fans stunned to learn that sport they dont watch has pay inequality to sport they do watch

[brainbomb]

Shocked and disgusted fans of Iowas Caitlin Clark could not beleive her starting salary in the WNBA will be around 70k per season. It begs the question, if you are shocked and outraged why werent you watching the WNBA before?

[BrianBaru]

Let the women who want to earn the big bucks try out for the NBA.
Let the women who want to earn the big bucks in Soccer try for a men's team.

My daughter played professional basketball in Europe for 4 years. She is a very good player, but when she played with our men's club, she didn't dominate.

Catlin Clark wouldn't get a shot off against a top Men's college team, let alone the NBA. The US women's soccer team cannot beat a U-16 advanced boy's team.

At the height of the Williams sisters prime, in 1998, an unofficial game took place in Australia after Serena and Venus claimed that no male player outside the top 200 could beat them. Up stepped a German known as Karsten Braasch who was ranked 203rd in the world and after first beating Serena 6-1, he then disposed of Venus 6-2.

The WNBA loses money. They are subsidized by the NBA. All players earn what they can demand in the marketplace.

[sweetandcool]

I find it bizarre that when inequality of pay between women's leagues and open leagues is brought up, that people start talking about how top women would get crushed by mediocre men's players.

I thought the reason sportspeople were paid so much is because they are entertaining the masses?

[brainbomb]

Women dont have to play in the NBA to make big money. What would need to happen is that people just simply tune in more, and invest more interest in the WNBA. The whole point is that the pay rate for players in the WNBA directly correlates to lack of viewership, lack of national interest, lack of advertising, lack of ticket sales, lack of merchandise/jerseys/endorsements.

All of those things can be corrected if people were actually watching the WNBA. look at baseball. theres a sport that appeals to almost no one at this point. It is an old man sport that only matters to people in cities with a team. and yet the contracts are HUGE, and thats because they still sell tickets, they still get on TV, they still get the big ads and big endorsement deals, hell look at Ohtani??

point is, you have to build that interest. and the people complaining that caitlin clark isnt making enough are also people who havent even ever watched a WNBA game

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

This seems like a chicken and egg problem.

Low interest in most women's sports leads to lower pay and prestige, which in turn means less talent development, less advertising, playing at worse venues, etc. A vicious cycle.

Artificially increasing the pay and funding for women's sport beyond what is warranted by the current level of interest has helped in the past. The Tennis Grand Slams started offering women equal prize money to men in the 70s and 80s even though the mens' division was much more popular. Higher prizes encouraged more women to pursue professional tennis, more interest in women's matches, etc., a virtuous cycle that arguably made women's tennis as or more popular than men's tennis over the course of a few decades. Now the top women players really do earn top dollar without subsidy on the basis of their viewership, sponsorship, etc.

The tennis example may not be applicable for some other sports. It might be the case that no matter how much money gets thrown at it, there will never be a big market for certain women's sports, or at least not as big as the men's category. But it's possible that women's sport could be much bigger than it is if someone were willing to take a financial risk on it.

[Jamiet99uk]

Shocked and disgusted fans of Iowas Caitlin Clark could not beleive her starting salary in the WNBA will be around 70k per season. It begs the question, if you are shocked and outraged why werent you watching the WNBA before?

Surely if they are "fans of Caitlin Clark" they must already be watching women's basketball, no?

I've never heard of her.

[brainbomb]

Shocked and disgusted fans of Iowas Caitlin Clark could not beleive her starting salary in the WNBA will be around 70k per season. It begs the question, if you are shocked and outraged why werent you watching the WNBA before?

Surely if they are "fans of Caitlin Clark" they must already be watching women's basketball, no?

I've never heard of her.

She is a college athlete from the University of Iowa. her estimated earnings as a college basketball player are in the millions from ads and endorsements. College players do not earn an official salary however. She was drafted to play in the WNBA now, one of the least watched professional sports leagues in America. Its salary for rookies is very low, she will be making roughly 70 k per year for about 3 years. People are suddenly angry and claiming mens basketball players make millions right out the gate. The problem is, as has been stated, the WNBA is extremely unpopular, it just doesnt get viewers attention. People dont watch the games and mostly have no idea who these athletes even are. The only one people even know is Brittany Griner for her imprisonment stint in Russia. the rest people maybe saw in the Olympics one time and thats about it. I couldnt tell you where the teams are located, or any of the players on the teams.

