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
Alabama snubbed? The Crimson Tide’s case for Playoff inclusion was better than some admit
Taking up the cause for Alabama and the SEC feels like going to bat for Apple or Amazon. It’s fighting for a tax break for Elon Musk or Warren Buffet. It’s rushing to the defense of the biggest bully on the block the one time somebody gets in a shot that knocks him to his knees.
Yet here I am, making the case for the Crimson Tide as the team the College Football Playoff selection snubbed from the first 12-team field.
I do like having an ally in the greatest coach of all time. ESPN’s Nick Saban, dressed in a crimson jacket on the selection show, tried to avoid sounding like a shill for the program he spent 17 years running, but his stance came through loud and clear.
“All wins are not the same as other wins,” Saban said during ESPN’s excruciatingly long lead-in to revealing the bracket Sunday. “In other words, what we’ve always done publicly in college is look at record. We don’t look at strength of schedule. We don’t look at all those types of things.”
This is a left-brain (analytical thinking), right-brain (emotional processing) deal.
If the committee truly had looked at “those types of things,” if this was more of a data-driven process, Alabama would be in the Playoff instead of SMU.
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Strength of schedule metrics vary, but most come to a similar conclusion about Alabama and SMU. The Crimson Tide’s schedule was more rigorous. ESPN’s FPI has Alabama playing the 18th toughest schedule and SMU the 57th toughest.
Most power rankings, which are forward-looking analytics, have Alabama ahead of SMU. The Athletic’s own modeler, Austin Mock, would have Alabama as a six-point favorite on a neutral field against SMU.
Years of recruiting rankings will tell you Alabama has one of the most talented rosters in the country and that the SEC is where the most good football players can be found. The SEC got three teams (Georgia, Texas, Tennessee) in the bracket, one fewer than the Big Ten and one more than the ACC.
“As someone with access to college tape and staff of 11 former NFL scouts that logged hundreds of hours evaluating this CFB season, it’s easy to see why SEC coaches are upset with the final playoff bracket,” Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy posted on X. “Based strictly off future NFL talent, Alabama, South Carolina, & Ole Miss (and you can even throw in Florida, Texas A&M, and LSU for that matter) are all easily in Top-12.”
I get it. Alabama always seems to get the nod from the selection committee. When in doubt, go with the team that made the CFP eight times in 10 years when it was a four-team format — and won it three times.
Even last year, the committee bypassed unbeaten Florida State — because it lost star quarterback Jordan Travis to a season-ending injury — in favor of one-loss Alabama.
Do we really need to give the benefit of the doubt to the worst Alabama team in almost two decades, one that lost games to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, both of which would not have been bowl-eligible if they hadn’t beaten the Tide? Most Alabama fans don’t even think their team had a good year.
Left brain or right brain?
How much did rallying around SMU have to do with the Mustangs’ story — a four-decade climb back from the NCAA death penalty — more than their resume? It sure would have felt awful to keep them out of the Playoff after they lost the ACC Championship Game on what will go down as one of the greatest, clutchest kicks in the history of college football by Clemson’s Nolan Hauser.
“When the announcement happened, honestly, I got emotional, just because I’m so happy for our kids,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said on ESPN. “They’ve worked so hard. They’ve won 22 games in the last two years. They laid it all on the line last night. We lost heartbreaking at the end to a great opponent.”
The Mustangs put the committee in a difficult position and exposed a glaring flaw in the system, adding to the reasons the CFP needs to do away with its weekly in-season rankings during the season’s final month.
So much talk heading into conference championship weekend was about how much a team should be penalized for losing a title game. The committee’s answer was resounding: not much. Texas, Penn State and SMU all lost their conference title games. All were very competitive. None dropped more than two spots from last week’s rankings.
The rankings show is just that: a show. Content that helps get people talking about the Playoff in November. There is value to that. It is understandable that the conference commissioners who run the CFP would want to control the process instead of letting fans use the AP Top 25 to speculate about what the Playoff race looks like down the stretch.
“I do believe it’s good for us to release our ranking, because our ranking is out there and competes with two others, the AP and the coaches,” committee chairman Warde Manuel said. “So I think it’s important, since they release a weekly ranking, that at the appropriate time in the season … that we release how we’re thinking so people are not surprised in analyzing and trying to figure out how the committee is thinking about things.”
The chairman has a talking point that the committee starts each week with a blank sheet of paper when it begins ranking teams.
But Manuel also said last week that teams not playing on championship weekend were done being evaluated. They could move around based on the movement of other teams that were playing for league titles, but the order of teams such as Alabama, Miami, South Carolina, etc., was set.
Saban pointed out the problem with SMU and Alabama was SMU entering the weekend ahead in the first place, and maybe he’s right. SMU should have been playing its way into the field instead of playing its way out in the ACC Championship Game, he said.
“Playing in (the SEC), and I played in this conference for over 20 years, and when you have to go play Tennessee, then you have to go play LSU, then that team that you play next, now you might be more vulnerable to,” Saban said.
