WNBA to pay Stewie this season | The Boneyard

WNBA to pay Stewie this season

nwhoopfan said:
interesting development

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It is crazy when someone like Stewie only makes $64K salary. I know she made $$$$ playing overseas, but if you are not a top level player, you probably won't be making much money playing overseas, which makes me wonder why some of these young women pursue this career path.
 
pvdoggy said:
It is crazy when someone like Stewie only makes $64K salary. I know she made $$$$ playing overseas, but if you are not a top level player, you probably won't be making much money playing overseas, which makes me wonder why some of these young women pursue this career path.
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Is that really all this superstar was going to make in the WNBA? Is that for real?

Wow! What a rip-off!
 
Fairfield Fan said:
Is that really all this superstar was going to make in the WNBA? Is that for real?

Wow! What a rip-off!
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Her base salary is about $65,000 according to the article, but WNBA players also make additional money (bonuses) for being selected to the All Star game, for each playoff game, and any mvp or other season awards.
 
pvdoggy said:
It is crazy when someone like Stewie only makes $64K salary. I know she made $$$$ playing overseas, but if you are not a top level player, you probably won't be making much money playing overseas, which makes me wonder why some of these young women pursue this career path.
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I guess most play because they love the game and are accustomed to playing. And the average salary for a college grad with 0-5 years experience is just a tad above $50K, according to info from NACE. So unless a young player has an advanced degree, or some special talent they are no worse off playing. And perhaps they will seek a coaching or sports related career, so playing is their apprenticeship. :eek:
 
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Goodgood said:
They also make money with endorsements. EDD never had to go overseas because she made about 220K/year including endorsements.
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Yeah, but EDD is the very top of her profession, you would expect her to make much more than that. I was really wondering about lower tier player who in theory are also near the top of their profession.
 
pvdoggy said:
It is crazy when someone like Stewie only makes $64K salary. I know she made $$$$ playing overseas, but if you are not a top level player, you probably won't be making much money playing overseas, which makes me wonder why some of these young women pursue this career path.
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Next year she'll make 110-115k once she is off her rookie contract. It ain't NBA money but it is pretty darn good for 3-4 months out of the year. Almost all of the WNBA teams vets make north of or close to 6 figures per season.
 
Here is a Doug Feinberg article on this unprecedented move by the WNBA:

WNBA will pay Breanna Stewart, who is out for the season with a torn Achilles, to be an ambassador

"The WNBA will pay Stewart in excess of the roughly $65,000 base salary she would have made with the Storm, according to a person familiar with the details. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Thursday night because no official announcement has been made. "

She's a fan magnet and she stirs interest wherever in the world she goes. Smart move.
 
I would have thought that all pro athlete contracts would come with some sort of short and/or long term disability insurance. If they don't then the unions aren't doing their job.
 
bballnut90 said:
Next year she'll make 110-115k once she is off her rookie contract. It ain't NBA money but it is pretty darn good for 3-4 months out of the year. Almost all of the WNBA teams vets make north of or close to 6 figures per season.
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It is misleading to think that they only work 3-4 months/year for that money since being a pro athlete you must work pretty much all year on your craft. Football season is only 16-17 weeks long but those guys train pretty much year round.
 
bballnut90 said:
Next year she'll make 110-115k once she is off her rookie contract. It ain't NBA money but it is pretty darn good for 3-4 months out of the year. Almost all of the WNBA teams vets make north of or close to 6 figures per season.
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These are the top professional athletes. And we know that they make far, far more overseas.

So much for the "support" from the NBA.

A kid with a business degree will make over $80k as a new employee for any run-of-the-mill hedge funds in Fairfield County. But a fourth year pro who was the best in America in college makes $64k?

Again, WOW!
 
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Fairfield Fan said:
These are the top professional athletes. And we know that they make far, far more overseas.

So much for the "support" from the NBA.

A kid with a business degree will make over $80k as a new employee for any run-of-the-mill hedge funds in Fairfield County. But a fourth year pro who was the best in America in college makes $64k?

Again, WOW!
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I suspect many of us overestimate how lucrative overseas play is for the WNBA rank & file. But in Stewie's case she does make a lot of money overseas. And she has a Nike contract. I'm sure she's doing very well - Maseratis aren't cheap, and I doubt she took out a 60-month car loan on the Mercedes for her mother either.

But she's the league MVP. It ain't like that for everybody. Nike introduced 4 new player 'reps' and Adidas 2. That's 6 out of the 36 new draftees (7 - let's count KLS for Puma), and these aren't multi-hundred-$million contracts like the biggest NBA stars get. Didn't MoJeff get a $25K shoe contract as the 2nd overall pick?
 
pvdoggy said:
It is misleading to think that they only work 3-4 months/year for that money since being a pro athlete you must work pretty much all year on your craft. Football season is only 16-17 weeks long but those guys train pretty much year round.
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Yeah they have to stay in shape and work at their craft but they also have ample opportunity to play basketball overseas and make more money, or get into other areas such as coaching, running camps, broadcasting, advertising, etc.
 
