have the primary income driver of ticketing, Engelbert mentioned. 

Currently, the league is engaged on its subsequent media rights deal alongside the NBA, whose unique TV rights negotiating window with ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to expire Monday without a new deal, opening up the door for different media and tech firms like Amazon, Apple and Netflix to probably become involved within the bidding. 

The WNBA’s current media rights deal is value roughly $60 million a 12 months and expires in 2025, and Engelbert said she expects that to double.

“We hope to at least double our rights fees,” Engelbert mentioned on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in April. “Women’s sports rights fees have been undervalued for too long, so we have this enormous opportunity at a time where the media landscape is changing so much.”

Engelbert likened the WNBA to a “growth stock,” including that the league, and ladies’s sports activities on the whole, is shedding the false view of it being “a charity or the right thing to do to support women.”

“We are a legitimate sports, media and entertainment property,” Engelbert mentioned.