That being said this could be a huge moment for the WNBA and it could change its trajectory in a major way. Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark, Cardosa, and the other new rookie class had major followings as college players.

[Jamiet99uk]

Why is the main women's professional league less popular than watching young amateurs play at college?

Nobody in the UK watches University sports teams.

[JustAGuyNamedWill]

College sports are HUGE in the US. Especially college football

[Jamiet99uk]

College sports are HUGE in the US. Especially college football

Why is that exactly? Is there just a very strong sense of affiliation between people and the colleges they attended as young adults?

[DiplomacyandWarfare]

College sports are HUGE in the US. Especially college football

Why is that exactly? Is there just a very strong sense of affiliation between people and the colleges they attended as young adults?

I, myself, don't care much for sports. They are rather boring and have low strategy compared to, for example, chess (there are a few exceptions, one of them the brackets pools for college basketball). The college sports obsessions probably involves Americans' intense desire to sort themselves into arbitrary teams and argue intensely about things that don't matter. I could give you examples, but this isn't the politics sub-forum so I'm not going to.

[Crazy Anglican]

College sports are HUGE in the US. Especially college football

Why is that exactly? Is there just a very strong sense of affiliation between people and the colleges they attended as young adults?

I think it's more of a regional thing than alumni. Two schools in an area develop a rivalry (or an interconference rivalry exists) and people jump on the bandwagon. If it were just about school spirit there wouldn't be near the number of people following them. We recently had a Senatorial candidate that was running mainly on his notoriety as a college athlete (he was a professional too, but not anywhere near our area). He came back here to run because he's still a household name 40 years later.

[Jamiet99uk]

College sports are HUGE in the US. Especially college football

Why is that exactly? Is there just a very strong sense of affiliation between people and the colleges they attended as young adults?

I think it's more of a regional thing than alumni. Two schools in an area develop a rivalry (or an interconference rivalry exists) and people jump on the bandwagon. If it were just about school spirit there wouldn't be near the number of people following them. We recently had a Senatorial candidate that was running mainly on his notoriety as a college athlete (he was a professional too, but not anywhere near our area). He came back here to run because he's still a household name 40 years later.

But why are college rivalries more intense than rivalries between pro sports teams? (And their supporters).

Where I live there is a huge rivalry between Newcastle United FC and Sunderland AFC. But that manifests itself in the form of an intense rivalry between those two professional sports teams. It absolutely does not manifest itself in huge crowds wanting to turn up to see the Newcastle University football team play the Sunderland University football team (even though both universities do have football teams, they do not draw a crowd).

[DiplomacyandWarfare]

Why is that exactly? Is there just a very strong sense of affiliation between people and the colleges they attended as young adults?

I think it's more of a regional thing than alumni. Two schools in an area develop a rivalry (or an interconference rivalry exists) and people jump on the bandwagon. If it were just about school spirit there wouldn't be near the number of people following them. We recently had a Senatorial candidate that was running mainly on his notoriety as a college athlete (he was a professional too, but not anywhere near our area). He came back here to run because he's still a household name 40 years later.

But why are college rivalries more intense than rivalries between pro sports teams? (And their supporters).

Where I live there is a huge rivalry between Newcastle United FC and Sunderland AFC. But that manifests itself in the form of an intense rivalry between those two professional sports teams. It absolutely does not manifest itself in huge crowds wanting to turn up to see the Newcastle University football team play the Sunderland University football team (even though both universities do have football teams, they do not draw a crowd).

The phenomenon you are discussing, where people don't obsessively worship sports teams, is called 'sanity'.

[Octavious]

Why is that exactly? Is there just a very strong sense of affiliation between people and the colleges they attended as young adults?

I think it's more of a regional thing than alumni. Two schools in an area develop a rivalry (or an interconference rivalry exists) and people jump on the bandwagon. If it were just about school spirit there wouldn't be near the number of people following them. We recently had a Senatorial candidate that was running mainly on his notoriety as a college athlete (he was a professional too, but not anywhere near our area). He came back here to run because he's still a household name 40 years later.

But why are college rivalries more intense than rivalries between pro sports teams? (And their supporters).

Where I live there is a huge rivalry between Newcastle United FC and Sunderland AFC. But that manifests itself in the form of an intense rivalry between those two professional sports teams. It absolutely does not manifest itself in huge crowds wanting to turn up to see the Newcastle University football team play the Sunderland University football team (even though both universities do have football teams, they do not draw a crowd).

