OT: David Berri explains why WNBA players get so little | The Boneyard

OT: David Berri explains why WNBA players get so little

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1) Who the h*ck is David Berri ?
2) No one who writes this statement should expect to be taken seriously:
"In the end, player pay in a sports league isn’t about how much revenue the league is earning."

Add "solely", then I'm ok. Otherwise, you're a hack.
 
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Mark Cuban Is Wrong About Why WNBA Pay Is So Low | HuffPost

He points out that it's not about revenue, it's not about years in operation, it's not about profitability per se. It's about bargaining power.

Mark Cuban Is Wrong About Why WNBA Pay Is So Low | HuffPost
It seems like the author contradicts himself. The main premise of the article is that it’s all about player bargaining power, and he give lots of stats from different sports/leagues/times to show this. The players with the most leverage were those with other options - new league (ABA), eventually free agency. (At that point I was thinking the WNBA players should not go for 50% of revenues, but rather go for ‘no cap.’ Then the star players could hold out for whatever the think they’re worth, with the threat being to just play overseas and skip the WNBA.)

But at the end he concludes that it really wouldn’t cost the NBA that much ($18 million) to just subsidize (“invest”) the WNBA salaries up to the 50% level. What does that have to do with bargaining power??
 
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How much does a WNBA team cost? How much is invested by the owners during the operation of a typical WNBA season? Do the owners deserve a respectable return on their investments? Everything is about the players... what about the owners. What happens when they lose money during the course of a season? Will the players be expected to take a cut in pay? I know nothing about the financial commitment of owning or running a team but it seems like everyone thinks these are all deep pocket owners that must put up whatever is necessary to keep the players happy... even if it is an unwise business decision. Just curious.
 
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1) Who the h*ck is David Berri ?
2) No one who writes this statement should be expect to be taken seriously:
"In the end, player pay in a sports league isn’t about how much revenue the league is earning."

Add "solely", then I'm ok. Otherwise, you're a hack.

Excuse me? Since when is name calling acceptable on this site?
 

vtcwbuff

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Lots of writers have been called hacks here over the years. The all time hack leader (undeserved IMO) is probably Mike Dimauro.
 
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For the complainers over the matter of how much WNBA players make, I have a challenge to you. Just go start your own team (or even league if you don't like the rules of the current WNBA) and you can pay the players however much you want. If it's more than the WNBA, I'm sure you can get all the good players.

I find much of this discussion rather much like what happens often at my work. "Consultants" call us and suggest they know how to help us make more money. We ask "Do you know what we do?" (NO), "Do you know how much we presently make doing what you don't know?" (NO). Then exactly why are you so sure you know how to help us make more?
 
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This guy either totally misunderstood or distorted Cubans point. What Cuban was saying is that investors ( not subsidizers) expect a minimal return for their investments. Until that minimal return is reached percentages are not applicable. He implied that the profit level of the WNBA has not reached that point where a higher amount can be allocated to salaries. Percentages are only relevant once the league makes enough profit to make them relevant. Right now the profit level per investment capital is so low that comparing them to NBA teams, even decades past, are not really relevant.

Investors are usually not just satisfied with making a profit. Their decision in respect to making investments depends on choosing an investment that will give them the highest return. Bottom line is that the WNBA is not a good investment and it would not exist without some form of subsidy. Of course the individuals our society has been producing have been conditioned to believe that subsidies are to be expected.
 
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For the complainers over the matter of how much WNBA players make, I have a challenge to you. Just go start your own team (or even league if you don't like the rules of the current WNBA) and you can pay the players however much you want. If it's more than the WNBA, I'm sure you can get all the good players.

I find much of this discussion rather much like what happens often at my work. "Consultants" call us and suggest they know how to help us make more money. We ask "Do you know what we do?" (NO), "Do you know how much we presently make doing what you don't know?" (NO). Then exactly why are you so sure you know how to help us make more?
Every time I see someone complaining about something I think, "Hmmm, sounds like there's an opportunity available." Of course the complainer almost never seizes that opportunity, that's someone else's job. As the saying goes, nothing is impossible for the person that doesn't have to do it.

Two definitions of consultant:
a) Someone who, for a price, offers to tell you the time then asks to borrow your watch.
b) Someone who knows less about your business than you do and charges more to tell you how to run it than you could make even if you ran it right rather than how the consultant suggests.
 

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