After a record-breaking season and a big TV contract, women’s basketball players hold bargaining chips in their hands.
The minimum salary in the women’s professional basketball league is 60,000 euros per season, the maximum is around 224,000 euros. Lauri Markkanen Earns more than 43 million euros per season.
On Monday, the players’ association of the women’s WNBA basketball league terminated the league’s collective agreement. In the future, the players want a bigger slice of the league’s increased income streams, because the season that ended on Sunday was in many ways a record.
The clubs drew record audiences, sponsorship revenue grew and the WNBA signed a $200 million television deal with three companies. NBC, Disney and Amazon Prime pay approximately 185 million euros for the 11-year TV contract.
The league’s current collective agreement, already signed before the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, is valid until October next year. Now the 12-team league and the players’ association have a year to renegotiate the contract.
– If we continued with the same contract, we would fall behind. It’s not just about bigger salaries, it’s about getting a fair slice of the business growth we’ve been creating. We want to improve working conditions and secure the conditions of future players, said the president of the WNBA, representing the Seattle Storm Nneka Ogwumike According to ESPN.
The WNBA has claimed its place
Female basketball players’ salaries are minimal compared to NBA basketball players’ earnings. Of course, there are differences between the leagues in terms of history, length of the season and number of teams, but women’s salaries have room for increase due to the increased popularity of the league. At least that’s what the WNBA players’ association believes.
CEO of the Players Association Terri Jackson already commented to ESPN in the summer that there is a great need for reforms.
– We are at the point where the WNBA needs to start looking like a professional league and not like a start-up company, Jackson said.
This season’s WNBA was won by the New York Liberty, who defeated the Minnesota Lynx in the final series with a 3–2 victory. The fifth final, which ended in extra time, was followed by a sold-out stand, 18,090 spectators.
No Finnish players were seen in this season’s league. The number one star of the Finnish national team Awak Kuier played for the Dallas Wing for three seasons, while playing winters professionally in Italy, but the job became too big. Kuieri is scheduled to return to the North American fields next year.