Saban, Greg Sankey, the SEC and Alabama don’t make for the most sympathetic victims, nor should they be viewed that way.
Defending them all feels like demanding that the spoiled kid who seems to have all the toys also gets a pony — or in this case, the Ponies’ spot in the Playoff.
But it’s hard not to admit that when you crunch the numbers, they have a point.
(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
Sports
Mets roasted by 'SNL' cast in hilarious Juan Soto free agency skit
Juan Soto’s free agency has driven national headlines this MLB offseason, and considering both New York teams are in the thick of negotiations, the “Saturday Night Live” crew had some fun with it.
A dig thrown the way of the New York Mets came as a result.
Dana Carvey was once again in his role as “Church Lady,” who had a “Church Chat” with Soto, played by Marcello Hernandez.
Playing Soto, Hernandez wore a question mark on his white T-shirt while also sporting a Celsius hat, an ode to the teased announcement the 26-year-old superstar had last month as baseball fans were clamoring for his free agent decision.
During their conversation, the New York Yankees were the team that “Soto” hoped would “make me the best offer.”
However, Church Lady’s next comment ultimately led to a jab at the Mets.
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“Well, as a Christian, I have to ask you: Why not spend your time and money helping the needy and less fortunate?” Church Lady asked.
“You’re right,” the fake Soto replied. “Maybe, I’ll sign with the Mets.”
With Soto reportedly getting offers with $700 million on the table, Church Lady said to the fake Soto that “money is the root of all evil.”
“Well, if that’s true, then I’m going to become the most evil baseball player in the world,” the fake Soto said, which led to raucous laughter from the crowd.
As of Saturday night, the New York Post reports both the Yankees and Mets upping their offers to Soto into the “$710-730 million range,” which would top what the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Shohei Ohtani this past offseason.
Ohtani’s record contract was worth $700 million with $680 million in deferrals, changing the entire landscape of how MLB stars could be signed moving forward.
But it isn’t just the Yankees and Mets interested in Soto for next season and beyond.
The Dodgers, who already made a splash after their World Series victory over the Yankees by adding Blake Snell to the starting rotation, are reportedly interested. The Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, divisional foes of the Yankees, remain in the mix as well.
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Sports
USC to close its first Big Ten season by playing Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl
After a frustrating season of setbacks and wrong turns, USC will finish right back where it started: In Las Vegas, up against a team from the Southeastern Conference.
USC will close its season against Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl at Allegiant Stadium on Dec. 27, four months after it opened the season with a statement victory over Louisiana State in the same building. The bowl game will air on ESPN.
After an impressive September win over LSU, the Trojans had higher hopes for their postseason than a return trip to Vegas. But USC lost four of five in devastating fashion to open its first Big Ten season, squandering a fourth-quarter lead in each of the four losses.
The Trojans bounced back to win three of their last five, narrowly securing bowl eligibility with a last-minute win over UCLA. The bowl bid marks a third consecutive postseason appearance for USC under Lincoln Riley.
But at 6-6, the Las Vegas Bowl isn’t much of a consolation considering where the 2024 season began. Now the Trojans will need a bowl victory just to salvage a winning season.
Texas A&M had its own high hopes in the SEC this season, its first under coach Mike Elko. The Aggies opened the season 7-1, with a win over LSU and their only loss coming to Notre Dame. Like USC, they weathered a midseason change at quarterback, replacing former five-star Conner Weigman with freshman dual threat Marcel Reed.
But the season fell apart in the final month, as Texas A&M lost star running back Le’Veon Moss against South Carolina. The Aggies lost their last three SEC games to fall out of the conference race.
Weigman has since entered the transfer portal. Many on both sides of this bowl game will presumably do the same in the coming days.
USC has already lost starting wideout Kyron Hudson and young edge rusher Sam Greene, who earned a starting job by season’s end. Both announced their intent to enter the transfer portal last week.
Then there are several other key contributors who could opt out for other reasons. USC’s star running back Woody Marks isn’t expected to play in the bowl game as he begins his preparation for the NFL draft, while it’s unclear if other potential draft entrants such as safety Kamari Ramsey, cornerbacks Jaylin Smith and Greedy Vance, offensive linemen Emmanuel Pregnon and Jonah Monheim and linebackers Easton Mascarenas-Arnold and Mason Cobb will play in the game.
USC will be without a linebackers coach after Matt Entz left to become the head coach at Fresno State. Riley said last week that he didn’t expect any more staff changes through the bowl season.
USC has played in the Las Vegas Bowl twice before, in 2013 and 2001. The last trip came under especially tumultuous circumstances. Lane Kiffin had been fired as USC’s coach midway through the 2013 season and replaced by interim coach Ed Orgeron, who left the team before the bowl after USC hired Steve Sarkisian instead of promoting Orgeron. Clay Helton ultimately led the Trojans to a win in the bowl game.
The previous trip, in 2001, was Pete Carroll’s first bowl game as coach. And it did not go as planned. Distracted by the trip to Vegas, the Trojans put up just six points in a loss to Utah.
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