Fairfield Fan said:
These are the top professional athletes. And we know that they make far, far more overseas.

So much for the "support" from the NBA.

A kid with a business degree will make over $80k as a new employee for any run-of-the-mill hedge funds in Fairfield County. But a fourth year pro who was the best in America in college makes $64k?

Again, WOW!
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What other pro team sport do women make more money?? Answer: none in the US. Most other sports have to play for significantly less, pay for their own training or their only option is to play overseas. Yeah it stinks, but that's the reality we live in right now with women's team sports.
 
bballnut90 said:
What other pro team sport do women make more money?? Answer: none in the US. Most other sports have to play for significantly less, pay for their own training or their only option is to play overseas. Yeah it stinks, but that's the reality we live in right now with women's team sports.
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Tennis. They make very big bucks. And soccer players are now pushing very hard for equality in pay and benefits for their participation on the US national team.

We'll see...
 
Fairfield Fan said:
Tennis. They make very big bucks. And soccer players are now pushing very hard for equality in pay and benefits for their participation on the US national team.

We'll see...
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Tennis is an individual sport. And NWSL max pay is 46k for a season that is 2-3 months longer than the WNBA. WNBA max pay I believe is somewhere between 115k-125k, so many players make literally 1/3 what WNBA players make.
 
The PRO WOMEN in several sports aren't close to the winning men's total $! A male golfer wins a major event and gets over $2, 000,000 for the win! A lady winning one of their major events gets between $600,000 & $800,000! Same with pro tennis!
Sue Bird & Diana Taurasi were teammates in Russia and made just UNDER $1, 000,000 each! With free fancy apartment, Valet, Chef, and free transportation back to the USA on team owner's private jet! Their salary this WNBA season (if healthy) should be approximately $120,000! Not counting endorsement deals!
Regular WBB players, NOT superstars are making around $200,000+ overseas!
 
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How many days or weeks or months do these players need to work to make this money?
 
RSHERMVIKES said:
The PRO WOMEN in several sports aren't close to the winning men's total $! A male golfer wins a major event and gets over $2, 000,000 for the win! A lady winning one of their major events gets between $600,000 & $800,000! Same with pro tennis!
Sue Bird & Diana Taurasi were teammates in Russia and made just UNDER $1, 000,000 each! With free fancy apartment, Valet, Chef, and free transportation back to the USA on team owner's private jet! Their salary this WNBA season (if healthy) should be approximately $120,000! Not counting endorsement deals!
Regular WBB players, NOT superstars are making around $200,000+ overseas!
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I believe in tennis, each of the major events pays out same amount to winner, men or women, which in some way is unfair to the men since they play 5 sets vs 3 sets that the women play.

Actually quite a few tennis tournaments (not majors) offer the same prize money for men and women.
 
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pvdoggy said:
I believe in tennis, each of the major events pays out same amount to winner, men or women, which in some way is unfair to the men since they play 5 sets vs 3 sets that the women play.

Actually quite a few tennis tournaments (not majors) offer the same prize money for men and women.
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I like that tennis has addressed the pay issue, but I too question the 3 sets v. 5 sets difference. This is the one case where I could see women being paid less, unless they also played best of 5, which I think they are or can be physically capable of. For golf, some women's tournaments are 54 holes. I can see less pay for 54 holes than for 72 holes, but the purse gap between men and women is quite large. The professional basketball pay gap is much, much larger--over 100:1. The golf ratio is well under 10:1. I believe in equal pay for the same product.
 
Tennis tournaments are run for both men and women at the same venue at the same time and I believe the ticket prices are the same. Not sure if the primary court price is the same, but the grounds access is.

No other major sport follows this format so the equality issue is easier to make in tennis. It is hard to break out the gate receipts and vendor profits and broadcast contracts by gender. For golf and other sports, the venues are different so all the revenue is clearly divided.

The Olympics, skiing, beach volleyball are similar situations to tennis - not sure how the prize money is divided there, but certainly the NT for soccer has a pretty good case though how much revenue is generated at the friendlies leading up to the international competitions might be different.

I think USA basketball has regularized the compensation between genders but I am not sure.

The issue with compensation in professional leagues comes down to revenue stream - for all of history and into the present time the men's professional leagues either make money or they fold pretty quickly and the women's professional leagues have failed to consistently make money. That is fine if the teams are owned by billionaires who for whatever reason like to spend it freely on a sports team, but simple businessmen like to make a profit and put their money in places where they can maximize it. Even the WNBA teams that do break even or make a modest profit are taking an 'opportunity cost' that is probably hurting the bottom line when compared to other possible investments.

