Sky guard Kahleah Copper won the 2021 Finals MVP after averaging 17 points and 5.5 rebounds in the series. You could be getting the best stories in your inbox twice a day. High game viewership Plum notes the difference in narratives between the two leagues. The WNBA capped off its historic 25 th regular season by delivering its most-watched season since 2008 for its television partners - ABC, CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 viewership was up 51% over the 2020 season.And the 2021 WNBA Finals Game 2 was the most watched Game 2 since 2003, peaking with 1 million viewers.Game over! Wait. The 23 WNBA playoff games on Disney-owned networks had an average audience of 456,000 viewers, which represents a 22 per cent increase from the 2021 postseason. And she isn't the only female writer to do so. In one way, baseball's in great company.. "This has been an amazing year for the WNBA!" Stewart was unable to reap the benefits of free fertility treatment, having frozen her eggs earlier in 2019. I've asked. NBA basketball. Indeed, the NBA and WNBA should be active participants in this quest. But most diehard college basketball fans are just that -- college basketball fans. The best of the best: the portal for top lists & rankings: Strategy and business building for the data-driven economy: Show sources information Statista. Women again held the majority of CEO/president positions, with 66.7%. How Breanna Stewart's move impacts the Liberty, Storm and the WNBA, WNBA free agency and trade tracker: Latest deals and news, Sparks' Talbot to miss season with torn ACL, Source: Griner back with Mercury on 1-year deal, Taurasi, 40, signs multiyear deal with Mercury, ESPN's Rowe, Spears receive Curt Gowdy award, Happy birthdays to MJ: Jordan's not the only one sharing his birthday with big-name stars, Former Iowa, Storm center Edwards dies at 49, Jefferson leaves Lynx, signs contract with Mercury, 2021 Women's National Basketball Association Racial and Gender Report Card, WNBA players look to expand community support, Ten biggest questions for the WNBA offseason. September 21, 2022. Lets take a look at a some of the differences between the two leagues. . But basketball fans don't really care about the stories off the court. And though the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish similar wage data for LGBTQ+ employees, unions have served as LGBTQ+ allies for decades. . But they want dunks. and the WNBA saw its highest draft viewership in 16 . Moore thinks so. Indeed, proof of this is in the pudding: 90% of WNBPA player-members voted for this CBAs ratification, nearly double the support garnered by the National Football League Players Association, which narrowly ratified its newly announced CBA with just 51.5% support. The top-tier NBA players, of course, make far more than that. In the NBA the 3-point line measures 23-foot 9-inches at the top of the key and 22-feet in the corners. He picked a team to follow. ", National Basketball Association all-time triple double leaders 1946-2022, Value of National Basketball Association franchises 2022, National Basketball Association all-time assists leaders 1946-2023. The agreement also expanded paid maternity leave, child-care and breastfeeding accommodations. Lets not continue to toss out this battle cryAnd if were specific in what were asking for, and who were asking for it from,, well then, let us see them publicly turn us down, Green said. Discover WNBA viewership by year According to Statista, the average TV viewers of the WNBA regular season in 2016 was 224,000 and grew to 246,000 in 2019. Profit from the additional features of your individual account. We need more women to read, watch, and soak up women's sports the same way men do men's sports. Half the population in the United States is made up of women. Before, WNBA Players with less than four years of experience had to room with a teammate. But those 75 percent make up a small fraction of the population. He has been a regular commentator for ESPN.com on issues of diversity in sport. Had this been six months ago, and I saw they were playing, I would not have known anything. The opening weekend recorded a 25% increase from the previous year and two weeks in, the WNBA was averaging 357,000 viewers across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. This is how women get written out of history., She didnt tag Serrano in the tweet. OhReally? The most revolutionary change the agreement came to was access to free fertility services, which has been often seen as a luxury and not a necessity. Our Top 5 Favorite NBA Basketball Team Mascots, Basketball Shoes Frequently Asked Questions. The differences between the NBA and the WNBA range from rules and equipment to salaries and stadium size. It's not the right audience, they say. 2022 NBA Finals interest levels in the U.S. Average league-wide Fan Cost Index of the NBA 2022, Fan Cost Index of NBA teams 2015/16 season, NBA - venue and stadium renovation / construction costs 1989-2009, Franchise with the highest value in the NBA 2003-2022, Year-by-year spending on venue construction in the National Basketball Association 2005. And guys think she's too manly. So then it just becomes a complaint that falls on deaf ears, Green continued. Each WNBA player will now also receive her own hotel room while traveling, a benefit their