Today we're bringing you episode four of Bounce. It's our second season and it's all about the Golden State Valkyries first year in the Bay. In today’s episode we ask: will the popularity of the Valkyries lead to better pay for the players?
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Story Transcript:
Intro:
HOST ERIN LIM: It was the game Bay Area WNBA fans were waiting for: the Golden State Valkyries versus the Indiana Fever.
It’s the Caitlyn Clark effect. The wave of excitement that her playing has sparked since her college days with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
ANNOUNCER: Here comes Clark. How will she go for history? There it is!
The leading scorer in college basketball history is now a tough, highly skilled professional baller. And she’s brought a whole new audience to the W.
ANNOUNCER: It’s Boston and Billings to tip it up…. And the ball ends up in the hands of Caitlyn Clark
Fans were on their feet from the jump. You even had Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski hyping up the Valks and razzing Clark from the sidelines.
ANNOUNCER: Brandin Podziemski in attendance as well maybe the number one superfan of this team as we start the fourth quarter.
Yeah. The “you can’t touch this” Caitlyn Clark might have been on the court, but Golden State players were there to make a statement too. Emerging star and team leader Kayla Thornton scored 16.
ANNOUNCER: Thornton makes up for the missed free throws. ("I don’t want two points, I want three." - Thornton) Kayla Thornton knocks down her fourth three of the evening.
And newest teammate Chloe Bibby had a game, outscoring the famous Clark.
ANNOUNCER: Throw it up to Bibby the rookie. It has gone mad here inside of Chase Center.
The Valkyries took the win before another sellout crowd. It’s still early in the season, but they’ve already proven they can play ANY team.
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Story Transcript: When will Women basketball players get paid like the men?
REPORTER: After the Golden State Valkyries delivered a beat down to the Connecticut Sun, adding to the best start for an expansion team in WNBA history, 10-year veteran Kayla Thornton took the mic at a post-game press conference. She did not start by talking about the big win.
Thornton: Yeah, first I wanna say, we could talk about the game today, but first, on behalf of my teammates and every member of our union, I want to be clear we remain committed to negotiating the next CBA with the league and the team in good faith and privately, but we do want to set the record straight, not for the headlines, but for the fans to support us and deserve transparency about what's at stake.
Right beside her, 12-year vet Tiffany Hayes picked up the thread:
Hayes: This is a defining moment for the WNBA. As the league grows, it's time for a CBA that reflects our true values. We're fighting for a fair share of the business that we build. It's business. So we just wanted to touch on that. Now we're open for questions.
Good. Because I’ve got a few. Starting with the obvious: Why is the pay gap between male and female basketball players so massive?
At a recent Valkyries practice, I asked eight-year vet Monique Billings what she made as a rookie.
Billings: I don't remember what the exact number was. What the exact number was. I think it was under a hundred thousand.
Well under a hundred thousand. Turns out, in 2018, she made about $46,000. And she was a top-15 draft pick.
This year, each of the top-fifteen picks in the WNBA draft is being paid less than $79,000 to play.
[Archival footage of the WNBA Draft] With the first pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, the Dallas Wings select Paige Bueckers, University of Connecticut.
In comparison, on the men’s side, the first 15 picks in the NBA draft are guaranteed at least $3.7 million a season. Think of it this way. On average, NBA players make 80 times more than WNBA players.
[Archival footage of the NBA Draft] With the first pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks select Cooper Flagg from Duke University.
To understand how we got here, I turned to Nola Agha, professor of sport management at the University of San Francisco. She gave me a quick history lesson on how men’s leagues were built, starting in the 19th century.
Agha: Men very quickly developed leagues, formalized leagues, governing bodies, and along with that, of course, comes pay for the players to actually perform and create those contests.
The first men’s professional basketball league started in 1898. The NBA followed in the late 1940s. But back then, it wasn’t the billion-dollar juggernaut it is today.
[Archival footage old NBA pilot] Over to Martin at the side. Slater’s up with the set shot…
Arenas were half-empty, fans were unpredictable, and players made up to five thousand dollars a year - that’s about fifty thousand dollars in today’s money. Salaries didn’t really take off until the '90s when more games began to be televised.
[Archival footage announcer/Magic Johnson] There it is, it’s over, and the most valuable player is Magic Johnson…
Magic Johnson became the first player to top FOURTEEN million dollars in a season in 1994. Just two years later, Michael Jordan doubled that - getting over 30 million dollars in one year.
