Sports
What is Caitlin Clark's value to WNBA? A huge chunk of its $200-million revenue, expert says
The champagne hadn’t even dried after the New York Liberty won the WNBA championship when the players association announced it would opt out of the league’s collective bargaining agreement, which was set to expire in 2027.
A dramatic increase in revenues due primarily to the emergence of Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and other marquee rookies prompted the players to recognize they aren’t getting what they believe to be a fair share. The CBA now ends after the 2025 season, blowing up a pay scale that set average salaries at about $120,000, with rookie minimums at $64,154 and veteran maximums at $241,984.
Clark’s four-year rookie contract under the CBA was for $338,056 — including $76,535 in 2024 — laughably low numbers given the revenue she helped generate. Clark broke almost every WNBA rookie record, but more impressive was her off-the-court impact.
“The numbers are so staggering,” said Ryan Brewer, associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus, who was asked by the Indianapolis Star to put a price tag on Clark. “They don’t even seem real.”
The numbers, as crunched by Brewer:
- Clark was responsible for 26.5% of WNBA economic activity for the 2024 season, including attendance, merchandise sales and television. One of every six tickets sold at a WNBA arena can be attributed to Clark.
- Total WNBA TV viewership due to Clark is up 300%, and 45% of total broadcast value came from Fever games.
- WNBA merchandise sales rose 500%, with Clark ranking No. 1 followed by Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese.
- The Fever’s regular-season attendance averaged a record 17,036 per game, and the team’s total attendance of 340,715 also was a record.
- Clark’s regular-season games were watched by 1.2 million viewers on average, which was 200% more than games in which she didn’t play.
No wonder the players opted out of the current CBA, with the Women’s National Basketball Players Assn. stating its position succinctly with a video to X that proclaimed, “It’s business. We’re out.”
The WNBA signed a new media rights deal in July worth a reported $200 million a year, more than three times the current package. However, a question that will be raised during CBA negotiations is whether the surge in fan interest and revenue will continue or abate over time.
That’s why the WNBA media rights deal pales in comparison to the NBA’s new TV agreement with Disney (ABC and ESPN), Comcast (NBC and Peacock) and Amazon (Prime Video). Those outlets will air the league’s nationally televised games for 11 seasons beginning in 2025-26 and the NBA will be paid about $76 billion.
“As this continues to materialize, the corporate side, the business side, not the players union, but the other sides, are going to continue to watch to see that these numbers can stabilize and maintain rather than just spike and drop again,” Brewer said. “That’s what they’re afraid of. And that’s what’s keeping the numbers low.”
Clark, meanwhile, is doing quite well financially despite her low salary. Sportico on Wednesday published a list of the highest paid female athletes, and Clark was ranked No. 10, just behind Simone Biles. Clark, the only basketball player on the list, earned $11.1 million in 2024. (On top of the list for the second year in a row was tennis star Coco Gauff, who made $30.4 million in prize money and endorsements.)
Endorsements make up the bulk of Clark’s income. She gets $3.5 million a year from an eight-year contract with Nike and also has deals with Gatorade, Gainbridge, Hyvee, Xfinity, Wilson, Buick and State Farm Insurance.
Most WNBA players, of course, have only a small fraction of that sort of endorsement income. They must rely on their salaries, which many supplement by playing overseas during the WNBA offseason.
Only 9.3% of league revenues of $200 million in 2024 went to player salaries, according to Bloomberg. That’s less than $20 million. Meanwhile, NBA players share 50% of their league revenue, which in 2023 meant $5.3 billion of $10.6 billion.
Few argue against a larger slice of WNBA revenues going toward player salaries, and precise numbers will be hammered out in CBA negotiations a year from now. Until then, the best evidence players can point to would be continued growth in attendance, TV viewership and merchandise sales.
And Clark’s contribution undoubtedly will remain a major factor.
Sports
Server Error – The New York Times
Sports
White Sox great 'Beltin'' Bill Melton dead at 79
The Chicago White Sox announced that “Beltin’” Bill Metlon, their former All-Star third baseman, died after a brief illness at 79 years old.
“Bill Melton, who played 10 seasons in the major leagues, including eight with the White Sox, and served as a popular pre and postgame analyst for White Sox telecasts for over two decades, passed away early this morning in Phoenix after a brief illness,” the team’s statement read.
Melton was known for his powerful bat, crushing 33 homers in back-to-back seasons in 1970 and 1971, the latter of which he secured his lone All-Star bid.
Melton would hit 154 home runs for Chicago from 1968-75, which was a record for the organization until Harold Baines, the Hall of Fame outfielder, broke it in 1987.
