When I used to pitch articles to sports media sites about women’s sports, particularly the WNBA and women’s basketball, I was often hit with a myriad of excuses.
There’s no audience. There’s no space. There’s no demand for content.
It’s the chicken or the egg argument, I was told.
can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “it’s the chicken or the egg argument” when it comes to women’s sports. I’m like, nope. there’s an untapped audience that you build by providing content. audience grows. then you meet the growing demand by providing even more content
— Lyndsey D’Arcangelo 🏀 (@darcangel21) July 17, 2024
The decisions being made by the powers that be, or mostly the men in charge, didn’t add up. But they held all the cards.
The fact is there was always an untapped, ready and willing audience for women’s sports. By providing content, putting games on television where casual sports fans can easily find them, increasing coverage, etc., the audience grows and expands. Demand increases. The cycle perpetuates.
With the WNBA’s upcoming new media rights deal, this has never been more evident. The Athletic recently reported that the league is set to receive around $2.2 billion over the course of the next 11 years. That’s an average of $200 million dollars per year with room for additional revenue growth by adding additional media partners.
The deal was secured during the NBA’s negotiations with Disney, NBA and Amazon Prime, totaling $75 billion in contracts. All three media companies/networks will have their own WNBA package. According to The Athletic, the league plans to secure two more rights packages as well, adding another $60 million annually.
If the report is correct, the overall deal a gigantic leap over the expiring deal, which will run its course at the end of 2025 WNBA season, resulting in an increase of up to six times their current contract.
As part of the NBA’s new TV package, the #WNBA will earn an estimated $2.2B over the 11-year life of the deal ($200M per year).
This represents a 6X increase over their current contract. The WNBA now pulls 3% of the overall deal (up from 1% previously), and can garner more based…
— Spotrac (@spotrac) July 17, 2024
On its face, it looks like huge windfall for the WNBA and its players. For major sports leagues, media rights deals set the financial bar. Everything else — additional amenities, salaries, etc. — comes from that.
“I’m thrilled for the players,” longtime ESPN WNBA analyst and former player Rebecca Lobo said recently on the Good Game with Sarah Spain podcast. “They’ll opt out of the CBA this year, they’ll start negotiating, and I am thrilled because hopefully this means that there’s gonna be a huge spike in salaries.”
While most of the reactions to new media rights deal have been positive, there has been some concern as well. Eleven years is a long time to be locked into a contract, especially with the momentum and rise in viewership numbers the WNBA has seen this year. But the league has an out, thanks to an option within the agreement to revisit the deal after three years.
I see a lot of people complaining about the deal being 11 years.
Important nugget in the article: “There is an agreement between the league and the media partners to re-visit the rights deals with good faith talks after *three years* that could re-price them to reflect the… https://t.co/mAMF7sjLjt pic.twitter.com/20hgqj1EP5
— Vanshay Murdock 🎥🎥 (@VanshayM) July 17, 2024
Still, it’s fair to wonder how the numbers break down. Sportico reported that the WNBA received only 1 percent of the previous deal, and will take in 3 percent with the new one. Knowing that Commissioner Cathy Engelbert was merely hoping to double the media right’s fees and instead will see a 500 percent increase, puts things into perspective. The WNBA is not only thriving, it’s in high demand. Does the deal match?
“The WNBA is getting a 267 percent increase. That sounds impressive,” said David Berri, professor of economics at Southern Utah University and co-author of Slaying the Trolls! “But it doesn’t seem quite consistent with the market. Apple TV signed Major League Soccer to a rights deal that gives MLS $250 million per year in 2023. As we noted in Slaying the Trolls!, the ratings don’t seems to suggest MLS should get more than the WNBA.”
Berri has a point. The WNBA averaged more viewers than the MLS in 2022 and has seen rapid growth in viewership numbers ever since, particularly tripling those numbers this season. But with a 10-year, $2.5 billion contract, the MLS has the higher deal.
“We should also emphasize that what the WNBA is getting is not the product of a market-driven process,” Berri continued. “It does not appear the NBA shopped the WNBA deal to multiple partners to see what they could get. The NBA appears to have packaged the WNBA with their deal and then the NBA appears to have decided the WNBA was worth a tiny fraction of their $75 billion deal.”
Should the deal turn out to be a lower estimate of what the WNBA’s inherent value truly is, the league has no choice but to renegotiate after the third year.
“We have wondered for months how the NBA would value the WNBA in its media rights deal,” said WNBPA Executive Director Terri Jackson in a statement posted on X. “We look forward to learning how the NBA arrived at a $200 million valuation — if initial reports are accurate or even close. Neither the NBA nor the WNBA can’t deny that in the last few years, we have seen unprecedented growth across all metrics, the players continue to demonstrate their commitment to building the brand, and the fans keep showing up. There is no excuse to undervalue the WNBA again.”
As for the inevitable Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations, the WNBPA should go all in on salary increases. The current CBA (2020) doesn’t expire until 2027. But the WNBPA will more than likely opt out at the end of this season (they have until November 1 to decide). Right now, players only receive less than 10 percent of the total league revenue, while NBA players receive 50 percent.
“The NBA never came close to paying the men this badly,” added Berri. “Even in the 1950s — when the NBA was only bringing in about $20 million in revenue (in today’s dollars) — the NBA paid 40 percent of its revenue to its players.”
If the league truly wants to compensate its players for what they are worth, it’ll give them a higher percentage of revenue share. What that share will be remains to be seen. But as Jackson said so pointedly, the NBA and WNBA can’t deny the growth women’s basketball has achieved. We’ve all seen it. It’s been happening right before our eyes.
This time, there’s no excuse. You can’t deny the audience. Or the gigantic space women’s basketball has carved out for itself. Or the increasing demand.
What a thing to witness —women’s sports holding the cards.
About Lyndsey D'Arcangelo
Lyndsey D’Arcangelo is a seasoned sports writer, author and women’s sports advocate. She previously wrote about women’s basketball for The Athletic and is the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League.