The issue to understand with individual sports is the huge amateur participation 'market' that exists and while not equal it is large enough for women to be a huge marketing opportunity - adult amateur female golfers, skiers, and tennis players dwarf the amateur women basketball and soccer participants and they need equipment and venues to practice and play. Sponsorship, appearance fees, and broadcast fees recognize this market, and the viewership crossover of genders is pretty significant. It helps that the genders at the amateur level can participate together in their sport.

The number of amateur leagues for post college age men in soccer and basketball also dwarfs those for post college women and they are so numerous that men can separate by age group so my friend now plays in an 'over 50' league outside Boston. Maybe that will change with so many more women participating in sports through college, but I don't think it has to a noticeable degree yet and Title IX has been around for quite awhile.
 
UcMiami said:
Tennis tournaments are run for both men and women at the same venue at the same time and I believe the ticket prices are the same. Not sure if the primary court price is the same, but the grounds access is.
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There are many tennis tournaments that is only for men, or for women, not mixed, and in those the prize money for the women is typically much less than similar men only tournament.
 
I don't understand why people think WNBA players deserve the same money that NBA players make. First of all the NBA season is considerably longer. But the major factors are the TV contracts, stadium and merchandising sales. If a TV show was selling $20 million per episode in advertising and another show was selling $3 million, which actors do you think will earn more compensation? I assume they all work just as hard but let's be realistic about this.
 
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Apparently Stewie's role as "Ambassador" is still not defined, even though she'll be making a higher salary doing this than if she was playing. Neither the player's union nor the other teams were asked about it, or even notified, before it was publicly announced. Concerns about whether this is fair to other injured players, and whether it's fair to other teams with players injured during foreign play affecting their salary caps.

- Did Seattle know Stewie was going to get paid before they suspended her for the year without pay? (They say, "No").
- Did Stewie know about it before she told Seattle to go a head and suspend her without pay? (?????)
- Etc.

Lots of issues. Will be good when the WNBA's new boss starts. Right now it sounds kinda like the Lakers - "There is no plan."

www.espn.com

WNBA misses mark with lack of answers on Breanna Stewart's ambassador role

A WNBA ambassador role is a smart concept. The league announcing it without communicating the move properly only sparked confusion and controversy.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
No good deed goes unpunished.

Clearly, the WNBA skipped a few steps but in the end, if such a position was created and properly publicized for open applications, no one but the MVP of the league who already has a strong web presence, is very well liked and respected and also has all the time to devote to this is better qualified for the position.
 
pvdoggy said:
I believe in tennis, each of the major events pays out same amount to winner, men or women, which in some way is unfair to the men since they play 5 sets vs 3 sets that the women play.

Actually quite a few tennis tournaments (not majors) offer the same prize money for men and women.
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S/o to Billie Jean King and Venus Williams
 
j66kicker said:
Lots of issues....

www.espn.com

WNBA misses mark with lack of answers on Breanna Stewart's ambassador role

A WNBA ambassador role is a smart concept. The league announcing it without communicating the move properly only sparked confusion and controversy.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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Yeah, when you read the ESPN article you realize how totally arbitrary the WNBA was in deciding to do this, and how it was potentially unfair both to other teams and other players who are also sidelined with injuries and/or pregnancies.

eebmg said:
No good deed goes unpunished.

Clearly, the WNBA skipped a few steps but in the end, if such a position was created and properly publicized for open applications, no one but the MVP of the league who already has a strong web presence, is very well liked and respected and also has all the time to devote to this is better qualified for the position.
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Really? Skylar Diggins has ten times the twitter followers that Stewwie has and a far more extensive brand outside of basketball. That's just one metric, but it's a powerful one in terms of who can best serve as an ambassador for the WNBA. Here's another: Maya Moore has almost three times the followers of Stewwie and I'm almost certain is much more of a household name given her longevity and fame. And a third: Candace Parker, who has four times the followers and is not only among the most famous WNBA players, but also has an established presence calling NCAA games - men's and women's, which means she can reach new potential fans for the W. Or another: Sue Bird also has more twitter followers and is total a legend of the game.

All of those players are also out with injuries or pregnancies so far this season, each could theoretically have benefited from such a deal had it been openly available to them, and each has an arguable case that they could be a more effective ambassador than Stewwie. Certainly, no one wishes ill of Stewwie and I think everyone agrees she's someone worthy of this opportunity. But it really does seem unfair, especially since it allowed Seattle to unload her salary while keeping her on payroll in a way those other players and their teams can't do.
 
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