[Archival footage announcer/Michael Jordan] Jordan trying to shoo off Starks. Oh, what a move by Jordan. Oh. Whoop! Oh, please, let’s see that again. A hundred times. Ho. Ho. Ho.
And women? Well, there was no WNBA back then. there were efforts, though.
The first Women’s professional basketball league launched in 1978.
Agha: In the history of women's sport, we don't see those same behaviors, what you often see as somebody who's starting up a league and says, well. It's a startup, so I'm gonna have to keep costs low. And what you end up with is an inferior product. You end up with management that isn't very excited to put a really good contest on, and they're not willing to pay the most for the inputs to production, which in this place are players.
The WPBL never really caught on - and folded after just three seasons. It took nearly two decades for the WNBA to tip off in 1997. And even though interest has grown, the league has never landed the kind of blockbuster TV deals that bring in the real cash. The result? Smaller budgets and lower pay. For years, some WNBA players earned salaries that weren’t much higher than what you’d make as a Starbucks barista.
That’s ridiculous to players like the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese. she’s a major influencer with five million instagram followers.
Reese: I just hope you all know, the WNBA don’t pay my bills at all. What is my… I don’t even know my salary. $74?
And here in the Bay, that money doesn’t stretch far. Just ask Kate Martin who grew up in Illinois and played college ball in Iowa.
MARTIN: Pricing here is definitely more than the Midwest, I'll tell you that. Okay. So, no, I'm not quite used to that.
I bet she’s not. According to AAA, filling up your car with gas in Iowa costs just over three dollars per gallon on average, while here in the Bay it’s more than a buck fifty higher. Housing hits even harder. Zillow puts average rent in San Francisco at just under three thousand five hundred dollars per month. In Iowa City, it’s less than thirteen hundred.
To be fair, the WNBA does provide housing support:
Martin: Don't know if people know this, but also, um, you know, we get put up in housing, um, you know, and taken care of in more ways than just our salary.
Those are wins from the 2020 collective bargaining agreement between the players union and the league. Here’s players association president Nneka Ogwumike in an interview with the Washington Post.
Ogwumike: One thing that I’m really happy about are the changes that we were able to make in the collective bargaining agreement. And whether it was protecting planning mothers and pregnant mothers. Even something as simple as everyone getting their own hotel room on road trips, you know. Increasing the player experience in health and safety, which we still have a long way to go.
I’ll say. that CBA was far from perfect. In 2022 Ogwumike went live on X after she and several LA Sparks teammates were stranded overnight at Dulles International Airport following a game against the Washington Mystics.
Ogwumike: Yeah, so. We are roaming the airport. It’s the first time in my 11 seasons that I’ve ever had to sleep in the airport. There weren’t enough rooms after the flight got delayed, delayed, delayed. And then cancelled.
Yup, until 2024, WNBA players were flying commercial to games. Now, they finally have access to charter flights. That’s progress. But the bigger issue? Money. The CBA capped top salaries at just under two hundred fifty thousand dollars. So many players go where the money is: other countries.
Billings: I've played in 10 countries, I think seven, eight seasons abroad.
Again, the Valkyries Mo Billings.
Billings: I think finances have a lot to do with it. It's great money, had the opportunity to play. I'm healthy, uh, and I love basketball, so it made sense.
Players can earn a million dollars or more per season overseas - that’s nearly four times the top WNBA salaries. Maybe that’s why, according to Sportico, about half the league’s one hundred forty-four players went abroad last winter. Even legends like Diana Taurasi made the trip. The 14-time All-WNBA guard and three-time champ once skipped an entire season with the Phoenix Mercury to play in Russia.
She talked about that decision earlier this year on The View:
Taurasi: And I always said I had to be paid like a capitalist in a communist country, which boy isn’t that funny huh. Well, not that funny.
Things have changed a lot since then. There’s social media. Branding opportunities. And even new leagues in the United States that happen during the WNBA’s offseason.
[Archival footage Unrivaled announcement] In Miami, we’ve reached the pinnacle stage. It’s time to crown a champion. You’re watching the Unrivaled playoffs on TNT.
Unrivaled is a three-on-three women’s basketball league founded this year by Olympians Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.
Collier: We kinda saw the holes in where the sports was.
Collier talked about the league’s origin in an interview with just women’s sports.
Collier: You know for a long time people were having to go overseas. So in that time of course you’re in a different country, you're missing time away from your family. And so you're missing out on opportunities to activate with brands and um but on the flip side you also have to get better at your craft, and so kinda through all those things we came up with Unrivaled.