NBA counterparts have enjoyed since 1999. Food-service workers in four states are being required to pay for a food-safety training class every few years. Tennis boasts the most narrow pay gap of any major sport. It's ironic that the WNBA, a female-centered league and organization, is hurting largely because of the lack of interest from its own gender. The PSA encouraged fans and the public to educate themselves about the COVID-19 vaccine. Despite being virtual - as opposed to broadcast live from Nike. The WNBA is widely recognized for being one of the most progressive organizations in professional sport. The Sky won their first WNBA championship after beating the Mercury 80-74. Even with the NBA losing popularity because of its social justice. . "But they only play a few months in the summer," you might say. The WNBA scored 98.3 points for racial hiring practices and 96.8 points for gender hiring practices in 2021 and continued to set an example for inclusive racial and gender hiring practices across all professional leagues. At the risk of oversimplifying, comparing the pay of a man (or woman) who works on an oil rig, for example, with a woman (or man) who shuffles papers in an office is seldom an appropriate measure. Their Bosses Are Refusing to Bargain. Unfortunately, though, because of COVID-19s impact on professional sportsincluding the WNBAthe WNBAs 2020 revenue goal could become virtually impossible to meet, which would make 2022 the earliest that WNBPA player-members could pocket a percentage of revenue on par with that of their male NBA counterparts. Yet the commercialization of women's sports has not been fully realised. Uber and Lyft drivers in New York City go on strike, Hyundai divests from an Alabama factory due to child labor violations. The WNBA's audience is 75 percent women. Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike, who is also president of the WNBA Players Association, has been outspoken about the need for a new outlook on women's health. I watch the NBA, basketball is basketball. He thought about it more overnight. And last year's finals averaged 546,000 across. Programs: Broadcast, Cable; WNBA: Regular Season, NBA: Regular Season. Hopefully as the world begins to see how amazingly talented these women athletes are, the popularity of the WNBA will continue to improve and the women athletes will be better compensated for their skills. And so, its coming off as a complaint because the people that can change it, theyre just going to continue to say, Well, the revenue isnt thereso if you dont bring in the revenue, we cant up your pay. Theyre going to keep using that, but the reality is, as true as that is, its an excuse, he added. Her leadership is a cornerstone to the NBA and WNBA's leadership in diversity and inclusion across the sports industry that . And top Players stand to gain the most, as the CBA boosts the ceiling on total individual cash compensation more than threefold, now eclipsing $500,000. statistic alerts) please log in with your personal account. Indeed, last season, the All-WNBA First-Teamwhich includes the five best players in a given WNBA season, as voted by the mediaconsisted entirely of women who identify as LGBTQ+ (Courtney Vandersloot, Brittney Griner, Chelsea Gray, Natasha Howard, and reigning WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne). We know ESPN is paying the WNBA $25 million to broadcast some of its games. While the overall rules of the game are the same, the WNBA court does have some adjustments to the sizing of certain areas. It means everything. By comparison, in 2017, oft-cited economics professor David Berri determined that WNBPA player-members received less than 23% of WNBA revenue. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. . The WNBA basketball also weighs in at 2 ounces lighter than a typical NBA basketball. In OT, the Bulldogs pulled away. I should be paying attention. But, while the level of pay varies from sport to sport, a look at five popular American sports shows a common reality: female athletes consistently make less than men. When it comes down to it though, it's not about the product. The NBA has by far the most racially diverse and left-leaning U.S. fan base of the four top team sports, according to the Brand Intelligence data: 54 percent of fans of the average NBA team are. Both series went five games with each team taking one title. This is the second time in the history of the WNBA report card that a majority of CEO/presidents are women. Similar to typical CBA negotiations, WNBPA player-members working conditionsin this case, travel accommodationsrepresented a significant negotiating point. They say that when controlling for factors such as type of job, type of industry, experience, tenure, hours worked, and so forth, the pay gap largely disappears. Moreover, of the six women on the WNBPAs player-member leadership team, halfDelle Donne, Sue Bird, and Layshia Clarendonidentify as LGBTQ+. The fact is a lot of men don't want to watch the WNBA because they think it's boring. . different. The average annual WNBA salary is reportedly about $100,000 as compared to the approximately $7 million that NBA players bank. We do X for women. Gender Female Male 2012-2013 NBA Regular Season Source: Nielsen National TV Toolbox: Ratings Analysis, Regular Season 2012-2013, P2+, Live+SD. With