The #1 pick in the draft makes 44 grand, so if 45k is the league average, then it must suck to ascend to the top of your sport and still get paid the same as some random scrub.
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The #1 pick in the draft makes 44 grand, so if 45k is the league average, then it must suck to ascend to the top of your sport and still get paid the same as some random scrub.
[QUOTE=Quizno]honestly, i think they are grossly underpaid. their boobies jiggle up and down and stuff when they run up the court and that must be extremely annoying.
okay, but to be serious, i do think they are extremely underpaid. i probably have a different opinion than most though, as my mom's best friend (whom i am very close to) has been a huge fan of the wnba since day one, and i would usually watch LA sparks games with her. honestly, i think they're terrific athletes and the games were actually really fun to watch. if you really don't think they play on a high level, try actually watching a game, i think you'll be surprised. they're professional athletes and they're excellent at what they do. making approximately 50k per year compared to their male counterparts where the absolute ****tiest players make tons more than that for playing maybe 3 minutes a game if their team is up by 20 with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter is ridiculous.[/QUOTE]
does your mom's friend pay $97,650 a ticket? If not, NO they are not underpaid. No one cares, no one is willing to pay big money to see them. People pay money to see Lebron, that is why he gets big money. People don't pay money to see teh WNBA, it loses money. I don't care if they want to win so badly that they take out knives during the game and stab each other, there is no way a league that is basically at this point a charity endevour by the cities that have teams can claim to have "underpaid" players.
[QUOTE=sonicman]I find it shocking they are making that much... who watches the WNBA?[/QUOTE]
Actually, the real questoin is, where is it even televised? Maybe we just don't get games in Cleveland because the Rockers are gone?
Mathius
[QUOTE=Mathius]Actually, the real questoin is, where is it even televised? Maybe we just don't get games in Cleveland because the Rockers are gone?
Mathius[/QUOTE]
I know they've had some WNBA games on ESPN and ESPN2.. I have no idea about local games though. I know MSG shows some NY Liberty games, but I can't say I know about anywhere else.
[QUOTE=BankShot]Before you learned this you wouldn't have encouraged her to stay in school?? Instead encouraged her to not study and defy the odds and become a professional basketball player??[/QUOTE]
Sage words.
[QUOTE=Valliant13]Sage words.[/QUOTE]
:oldlol: wow guys, it was clearly a joke.. I guess the humor is lost because it's for some reason a sensitive topic for people on this board.
Much to my annoyance, the NBA channel shows them all the time. It also makes their daily nba show almost the WNBA highlight show. So if you are all inkling for some poorly played bball, get the nba channel asap.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXT0OCm6bA4[/url]
That's for the fan to decide.
BTW, this is it right? They are folding i heard...13th and last season.
I just found this, a few more details (according to wiki) I don't know how accurate it is:
[QUOTE]Many WNBA players choose to supplement their salaries by playing in European or Australian women's basketball leagues during the WNBA off-season. In 2008, a new six-year collective bargaining agreement was agreed upon between the players and the league. The salary cap for an entire team in 2008 is $772,000. By 2013 (the sixth year under this agreement), the cap for an entire team will be $900,000. The minimum salary for a player with three-plus years of experience is $50,000 while the maximum salary for a six-plus year player is $97,500. The minimum salary for rookies picked in: first round- $36,353, second round- $35,000, third round- $34,500.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Media Coverage
Currently, WNBA games are televised throughout the U.S. by ABC, ESPN2 and NBA TV. In the early years two women's-oriented networks, Lifetime and Oxygen, also broadcast games including the first game of the WNBA. NBC showed games from 1997 to 2002 as part of their NBA on NBC coverage before the league transferred the rights to ABC/ESPN.
In June 2007, the WNBA signed a contract extension with ABC. The new television deal runs from 2009 to 2016. A minimum of 18 games will be broadcast on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 each season; the rights to broadcast the first regular season game and the All-Star game are held by ABC. Additionally, a minimum of 11 postseason games will be broadcast on any of the three stations.
