This page was created by Collin Hardwick.
In Conclusion
The NBA brings in an astronomically larger sum of money off of the ESPN TV deal and ticket sales than the WNBA does, with almost two and a half times the number of fans filling the stadiums per game. I could not find information on either the NBA nor WNBA’s profit off of merchandise, but it is safe to assume that based off its popularity, the NBA makes more than the WNBA in that arena. The WNBA also plays far fewer games than the NBA does in a season; just 34 compared to the NBA’s 82.
So, there is no doubt that the NBA makes more money overall and that its players are paid a large amount more. However, this does not answer the question of proportionality.
It all comes down to whether the NBA’s greater popularity and revenue means that the male players deserve a higher percentage than their female counterparts. Because the NBA has a higher “entertainment value,” and the advantage of age it has over the WNBA in developing popularity, it can be argued that the NBA’s 27.2% more revenue paid to its players is justifiable.
However, the WNBA players cannot be said to be any less hardworking than the NBA players. They have no control over how popular their league is, and though it would be ridiculous and impossible to demand equal pay to the NBA players, they could certainly be paid the same percentage. Being paid under a quarter of the WNBA’s overall revenue is astounding compared to the 50% the men get paid.
Because the female basketball players are paid only 22.8% of their league’s revenue while the men are paid 50% of theirs, the WNBA players are not paid proportionally to the NBA players.
Above image by Stacy Bengs. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/this-wnba-superstar-earns-just-20-percent-of-an-nba-players-salary.html