Not strictly true, of course. The Oxford and Cambridge boat race draws insanely large crowds for what is in reality an extremely dull event, and the University Challenge Quiz regularly attracts a televised audience of millions.

I would say that the biggest difference between the UK and US is that anyone of university age in the UK who plays one of the major sports at elite levels is already a professional in that sport. If they want to go to uni they will do it when they retire.

[brainbomb]

Another example is Livvy Dunne who attends LSU. Her net worth from Name Image Likeness is in the multi millions just from doing tik tok videos and reels of herself in a gymnastics outfit. It goes beyond even her sport as LSU is a top tier program for gymnastics but she isnt even the best competitor on their roster. Shes actually quite average. Her following is huge; so fanatic and so crazed that thousands of men will show up outside the classes she attends waiting to catch a glimpse of her. She has had to cease attending classes in person and do only remote classes to avoid dangerous incidents with fans. When she Attends events she has to have security with her just to even go to sit and watch a sporting event. There is something fanatical people feel about college athletes in America

[Pengwinja]

Another example is Livvy Dunne who attends LSU. Her net worth from Name Image Likeness is in the multi millions just from doing tik tok videos and reels of herself in a gymnastics outfit. It goes beyond even her sport as LSU is a top tier program for gymnastics but she isnt even the best competitor on their roster. Shes actually quite average. Her following is huge; so fanatic and so crazed that thousands of men will show up outside the classes she attends waiting to catch a glimpse of her. She has had to cease attending classes in person and do only remote classes to avoid dangerous incidents with fans. When she Attends events she has to have security with her just to even go to sit and watch a sporting event. There is something fanatical people feel about college athletes in America

As someone in America, I can confirm that many people have made sports their main religion. I got threatened with a knife after I said I didn’t watch sports as my main source of entertainment. Granted, the knife was plastic, but still, the emotional pain is still there.

[DiplomacyandWarfare]

Another example is Livvy Dunne who attends LSU. Her net worth from Name Image Likeness is in the multi millions just from doing tik tok videos and reels of herself in a gymnastics outfit. It goes beyond even her sport as LSU is a top tier program for gymnastics but she isnt even the best competitor on their roster. Shes actually quite average. Her following is huge; so fanatic and so crazed that thousands of men will show up outside the classes she attends waiting to catch a glimpse of her. She has had to cease attending classes in person and do only remote classes to avoid dangerous incidents with fans. When she Attends events she has to have security with her just to even go to sit and watch a sporting event. There is something fanatical people feel about college athletes in America

As someone in America, I can confirm that many people have made sports their main religion. I got threatened with a knife after I said I didn’t watch sports as my main source of entertainment. Granted, the knife was plastic, but still, the emotional pain is still there.

That's rough. Would it make you feel better if I pulled a knife on you for something unrelated to sports?

[Jamiet99uk]

Another example is Livvy Dunne who attends LSU. Her net worth from Name Image Likeness is in the multi millions just from doing tik tok videos and reels of herself in a gymnastics outfit. It goes beyond even her sport as LSU is a top tier program for gymnastics but she isnt even the best competitor on their roster. Shes actually quite average. Her following is huge; so fanatic and so crazed that thousands of men will show up outside the classes she attends waiting to catch a glimpse of her. She has had to cease attending classes in person and do only remote classes to avoid dangerous incidents with fans. When she Attends events she has to have security with her just to even go to sit and watch a sporting event. There is something fanatical people feel about college athletes in America

As someone in America, I can confirm that many people have made sports their main religion. I got threatened with a knife after I said I didn’t watch sports as my main source of entertainment. Granted, the knife was plastic, but still, the emotional pain is still there.

That's rough. Would it make you feel better if I pulled a knife on you for something unrelated to sports?

That sounds a bit over the top. Perhaps try just jabbing him with a fork.

[Pengwinja]

As someone in America, I can confirm that many people have made sports their main religion. I got threatened with a knife after I said I didn’t watch sports as my main source of entertainment. Granted, the knife was plastic, but still, the emotional pain is still there.

That's rough. Would it make you feel better if I pulled a knife on you for something unrelated to sports?

That sounds a bit over the top. Perhaps try just jabbing him with a fork.

Abusing me with kitchen utensils doesn’t seem like the answer to my problem.