Along with this deal, came the first ever rights fees to be paid to a women's professional sports league. Over the eight years of the contract, "millions and millions of dollars" will be "dispersed to the league's teams."[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Merchandise
In 2008, league merchandise sales were up more than 36%, and WNBA jersey sales were up more than 46%, based on combined sales from the NBA Store and WNBAStore.com.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE][edit] Attendance
Overall, league attendance was about 8,000 people per game in 2008. Attendance has gone up and down but has climbed slightly in the last two years. Attendance was at its peak in the league's second season (1998) at almost 11,000 fans per game, and the all time league average is 8,400 fans per game. [6]
* There were 46 sellouts in 2008, almost triple the 17 for the 2007 regular season and double the previous record of 23 in 2004.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Viewership
Saturday and Sunday afternoon games are broadcast on ABC. Tuesday night games are broadcast on ESPN2. On opening day (May 17, 2008), ABC broadcast the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury matchup. The game received a little over 1 million viewers. Average viewership for games broadcast on national television was 413,000 (up from 346,000 in 2007).[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]
In 2008, the WNBA finished up in key demos on ESPN2 -- Women 18-34 (+71%) and Men 18-34 (+28%) – and on ABC -- All Women (+10%) and Women 18-34 (+20%). [7][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=haterofhaters]The overall highest amount for this current year that a WNBA player can make is 97,500/year.
The salary cap for 2008/09 is 800, 000. Yes, let that sink in. That's how much a TEAM has to spend on a full roster.
Someone did the calculation out, and since there are 13 WNBA teams and the cap is at 803,000, if every team was maxed out, the entire league's salaries combined would be a little over 10 million/year. Stephon Marbury for comparison's sake makes twice the amount of every WNBA player combined for an entire season. WOW... If I ever have a daughter, i'm gonna encourage her to stay in school.[/QUOTE]
97.5k is well above the average in america. the wnba season is also something like 30-40 games, not 82 games (i dont know the exact amount). the wnba doesn't make much money compared to other sports. its a business. they gey paid based to the money they bring in for the owners and they dont bring in very much. i dont know what they bring in, but WNBA salaries might (i dont know im just speculating) be subsidies in part by NBA revenues, which would mean the wnba players were actually over-paid.
its not as bad as MLS though. there are guys in the MLS making less than $13,000 a season:
[url]http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/9_7_08_salary_info_alpha.pdf[/url]
what are people complaining about? women get paid 50k too giggle their boobs:cheers:
Well, I'm a female basketball player and it was once my dream to play in the WNBA. Ha. The sports association is overall a very sexist thing in America. It's absolutely riddiculous. Right now, at my basketball level, I'm willing to bet the four hundred dollars in my bank account that I can beat any given Junior at my high school at 1 on 1, male or female.
Some of the males here are nauseating, no wonder you spend your days online. You can't even show women equallity, what makes you think a women with any amount of self-respect would actually marry you?
[QUOTE=Hammertime]The WNBA loses about 12 million dollars a year. Every year. For the past decade.
Let's put some things into perspective people.[/QUOTE]
Seriously? I didn't know that.
[QUOTE=kentatm]when that league starts to turn a profit, gets massive TV deals and sells a ton of merchandise, the women will make more money. Its as simple as that.
BTW, what moron thinks maxing out at $97,000 to play a damn kids game is unfair?
The minimum they can make is $34,000. The Ls average is $45,000.
They only play 34 games.
they are fairly compensated.
and BTW, I'd LOVE to make $34,000 to play 34 games of ball a year.[/QUOTE]
This.
I thought only a handful of WNBA teams earned a profit at all (the rest steal funds from NBA team owners to survive). When you consider tying up your arena for a net loss, you reconsider quickly what to do with your franchise.