From eclipsing males’s viewership to promoting out Nike collabs in minutes, the WNBA’s momentum is simple. Now Caitlin Clark’s memorabilia is shattering public sale information—pulling in sums that dwarf her annual wage.
Clark’s Rookie Royalty WNBA Flawless Logowoman card, a chunk of memorabilia which is one-of-one, bought for a whopping $660,000 final Thursday night time.
It’s a uncommon discover for collectors, as the cardboard is signed and inscribed with Clark’s scoring whole for her rookie season on the Indiana Fever, and likewise features a Logowoman patch adorned on WNBA jerseys.
The cardboard began at an prolonged bidding worth of $336,0000—the earlier sale worth of Clark’s 2024 Panini Prizm WNBA Signatures Gold Vinyl 1/1 PSA 10 again in March. However when it bought for almost double that, the collector’s merchandise made historical past for probably the most cash made at a public public sale for a lady athlete—and it’s a far cry from what the famous person makes in a single yr.
Actually, Clark makes lower than the common New Yorker; regardless of being the primary draft decide within the WNBA final yr, she solely earned a wage of $76,535 for her first yr on the Indiana Fever. That’s a rock-bottom wage for the phenom of ladies’s basketball, as her card that fetched tons of of hundreds at public sale is over 8.6 instances increased than her annual pay. Even Clark’s four-year contract, by which she’ll make a complete of $338,000, is nearly half of the cardboard’s worth.
WNBA wages have didn’t hold tempo with its surging recognition; final yr, the ladies’s NCAA March Insanity event closing had 18.7 million viewers tuning in, in comparison with 14.82 million watching the lads’s final recreation. But the primary decide of the NBA season was anticipated to make $10.5 million—137 instances greater than what Clark makes in a yr.
‘Pay us what you owe us’: WNBA gamers leaning on NIL offers and side-hustles to make ends meet
Clark is likely one of the greatest names in U.S. sports activities, with fellow stars Cameron Brink, Rickea Jackson, and Angel Reese serving to shatter information for the league. However their pay is in stark distinction to their cultural and enterprise impression.
In 2023, the common WNBA participant made a base of $113,295 per yr, in comparison with the everyday NBA hooper making round $9.7 million. Ladies’s low pay within the league has been a sizzling subject of dialogue; about 40 gamers not too long ago met with the WNBA to barter their compensation, however failed to succeed in a brand new collective bargaining settlement (CBA). The basketball stars had opted out of their final CBA in October 2024, and had hoped to dealer a greater revenue-sharing mannequin, increased salaries, cushier advantages, and a extra lenient wage cap.
However negotiations fell by, prompting Clark and different WNBA gamers to put on “Pay us what you owe us” t-shirts forward of their All-Star recreation on Saturday final week. The sold-out area of over 16,000 attendees, and thousands and thousands of viewers tuning in at dwelling, watched the celebs push again towards a long-held subject. Proper now, WNBA hoopers obtain 9.3% of their league’s income—as compared, NBA gamers reap between 49% and 51% of the league’s basketball-related revenue.
“That is no laughing matter. That is no development, that is no second in time,” A’ja Wilson, a Las Vegas Aces participant and three-time league MVP, instructed NPR. “You’re coping with me, my livelihood, my future, the following technology. So we’re going to take this very, very severely.”
Fortune has contacted WNBA for remark.
WNBA gamers make their thousands and thousands in facet hustles as a substitute
Though the WNBA not too long ago signed a $2.2 billion media cope with growth charges of $250 million, the feminine athletes aren’t raking in thousands and thousands from the game itself. As a substitute, many ladies’s basketball stars are getting inventive within the methods they complement their revenue.
One fashionable approach is thru identify, picture, and likeness (NIL) offers—Clark made $3.1 million from NIL agreements in 2023, within the closing yr of her faculty stint.
There’s additionally the choice to play abroad; Olympian Brittney Griner made 4 instances her WNBA wage in Russia, incomes greater than $1 million.
Others with out million-dollar model offers should resort to juggling part-time jobs. Chiney Ogwumike, who performed for the Los Angeles Sparks, has since turn out to be a basketball analyst and host for ESPN; Haley Jones, a guard for the Dallas Wings, has additionally commentated for NBA TV and the WNBA finals. And the Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Grey has a side-hustle meting out wings and burgers because the proprietor of WNB Manufacturing facility restaurant.
