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Indiana Fever WNBA Salary Cap Sheet

Indiana Fever Salary Cap Sheet and Key WNBA CBA Info from Her Hoop Stats
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This site provided an excellent breakdown of the Indiana Fever and their player payroll and restrictions. The WNBA has a TEAM salary cap of $1.46 million. A super max contract in the WNBA is $241K and I think the earliest you could make that kind of flow is in year 5 of your WNBA career. For a top 4 draft pick, you get $76k. The WNBA is not the land of green pastures, milk and honey.

I really don' think there is particular need to jump to the WNBA. The internet seems very murky on how much money Clark is pulling in this year in NIL. I've seen reports ranging from $800k to $3M. What Clark has going for her is eyeballs. The college game has built in fan bases and that can't be said for the WNBA. Though this graduating class has notoriety, they would have to foster the sport almost from scratch to command the NIL that college's elite stars are pulling in.

Now for some odd things to ponder: I don't even know where or when to watch WNBA basketball. I think ESPN shows some games, but only a handful. Really the WNBA will probably have its largest viewership during the Olympic Games this summer. When you think about the lack of salary WNBA stars have, they probably look at the Olympics as a giant pay day where they get meaningful NIL so no wonder the WNBA players are pushing back on letting college athletes into the Olympics.

Clark's NIL partners might view Clark's presence in college basketball as beneficial to her value to them. State Farm has a way easier time marketing Clark in February and March, than they would in June or July solely because college basketball just has a much larger audience. Even stranger to think about is Clark has value to Fox. Since Fox has most of the rights to Iowa women's basketball games, perhaps it's worth it to the media giant to pay Clark say $300-$400k to simply remain at Iowa so that they can reap the ad revenue for one more year.
 
I think the WNBA needs Caitlin Clark more than CC needs the WNBA.

I'm not a WNBA afficionado. But I do remember when the league started it seemed like every NBA team had a WNBA team. The women wanted equal pay. But attendance and the TV ratings just weren't three and the league was bleeding money.

I would guess the collective bargaining agreement reflected that reality. The league downsized and worked just to be profitable.

But now the league is on the cusp of a new popularity, times are good and Caitlin Clark plays a role in that. The WNBA knows what she can bring to the league, and they want here but they are playing nice saying all the right things. What accommodations would the league make for Caitlin? What if she doesn't want to play in Indiana? Could they make a CBA exception to increase her earnings to come closer to what she's making now? I've got my doubts on this but, hey, who knows.

These next couple of months should be really interesting for lots of different reasons.
 
I definitely agree that the WNBA needs Clark more than Clark needs the WNBA.

Though I haven't done research too deep into the financial workings of the WNBA, here are things I've heard in passing about them. They are still owned by the NBA. The NBA runs them at a loss for a variety of reasons. If they were on their own, they would have folded many years ago. But, you can see in just their contract designs that they are set up like the NBA; first round picks with guaranteed 3 year deals, super max contracts, etc. Really, they could probably use more innovation from the franchises on how to make themselves marketable. My family has been to Chicago Sky games and you are lucky to have 400 people in the arena. So, they don't have gate, they surely don't have a television contract of note, and they don't appear to have any compelling reason to watch them.

Enter college basketball of 2023 and 2024. That's a compelling sport. Because the players are forced to stay in college for some reason by the WNBA, Women's CBB feels like old school Men's CBB. Sure the seniors graduate, but we know a lot of the cast of characters and have a good idea of what to expect. I'm not sure Clark doesn't have the highest net income of any women's basketball player in the United States. I also wouldn't be surprised to find out WNBA coaches make pennies on the dollar compared to the more high profile collegiate coaches.

To me, it's obvious that the WNBA needs to court Clark because she's probably more popular than the entire WNBA combined. She may not be the best player in the world, but she is the game's brightest star. If I was the WNBA, I would be courting Clark to join the Olympic team just to integrate her into the existing WNBA stars. I will guarantee if Clark doesn't make the U.S. Women's Team, NBC will ask more than once, what this American team would have looked like with Caitlin Clark. Even her absence is going to hang over them.

I am also serious that some corporate sponsor will probably offer her hefty bonuses to remain in the college game. I really don't know if State Farm is going to have an ad with an Indiana Fever player in 2 years without the WNBA reaching heights it never has achieved. The WNBA needs to stop looking at Clark as an adversary, and start to view her has their best marketing opportunity they ever had.
 
PlatypusMessiah said:
I definitely agree that the WNBA needs Clark more than Clark needs the WNBA.

Though I haven't done research too deep into the financial workings of the WNBA, here are things I've heard in passing about them. They are still owned by the NBA. The NBA runs them at a loss for a variety of reasons. If they were on their own, they would have folded many years ago. But, you can see in just their contract designs that they are set up like the NBA; first round picks with guaranteed 3 year deals, super max contracts, etc. Really, they could probably use more innovation from the franchises on how to make themselves marketable. My family has been to Chicago Sky games and you are lucky to have 400 people in the arena. So, they don't have gate, they surely don't have a television contract of note, and they don't appear to have any compelling reason to watch them.

Enter college basketball of 2023 and 2024. That's a compelling sport. Because the players are forced to stay in college for some reason by the WNBA, Women's CBB feels like old school Men's CBB. Sure the seniors graduate, but we know a lot of the cast of characters and have a good idea of what to expect. I'm not sure Clark doesn't have the highest net income of any women's basketball player in the United States. I also wouldn't be surprised to find out WNBA coaches make pennies on the dollar compared to the more high profile collegiate coaches.

To me, it's obvious that the WNBA needs to court Clark because she's probably more popular than the entire WNBA combined. She may not be the best player in the world, but she is the game's brightest star. If I was the WNBA, I would be courting Clark to join the Olympic team just to integrate her into the existing WNBA stars. I will guarantee if Clark doesn't make the U.S. Women's Team, NBC will ask more than once, what this American team would have looked like with Caitlin Clark. Even her absence is going to hang over them.

I am also serious that some corporate sponsor will probably offer her hefty bonuses to remain in the college game. I really don't know if State Farm is going to have an ad with an Indiana Fever player in 2 years without the WNBA reaching heights it never has achieved. The WNBA needs to stop looking at Clark as an adversary, and start to view her has their best marketing opportunity they ever had.
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Ex. Players like Swoopes are already taking shots at Clark and suggesting she will have a culture fit problem for reasons I won't go into detail about, as I don't want to get banned. You are completely right that the WNBA needs Clark. I think that without an assurance of a spot on the Olympic team I think she stays in college. Considering the oldest player in the league has a spot on the Olympic team and is made up of older established players Clark upsets the apple cart if she is included on the team. NBC will insist, so does Clark want to sour her relationship with the veteran WNBA players? Honestly if I'm Clark I might play in the Olympics and return to college. I fear for CC's safety in the WNBA with a lot of jealous veterans looking to put her in her place. Clarks just in a tough spot but what I love about her is she isn't a wallflower. When she enters the WNBA she will turn her teammates into believers as she doubles their productivity and makes her team better. She holds all the cards.
 
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