colored spotlights dancing off his face and disco balls spinning overhead, Buss . Aside from the obvious women and men, there are many things that the WNBA does differently than the NBA. Overview and forecasts on trending topics, Industry and market insights and forecasts, Key figures and rankings about companies and products, Consumer and brand insights and preferences in various industries, Detailed information about political and social topics, All key figures about countries and regions, Market forecast and expert KPIs for 600+ segments in 150+ countries, Insights on consumer attitudes and behavior worldwide, Business information on 60m+ public and private companies, Detailed information for 35,000+ online stores and marketplaces. He woke up with a different thought. What do (Sports) Unions Do in a Pandemic? But if women aren't the right audience for women's sports, then who is? The players are obviously not nearly as good. That number spiked to 5.2 million in the final 15 minutes when Ogunbowale hit the buzzer-beating championship-winner, capping the biggest comeback in championship game history. Supreme Court rules high-earning professionals must be salaried to be overtime-exempt; federal judge rolls back nationwide injunction against Starbucks; OSHA fines another Amazon distribution center. Two days later, ESPN expected a dip in the ratings for the championship game. Im a very tiny part of a bigger thing, he said. As Clarendon explained, for women who have often been underpaid, we know black women are underpaid, queer people, [too] . . That's what they want in a basketball game. Sky forward . It's not about the looks of the players, either. It was the most-watched Game 1 of the semifinal round since the current WNBA playoff format began in 2016. If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Why do more women tune into Scandal or The Real Housewives of Wherever for water cooler fodder instead? Hard to take, but hes right about revenue not being there. For example, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unionized female employees earn 29% more than non-unionized female employees and unionized black employees earn 27% more than non-unionized black employees. All rights reserved. Johnny Buss, center, and the L.A. Sparks took the bold step of promoting the WNBA team at a lesbian bar. While there are a lot of Read more, Even though the NBA finals are over for the year and the Golden State Warriors have taken the crown, we wanted to keep the basketball talk going. Sure, hes a Twitter superstar backed by the #FOHArmy. This problem could be solved if viewership for the WNBA increased and if longtime NBA fans start showing support for the WNBA as well. It was the mostwatched regular season WNBA gameon ESPN2 since 2011. Union buttons and stickers are protected by federal labor law, but what about digital insignia? A WNBA player sparked controversy on social media when she seemed to blame Black men for the league's low television ratings. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the icon below and to the right of that comment. The ratings didnt fall. Starbucks Workers Are Unionizing. We cannot continue to expect the most underrepresented and underserved in sports to carry most of the load in diversity and equity in sports. The workplace benefits historically marginalized groups enjoy from unionization are well-documented. Indeed, as shown in Table 2 below, this new CBAfrom top to bottomoverhauls the WNBAs labor market, significantly boosting WNBPA player-members individually guaranteed base salaries. Get full access to all features within our Business Solutions. The agreement between the league and players' association includes reimbursing veteran players on family expenses such as surrogacy, adoption and egg freezing. We support women in the workplace. The league's best teams aren't showcased like they should be, in order to market said product. That's unconstitutional. Copyright 2023 OnLabor. *Note: The author calculated some of these figures based on available information. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. The Biden administrationtackles exploitative child labor practices; Railroad reaches agreement on sick days; Supreme Court will look at CFPB funding. Im a very tiny part of a bigger thing, he said. And that, you see, is the real issue. Natalie Weiner (@natalieweiner)October 15, 2017, These very important people in, not just womens basketball history, but basketball history are excluded from this book that is ostensibly about the whole sport and not just about men in the sport, Weiner said. The WNBA averages around 7,000 attendees per game while the NBA averages 18,000 in attendance. Accessed March 05, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236700/wnba-finals-viewers/, ESPN.com, and Sports Media Watch. Diana Taurasi. He says women need to call out companies/entities who aren't valuing female athletes (they have been). Anti-Trump, gold medalist soccer star Megan Rapinoe recently visited the White House to lament that she is paid less than men who do the same job (even though womens soccer is apparently far less popular than its male counterpart. Required fields are marked *, Have you ever wondered why it seems like some college athletes look way older than you remember 18 to 22 year olds looking like when you were