Caitlin Clark JUST MADE The WNBA $3 Billion After Stephen Curry Like Start to Career

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Inside the WNBA’s new game-changing deal — and what could happen next

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Put aside the records the WNBA has set this year.

Yes, the league has seen exceptional growth in TV ratings and attendance through the season’s opening months. National broadcasts averaged 1.32 million viewers — triple the average of 462,000 last year — and the games have drawn the largest collective audience  the league has seen in 26 years for the opening month of a season.

Caitlin Clark — who made more history Wednesday night, breaking the WNBA’s single-game assists record — has been credited with a great deal of this growth, bringing more eyeballs to the league than at any other time in recent memory following her record-breaking college run with Iowa.

Even more eyes will be on the league this weekend with the league’s All-Star Game between the USA Olympians, including the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, and a team of WNBA All-Stars, including rookies Clark and Angel Reese, in front of a sold-out crowd in Phoenix. The stakes for that game matter, Stewart said Tuesday. (Just don’t expect to see Clark or Ionescu in the 3-point contest.)

But none of those numbers or events are the big-ticket items the WNBA needed to ensure its longevity.

Tuesday’s news that the WNBA had closed on a new media rights deal, though, will change the course of the league’s future.

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Thanks in part to the arrival of Caitlin Clark, the WNBA has set TV ratings and attendance records. Getty Images
The WNBA’s next media package is worth roughly $2.2 billion over the next 11 years, according to The Athletic. That averages out to about $200 million a year from ESPN, NBC, and Amazon.

The new rights deal also offers room to welcome in new partners, and the WNBA expects to sell additional two national rights packages that could collectively add another $60 million annually in total revenue.

It’s a stark difference — at least four times as much — compared to the league’s current media deals with Disney, Ion, CBS and Amazon that are worth roughly a cumulative $50 million a year and are set to expire after the 2025 season.

“I love that different networks and brands are starting to just see that the women’s basketball league is not only worth the investment, but it’s been here, it’s valuable and it’s just a matter of opening up their purses,” WNBA reporter for SNY and NBC and recent iHeartRadio talent Khristina Williams told The Post on Wednesday.

There were reports that the WNBA would negotiate this new agreement independently, however the deal was part of the NBA’s latest rights negotiations with Disney, NBC, and Amazon that will pay the league approximately $75 billion over 11 years.

The WNBA is getting $2.2 billion of that $75 billion, or roughly 3 percent.

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ESPN will remain a TV partner in the WNBA’s new media rights deal. Getty Images
Though this is a big jump for the league, WNBAPA Executive Director Terri Jackson questioned that allocation.

“We have wondered for months how the NBA would value the WNBA in its media rights deal,” Jackson said, per the Washington Post. “With a reportedly $75 billion deal on the table, the league is in control of its own destiny. More precisely, the NBA controls the destiny of the WNBA. We look forward to learning how the NBA arrived at a $200 million valuation — if initial reports are accurate or even close. Neither the NBA nor the WNBA can deny that in the last few years, we have seen unprecedented growth across all metrics, the players continue to demonstrate their commitment to building the brand and that the fans keep showing up. There is no excuse to undervalue the WNBA again.”

Williams said the deals are only the “first step in a pivotal point for women’s basketball,” and other things still need to fall into place before any drastic changes occur in the league as a result of the new TV-money windfall.

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Fans attended WNBA games over the season’s first month at a level not seen in more than 25 years. Getty Images
Those moving parts include the current CBA, which was adopted in 2020. In November, the players association can opt out of the current agreement, which would end following the 2025 season. The CBA otherwise is set to last until 2027.

Seeing the NBA “finally valuing the W with $2.2 billion,” as Williams said, makes her believe that the players indeed will opt out to negotiate a new salary cap and salary structure — and eventually how revenue is split.

The CBA decision is the first step, Williams said, and if triggered, the new media rights deals can usher in even more changes:

Bigger contracts

Under the new media deal, a high-profile rookie entering the league earning less than $100,000 annually seems likely to change.

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Rookie of the Year contender Angel Reese is playing on a modest first-year salary. AP
This season, fans were in an uproar about the salary Clark was set to earn upon joining the Fever. Her four-year deal will pay her a total of $338,056, starting at $76,535 and averaging a little more than $84,000 per year.

Similarly, Angel Reese is taking in around $81,000 on average a year on her four-year, $324,383 rookie contract with the Sky.

The two are front-runners for the Rookie of the Year and two of the league’s biggest drivers of engagement.

And what of the league’s veteran stars? Would a quadrupling of the media deal make for the WNBA’s first $1 million player? If so, who?

According to Front Office Sports, the Aces’ two-time champion Jackie Young is the highest-paid player in the league, earning $252,450 annually with the Las Vegas Aces.

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Las Vegas’ Jackie Young is the WNBA’s highest-paid player, but the salary standards are set to change once money from new media rights deals starts flowing into the league. AP
The Storm’s Jewell Loyd follows, making $245,508 a year. Kahleah Copper takes the third spot at $245,059. No. 5 on the list is 20-year veteran Diana Taurasi, earning $234,936 annually.

Where will salaries go under a new CBA?

Revenue trickle down

The current CBA allows players to receive 50 percent of the league’s incremental revenue, from sources such as jersey sales, TV contracts, additional performance bonuses, team marketing deals.

However, players only receive those earnings if the WNBA’s revenue goal for that particular season is met. Essentially, the WNBA needs to exceed its revenue goal in a season for that money to trickle down to the players.

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Kelsey Plum says WNBA players would like to receive the same percentage of shared league revenue as their NBA counterparts. AP
“I don’t think I should get paid the same as LeBron,” Kelsey Plum said on “The Residency Podcast” in 2022. “But the percentage of revenue — like, for example: they sell my jersey in Mandalay Bay, I don’t get a dime. So that’s the stuff we’re talking about.

“We’re not asking to get paid what the men get paid,” she added. “We’re asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue shared.”

The NBA’s CBA currently splits revenue evenly between players and owners.

This is a major component that likely would be tackled after higher salary negotiations, Williams suggested.

A 5-5-7 playoff format

There is no greater sign than these new deals that the WNBA has the means to make their playoffs more of a spectacle.

They have the fans and numbers to back it up, and now extra revenue, to match the NBA’s format, at least with a seven-game Finals.

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A’ja Wilson of the eventual champion Aces and the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart face off in the 2023 WNBA Finals. Michelle Farsi for the NY Post
The WNBA playoffs currently feature a best-of-three opening round, following by best-of-five semifinals and finals.

Adopting a 5-5-7 postseason format would help promote the league’s talent and help the bottom line.

More expansion

At the 2024 WNBA Draft, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert said her goal was to have 16 teams in the league by 2028. She said she was “pretty confident.” Now it’s difficult to imagine the WNBA doesn’t reach that milestone — and possibly beyond.

The league already is committed to expand from 12 teams to 14 teams with the Golden State Valkyries set to begin play next season and Toronto’s team the following year.

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With the WNBA set to expand by two teams in 2026, commissioner Cathy Engelbert hopes to add another two teams by the 2028 season. Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Other locations Engelbert has mentioned as candidates for expansion are Philadelphia, Portland, Denver, Nashville and South Florida.

The new TV deals likely support even more growth in a league that has had 12 teams since 2008, when the Atlanta Dream were added.