“Bill Melton enjoyed two tremendous careers with the White Sox,” team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “His first came as a celebrated home run king for White Sox teams in the early 1970s, where ‘Beltin Bill’ brought power to a franchise that played its home games in a pitcher-friendly ballpark.
2025 MLB FREE-AGENT RUMORS JUAN SOTO BIDDING TOPS $600 MILLION
“Bill’s second career came as a well-liked and respected pre- and postgame television analyst, where on a nightly basis Sox fans saw his passion for the team, win or lose. Bill was a friend to many at the White Sox and around baseball, and his booming voice will be missed.”
After playing a season with the Los Angeles Angels and the Cleveland Guardians, Melton retired following the 1997 campaign. He finished his career hitting .253/.337/.419 with 160 homers, 591 RBI and 1,004 hits.
But, as Reinsdorf mentions, Melton’s second career in baseball was a flourishing one as well.
He became a White Sox analyst for WGN in 1998 and would later join Comcast SportsNet Chicago in 2005. He would serve as an analyst for the White Sox from then until 2020, when he retired.
In between his retirement from playing and broadcasting, Melton was also known as a part-time scout and team ambassador for the White Sox, most notably being a hitting instructor for NBA great Michael Jordan in 1993 when he played in the team’s minor leagues.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Sports
UCLA to hire Indiana's Tino Sunseri, replacing offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy
Eric Bieniemy received a hero’s welcome upon his arrival in March, co-workers lining the hallway inside UCLA’s practice facility to serenade him with applause.
The new offensive coordinator removed one of his Super Bowl rings so that DeShaun Foster, his new boss, could inspect it.
“It’s time,” Bienemy said that day, referring to his plans to do big things. “It’s time.”
Nine months later, after a season in which the Bruins’ offense ranked as one of the worst in the nation and several top players regressed from their previous form, Bieniemy’s boss decided it was time to move on.
In a development that showed both an admission of making the wrong hire and a willingness to quickly pivot, Foster severed ties with Bieniemy on Thursday after their one season together produced across-the-board struggles on offense.
Foster secured an intriguing replacement, agreeing to hire Indiana quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri after the end of the Hoosiers’ season, according to one person close to the situation not authorized to publicly divulge the information because the move has not been made official.
Sunseri, who will turn 36 later this month, was one of the architects of an Indiana offense that’s been among the best in the country, averaging 43.3 points per game while vaulting the Hoosiers toward an expected appearance in the College Football Playoff.
UCLA averaged less than half that figure under Bieniemy. The Bruins ranked No. 117 in the country in total offense (328.8 yards per game), No. 126 in scoring offense (18.4 points per game) and No. 130 in rushing offense (86.6 yards per game). The Bruins’ inability to run the ball was especially maddening given that both Foster and Bieniemy had success as running backs in the NFL.
Several top players entered the transfer portal after the team’s final game last weekend, including quarterback Justyn Martin, running back TJ Harden and slot receiver Logan Loya. The Bruins also lost high school recruits Madden Iamaleava and Jace Brown on Wednesday when they signed with Arkansas amid rumors of Bieniemy’s dismissal.
Bieniemy’s agent, Jason Fletcher, labeled Bieniemy’s departure as a mutual parting of the ways in a statement, saying the former offensive coordinator with the Washington Commanders was still being paid by the NFL team and was assisting Foster for one season before making a planned return to the NFL in 2025.
But that statement doesn’t jibe with the terms of a two-year contract that included a $550,000 in retention bonuses if Bieniemy remained on the job through the end of July. It also doesn’t hold up given that Bieniemy recruited for the Bruins and did not have a new job to announce at the time of his departure Bieniemy was set to receive a $180,000 hiring bonus on Saturday.
After flaming out in his one season with the Commanders, Bieniemy, 55, was bombastic in his return to UCLA after having previously served as the running backs coach under Karl Dorrell. He routinely unleashed a flurry of expletives and biting one-liners that carried across the practice field. Players said Bieniemy’s plays were wordy and hard to learn, and the results reflected those struggles.
Veteran quarterback Ethan Garbers and Harden both failed to replicate their production from the previous year under coach Chip Kelly, who also ran the team’s offense.
Bieniemy was also pivotal in the hiring of offensive line coach Juan Castillo after they had worked together with the Commanders. UCLA’s offensive line was one of the team’s most underperforming position groups last season, allowing 34 sacks and failing to open enough holes for the running backs.
Bieniemy’s UCLA offense never remotely resembled the ones he helped construct with the Kansas City Chiefs while winning Super Bowls in 2020 and 2023.
Foster is expected to make other changes to his staff, including the addition of Demetrice Martin to help coach the secondary. His biggest move may be bidding farewell to the offensive coordinator who didn’t live up to the hype.
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