college age? Notably, 100% of WNBPA members are female; 83% of WNBPA members are persons of color; and 67% are black or African-American. An NBA basketball measures in at 29.5, sometimes known as a size 7, while the WNBA basketball is about an inch smaller measuring in at 28.5, otherwise known as a size 6. Access to this and all other statistics on 80,000 topics from, Show sources information In order to increase pay for its athletes, the . The Seattle Storm vs. Chicago Sky game on Aug. 15, broadcast . The percentage of women holding positions in the WNBA league office increased 4.5 percentage points, from 60.9 in 2020 to 65.4 percent in 2021. Damn, shes actually right. Sep 22, 2022 The 2022 Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) regular season games were watched by an average of 379 thousand viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. Why start a story on WNBA viewership with Shea Serrano? ESPN is using all of its platforms, not just the TV games, Stiff said, pointing to coverage and player appearances onSportsCenterandGet Up! This change highlights the WNBA's dedication to innovation and growing the game of basketball. In order to truly stand on its own two feet, earn the respect its players so deeply deserve, and separate itself from the NBA, the WNBA needs women to step up. Lisa Borders, a former Coca-Cola executive, is now tasked with the responsibility of increasing viewership of the league. Moore also wondered in her essay why the fans that rooted her on at the University of Connecticut didn't follow her to the WNBA. The only men's leagues close in comparison to the WNBA were the NBA and MLS, both earning A's this year for racial hiring practices. According to Sports Business Journal, Each NBA game has an average of 1.2 million viewers, while WNBA games have less than half that amount, resulting in a significant revenue gap. Viewership is up, way way up, so much so that the regular season had the highest viewership numbers for the league since 2008. Right? Show publisher information The average salary of a WNBA player is around $71,000 while the average NBA salary is $6.4 million, but it makes sense right now considering the crowd sizes and how much each organization is bringing in. Most people do not spend a lot of time watching inferior professional sports leagues. Maya Moore (David Berding/Icon Sportswire via. VIEWERSHIP: Combined viewership for the WNBA across ESPN Networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2) and the CBS Television Network was up 16 percent over the 2021 regular season, averaging 379,000. I call on and encourage the men's professional leagues to follow the WNBA's lead, and to support the league's efforts on and off the court. Each league and sports organization has its own structure of compensation and benefits. Unfortunately, the WNBA fanbase is not nearly as large as the NBA fanbase is and this is evident in the coverage of games. The latter was second only to Major League . That said, a unique dynamic underlaid this compensation negotiation: WNBPA player-members strongly desired an equal (50%) share of WNBA revenues to match the virtually equal revenue partnership their male NBPA counterparts enjoy with the NBA. Each bar represents the share of any given stat category owned by a single player. This is over a foot difference when compared to the WNBA. Support our commitment to credible conservative news. The NBA has 30 teams, the WNBA 12. Stacey Pressman, who writes female affirming and supportive prose in ESPN Magazine's: The Body Issue, wrote this (far) less than glowing review of a WNBA game. In May, when theSparks played at the Connecticut Sun,Rebecca Lobo and Kara Lawson moved away from the typicalbroadcaster seats. Please create an employee account to be able to mark statistics as favorites. Currently, you are using a shared account. In the NBA, the average salary is about $7.5 million. Our National Sports Director, Dr. Joseph Bryant, also has led numerous efforts this year to highlight the WNBA, recognizing many of their players, executives, and the enormous impact the league has had to promote education, diversity, inclusion and justice. Register in seconds and access exclusive features. Athletes are and have always been instrumental in changing societal views from social justice to mental health to LGBTQ+ rights. Womens hands tend to be smaller than the mens equivalent, so having the ball size slightly smaller allows for better grip with smaller hands. Within the NBA, a team is allowed to have a maximum of 15 players at any given time, however in the WNBA the maximum number of roster players allowed is 12. During the appearanceshe met Bryant. In short, thats a lot of numbers about rising ratings and there must be a reason for it. May 11, 2021 12:27 PM ET. And others just say they have no interest, period. The Gender Pay Gap in Sports. Graham Hays of ESPN did that for me already, with this well-written piece for PAGE 2 about why men are afraid of the WNBA. Others say the WNBA is on during the time of year when most people are doing summer-type things, instead of in the house watching sports. First, the CBA now requires WNBA teams to pay full base salaries to player-members on maternity leave, a first among womens professional sports leagues in the United States. Part of HuffPost News. The NCAA