Last night the new WNBA season started, and Caitlin Clark made her debut playing against the Connecticut Suns. Clark was the number one draft for the Indiana Fevers.
Ever since Clark was drafted into the WNBA and since the announcement of her estimated payment for being drafted, conversations have been brought up around the unfair treatment and pay between the WNBA and the NBA, according to Spotrac.
“Well the NBA and WNBA are both essentially businesses, and for years, the NBA has gained the majority of the attention and therefore money, and that’s just how it’s been,” freshmanaid Arria Shimizu said. “But with how much attention the women’s NCAA got last year, I think that’s definitely going to change, not to mention that the Bay Area just officialized a WNBA team,”
Since Clark was the number one pick in the WNBA, she was offered a four-year contract with the Fevers. After her first year she should be paid around $72,000 and at the end of her fourth year, she would be paid around $97,000.
For the NBA, if you were the number one pick with a three-year contract, after the first year you would be paid around ten million dollars and at the end of your third year, you would be paid around 11 million dollars. This is only one of many discriminations against women’s basketball, according to.
“It is hard for me to comment much about women’s pay in basketball given I don’t know much.” freshman Isabel Schmidt said. “However, I do believe they are underpaid for their performances even though they do not get as many views online,”
Caitlin Clark has been breaking records since the WNBA draft and Boosting the viewers’ percentage up to 307% with three million viewers tuning in.
“Ultimately though, it’s a privilege to be able to play a sport that you love for a living, and all the players in both leagues are doing that, so I don’t see why they shouldn’t be paid the same—it’s the same job, the only difference being a women’s league and men’s league,” Shimizu
said. “Then again, with this new attention towards women’s basketball, I think it’s going to change very soon for the better.”