This year, the Unrivaled league featured six teams with six players each. The season lasted just eight weeks — but players walked away with an average of more than $220,000 a piece. Plus an equity stake and a cut of the revenue. That’s more money in two months than most players earn in an entire WNBA season.
Kate Martin played in Unrivaled and liked what she saw.
Martin: I would say that that league is a very media driven league, and the sponsors that they brought in were very big and um. You know, we brought great opportunities for the players.
With competition rising, the WNBA is stepping up its game, paying players to stay in the US and promote the league at public events and on social media. But the real payday? That still comes from endorsements.
[State Farm jingle] Caitlin Clark - from the logo! You know, life would be easier if I could do everything from the logo. Allow me to assist.
Superstar caitlin clark earned eleven million dollars last year in endorsements, according to Sportico. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert says the league’s corporate support has reached a new level.
[Engelbert press release]: There's not one ad spot I think today, not one sporting event where you don't see an ad spot with a WNBA player in it. I think it's pretty cool. Whether it's State Farm or Nike. Nike's first Super Bowl commercial in many years had WNBA players in it. You just continue to see so many of our corporate partners step up and put our players into their ad spots, and that's a great sign.
So the league is leveling up, and you can see it in all kinds of ways with the Golden State Valkyries. Before they even played a single game, team Co-owner Joe Lacob made his business plan clear.
Lakob: I think you have to spend money to make money. That’s a term we’ve always used. You have to put in the work also to make it happen, you know? It’s a major investment for us to do this.
And it shows. Valkyries ownership poured resources into transforming the old Golden State Warriors headquarters in Oakland into a practice space for their new women’s team. Two brand-new, full-size courts - 17 hoops total. A weight room, training room, hot and cold tubs, a players’ lounge—and even a separate lounge just for families. Plus, the Valkyries play games at the very new Chase Center, where more than eighteen thousand fans can show up for every game. And do.
Lakob: There’s a lot of reasons why we did this, but the potential is enormous. And we need to provide them with all the resources they need and deserve. And so we’re doing this right and we’re doing every aspect of it right. And we’re going to build what I believe will be the greatest and honestly most valuable women’s sports organization anywhere in the world in any sport. That’s my goal.
Quick work. Just last week, Sportico reported that the Valkyries already have the highest valuation of any WNBA team - 500 million dollars. That’s 10 times what the owners paid to get the team just two years ago.
That helps players like Mo Billings excel.
Billings: All I have to do is focus on being a basketball player. All the resources that I need are here. The people, uh, our staff are, they're willing to help us in any way possible so I can focus on being the best version of Monique that I can be.
Still, the players know nice facilities are a low bar. Which is why they’re renegotiating that collective bargaining agreement. There’s just a lot more money in the WNBA these days. Just ask University of San Francisco Professor Nola Agha.
Agha: Most, honestly most companies in the United States spend about 50% of their revenues on their workforce, and that's across all industries, whether it's auto manufacturing. Or coffee baristas or professional sports. About 50% of your revenues go to paying your employees. In the WNBA right now, they earn about 10% of league-wide revenues, and so they're dramatically underpaid as a proportion of what the owners are generating.
REPORTER: Players will also be looking to cash in on the WNBA’s new media rights deal, announced last year. Here's Eva Pilgrim on Good Morning America:
Good Morning America]The WNBA reportedly securing a new round of media rights deals with NBC, Amazon and Disney, the parent company of ABC, worth about 2.2 billion dollars over 11 years, about 200 million a year.
That’s more than triple the value of the old deal.
Agha: The WNBA went from about $60 million a year to $200 million a year, which is a really large increase, but it's still really far under market value. That was an 11 year contract, and it's just starting. And so for the next 11 years, these women are gonna be. Paid under what the value should be.
So yes, there’s a long way to go. And stars like Angel Reese recognize their true value. She shared this on her podcast “Unapologetically Angel.”
Reese: I’m hearing, like, if y’all don’t give us what we want, like, we sitting out. That’s a possibility.
That could mean a strike.
After that Connecticut Sun game, When K.T. and Tiff Hayes spoke out, Coach Natalie Nakase was asked about the CBA and her players’ comments.
Nakase: Yeah, and I agree, the huge reason why I wanted to work in the W was how can I help and how can I impact, you know, as this league is growing, I wanna help too. I wanna do whatever it takes to, you know, to get what they want and to get what they deserve so I'm supporting them 100%.
Younger players like Kate Martin are watching.
Martin: You know, we're standing on the shoulders of giants, of people who have been working so hard for this for so long, and so I'm excited to see what's going to happen next.
It’s all going to play out very soon in the WNBA.