had issued773 credentials for the Final Four, the most in the tournaments history. This was the 17th consecutive year that the WNBA has received at least an A for its overall race, gender and combined grades. Following the completion of the 2021 WNBA Finals, the WNBA announced a new playoff format, ending the use of single-elimination games. A few weeks later, she searched up Serranos bookBasketball (And Other Things)to see if there was any mention of women in it. Last fall, Bleacher Reports Natalie Weiner wrote a storyaboutwomen dunking. In essence he saying complaining without taking the steps to address the revenue reduction or using leverage with people in powerful positions to increase the leagues revenue is not helpful. ", ESPN.com & Sports Media Watch, Number of viewers of the WNBA Finals on ESPN from 2003 to 2022 (in 1,000s) Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236700/wnba-finals-viewers/ (last visited March 05, 2023), Number of viewers of the WNBA Finals on ESPN from 2003 to 2022 (in 1,000s) [Graph], ESPN.com, & Sports Media Watch, September 21, 2022. "I think women really flipped this on its head," Ogwumike said, according to Bloomberg, "especially as it comes to stigmas and societal norms with expectations thrust around working women having to make this decision between family and career.". The league's commitment to fostering inclusive environments can be seen in making journalists and announcers aware of Clarendon's pronouns and that they are respected. All in all, we should commend both the WNBA and the WNBPA for its Big Bet on Women with this new CBA. WNBA games averaged 321,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, ABC and CBS during the regular season, up 51% from last year and the league's most-watched season in 13 years. Hours before the game tipped Shea Serrano had the matchup between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Minnesota Lynx on his mind. In Glacier Northwest, the Employer Wants the Court to Set Aside Sixty Years of Settled Law, Historic New EU Law Part of Growing Push for Sectoral Bargaining, The National Restaurant Associations Training Scheme Is Unconstitutional, Job Advertisements in NYC Must Include a Pay Range, 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unions have served as LGBTQ+ allies for decades, 83% of WNBPA members are persons of color; and 67% are black or African-American, boosts the ceiling on total individual cash compensation more than threefold, Though many thought the WNBPAs 50% revenue-sharing goal was unrealistic, a first among womens professional sports leagues, both conceal and play through her pregnancy, professional sports leader in LGBTQ+ inclusion, narrowly ratified its newly announced CBA with just 51.5% support, the best womens basketball league in the world. Realistically, men have more of an advantage than women considering the fact that mens' muscle mass tends to be more discernible in the upper body, while women often have more of an immense amount in the lower body. For the first time, a person identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native has held a manager to senior director position. Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header. The average WNBA salary is $128,000 in the 2021 season. NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2021 - The WNBA capped off its historic 25 th regular season by delivering its most-watched season since 2008 for its television partners - ABC, CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 - with. The WNBA has a social justice council that focuses on social justice programming and initiatives that include anti-racism training, voter registration and campaigning. Women's Sport WNBA regular season viewership up 16% on 2021 to score 14-year high US women's basketball league live broadcasts average 379,000 viewers on CBS, ABC and ESPN. Even females who are actually interested in sports balk at the WNBA, including professional sports writers. She and her wife, Russian Premier League teammate Marta Xargay Casademont, welcomed daughter, Ruby, via surrogate on Aug. 9. And even if hes not a good case study, hes, at the very least, a good story about figurative ear flicking and the womens game. Because of the smaller crowd sizes, TV coverage, and overall fanbase, not everyone knows what the difference is between the WNBA and the NBA. wnba average attendance by year. Indeed, the WNBAs reigning scoring champion, Britney Grinera towering 68 centerhad to contort into a middle coach seat to participate in last years All-Star Game. The amount WNBA players are getting paid compared to NBA players is known as the gender wage gap.The WNBA athletes should be paid as much as the NBA athletes whereas, the WNBA doesn't pay their players more than 22.8% of their revenue, the difference between the minimum mens salary is $415,593 dollars more than the maximum women salary they . The June 28 game between the Sparks and the Seattle Storm drew 378,000 viewers. Prof. Block on how employers' refusal to bargain harms the labor movement, Chipotle Borrows From Starbucks Playbook As Workers Push To Unionize, Prof. Sachs on how though "policies in Washington have made it very difficult for workers to organize; at the moment, workers are defying those fierce headwinds.
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