Caitlin Clark impact on WNBA or does a Rising Tide lifts all boats?
Is Caitlin Clark underpaid? If one looks at her impact on WNBA, you can easily make the case that she is underpaid. The WNBA attendance averages 7,000 vs 18,000 in the NBA and NBA revenues are 10 billion and WNBA doesn’t even make 100 million in revenues. NBA viewership during the season is three times the WNBA even though WNBA has seen increases in 2023.
NBA tickets range from 95 dollars to 600 dollars, and there is fluctuation depending on the opponents, the average ticket price in WNBA is 47 dollars. Last year post season, the NBA averaged over 6 million viewers and Miami-Denver finals had almost 12 million whereas WNBA finals peaked at 1.1 million.
Clark impact is being felt just in ticket sales as Indiana Fevers ticket sales have increased and other teams are noticing that there is increase demand for Indiana Fevers games. New York Liberty have already sold out their game with the Fevers and ticket prices have gone through the roof. Conservatively speaking, Liberty will see an increase of at least half a million dollars when Clark and her Fevers teammate come to town. Considering that Clark salary is less than 400,000 dollars for four years, she has already paid off her salary just for this game. And this is being repeated throughout the league and Nike is already investing in a 28 million dollars contract with Ms. Clark and she has a good year, Nike will make a return on their investments.
Clark means increase ticket sales, increase television ratings and merchandise sales and as we free market types would say, Clark rising tide will lift all boats. The average WNBA team has 12 players, and the average NBA has 15 players plus two players are considered two-way contracts between their G-League affiliates and the main club. Increase revenues means that WNBA can not only raise salaries but also increase the number of players. With only 12 teams in the league, WNBA can end up expanding so the overall number of players getting paid in the United State increases as well.
Because of Clark, Iowa women team sold out Carver arena in Iowa City and many of Iowa opponents found ticket sales increased as well. Iowa -South Carolina had 5 million more viewers than the men NCAA finals between Purdue versus Connecticut. Women college basketball saw tremendous increase in overall ratings and Iowa ratings were often the highest. Clark could lead to a similar increase in the WNBA. (The ratings for the 2023 NBA finals averaged 11 million viewers and not one of the final games out drew what Iowa -South Carolina.) Clark already has made more money for the WNBA than they are paying her, and we will see if Clark can lift WNBA in the future. So far the Clark presence is showing its impact.