The enterprise of ladies’s basketball is booming. And the beginning of the 2024 W.N.B.A. season has many questioning if the game is getting into a brand new financial period.

The arrival of stars like Caitlin Clark, the previous College of Iowa phenom who’s now a rookie with the Indiana Fever, has boosted curiosity and ticket gross sales. All of the league’s groups will fly constitution for the primary time this season, group sponsorships are growing, and marquee gamers are racking up endorsement offers. A brand new TV deal might fill its coffers and additional elevate the league’s profile.

However there are nonetheless obstacles the league wants to beat earlier than attaining the sort of stature that different skilled sports activities leagues have. The typical W.N.B.A. wage is round $120,000, a lot decrease than the N.B.A.’s, and the comparatively low pay has historically prompted even the highest-earning gamers to play abroad in the course of the league’s low season with the intention to make extra cash. The league has lengthy had stars, nevertheless it has struggled to market their expertise and personalities to a mass viewers.

How the W.N.B.A. capitalizes on the present second — and approaches its extra distinguished place within the media panorama — might have a major impact on the league’s future.

An opportunity to capitalize.

Greater than 18 million individuals, a report, watched the College of South Carolina beat Clark and Iowa within the girls’s N.C.A.A. event last this yr, up from the roughly 10 million who watched the title sport in 2023, which was additionally a report. This yr, for the primary time, extra individuals watched the ladies’s last than the lads’s.

Clark has had a singular impact. In her 4 years at Iowa, she broke the Division I scoring report for women and men and led the Hawkeyes to consecutive nationwide title video games. She additionally helped promote out arenas and increase TV scores, and has turn into one of the seen stars in all of faculty sports activities. In line with a March poll performed by Seton Corridor College’s Faculty of Enterprise, Clark was probably the most well-known faculty basketball participant within the nation, with 44 p.c of Individuals saying that they had heard of her.

Supporters of the W.N.B.A. are hoping that the expansion within the faculty sport interprets to the professionals. Final yr’s finals averaged 728,000 viewers per sport, the best in 20 years.

Gamers say they’ll sense a distinction already. Sue Chook, the previous Seattle Storm and College of Connecticut star, mentioned in an interview that in contrast with 2002, when she entered the league, the W.N.B.A. is taken extra severely by followers. The widespread sentiment again then, Chook mentioned, was that “you have been taking a step down” coming from enjoying faculty basketball.

“They have been accustomed to a sure normal in faculty, they usually’re now seeing it within the W.N.B.A.,” Chook mentioned.

And up to now, the curiosity in Clark appears to have carried over to the league. A report 2.5 million individuals watched the W.N.B.A. draft on April 15, when Clark was chosen No. 1 general. Three of the Fever’s first 4 video games are being nationally televised, on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, and the opposite was on Amazon Prime. As a testomony to the league’s rising recognition, the Bay Space will get a W.N.B.A. group in 2025, and one other group is reportedly deliberate in Toronto.

W.N.B.A. gamers — even stars — don’t make loads.

When the Indiana Fever picked Clark within the draft, many — together with President Biden — have been shocked to study her beginning wage: $76,535.

Clark’s faculty endorsements — valued at greater than $3 million, in keeping with On3, a web site that tracks identify, picture and likeness offers for school athletes — and ones she has signed with since attending to Indiana make her base wage a small portion of her general compensation.

Base salaries within the W.N.B.A. vary from about $64,000 for rookies drafted in the third spherical to about $240,000 for veterans. Out of roughly 144 gamers within the league, 22 make greater than $200,000 yearly, and 78 make lower than $100,000, in keeping with Spotrac, a web site that tracks gamers’ contracts.

Gamers can earn extra, with bonuses for individuals who win particular person awards and whose groups are profitable. The league pays a small, rotating cohort of gamers a complete of $1 million every season to take part in leaguewide advertising and marketing partnerships.

However profitable endorsements usually are not a actuality for the majority of the league’s gamers, and a few see the promise of sponsorships because the improper reply to enhancing participant compensation.

“The brand new messaging level round a participant within the new rookie class is, ‘Don’t fear concerning the prime choose, as a result of she will be able to make as much as a half-million {dollars},’” mentioned Terri Jackson, government director of the W.N.B.A. gamers’ union.

In flip, gamers have regarded abroad, enjoying for groups in international locations like Russia, Turkey, China and Australia that pay greater than the W.N.B.A. Brittney Griner had been enjoying in Russia when she was detained for 9 months.

Immediately, about half of W.N.B.A. groups share possession with an N.B.A. group, and in some circumstances services and entrance places of work. That features the Fever, who share possession and services with the Indiana Pacers. Possession of the W.N.B.A. itself remains to be break up between the collective 30 N.B.A. groups and 12 W.N.B.A. groups. In 2022, the W.N.B.A. introduced $75 million of recent investments from greater than two dozen buyers, together with N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. group homeowners.

New offers might change issues.

The leagues stay worlds aside with regards to income. However proponents of upper pay for W.N.B.A. gamers level out that they make a decrease share of league income than N.B.A. gamers do, 10 p.c in contrast with round 50 p.c.

Negotiations for media rights, a key driver of the revenues of sports activities leagues, are underway for the N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. The 2 leagues have typically negotiated rights offers collectively.

The present deal expires on the finish of the 2024-25 N.B.A. season. At that time, the W.N.B.A. might select, for the primary time, to separate its settlement from the N.B.A.

The league should prioritize persevering with to develop its fan base and market its stars, because the N.B.A. did with Larry Chook and Magic Johnson within the Eighties, mentioned Len Elmore, a former N.B.A. participant and a senior lecturer at Columbia College’s Sports activities Administration Program.

“Tv rights are what’s catapulted N.B.A. salaries,” Elmore mentioned. “It comes all the way down to having these gamers, and it comes all the way down to TV.”

The present collective bargaining settlement between the W.N.B.A. and the union that represents the gamers governs gamers’ compensation. Chiney Ogwumike, a ahead for the Los Angeles Sparks, mentioned the current progress of the W.N.B.A. was buttressing the gamers’ case that they need to obtain a larger share of league income.

“The numbers are supporting gamers lastly being rewarded as drivers of income,” she mentioned in an interview.

Endorsements are a wild card.

Because the profile of the faculty sport has risen, stars have earned thousands and thousands by endorsements. As an illustration, Angel Reese, now in her rookie season with the Chicago Sky, had N.I.L. offers value a reported $1.8 million whereas at Louisiana State College.

However extra endorsement offers are occurring with W.N.B.A. gamers. Clark is reportedly signing a $20 million take care of Nike. The corporate can be making a signature shoe with A’ja Wilson, the Las Vegas Aces star.

Analysis has constantly demonstrated that ladies’s sports activities obtain a tiny fraction of the media consideration that males’s sports activities do, limiting their attain and skill to draw new followers. That has modified in recent times, with world sponsorships for feminine athletes rising 22 p.c in 2023, in keeping with SponsorUnited, which tracks firm sponsorships and offers.

However now, there’s an upside for corporations in that pursuit. In contrast with leagues just like the N.B.A. and the N.F.L., “it’s not as cluttered,” mentioned Sarah Lane, the chief advertising and marketing officer at CarMax, which grew to become a associate of the league in 2021.

Chook mentioned she was optimistic that the present crop of rookies, mixed with the league’s present stars, would draw extra consideration — and sponsorships — to the W.N.B.A.

The present stars, Chook mentioned, “have a sure worth each of their play and their marketability, and that can simply develop the pot and the pie for everyone else.”