Fwiw, this tweet summarizes the narrative that Russia State media propaganda is selling on this issue.
Their earning power here is what the free market dictates the worth of their labor is. I don’t fault American society for women’s basketball not paying as well as other places will. Some oligarch is willing to pay professional women basketball players more than the WNBA can afford to pay them. Why do our best soccer players like Pulisic have to go to England to make as much money as they possibly can playing the sport? Why do the best baseball players throughout the world have to move to America to maximize their earning capacity? Going wherever on Earth the most money is to be had is a reality of every sport in the world regardless of gender.
People that are bothered by this inequality need to step up to the plate and start buying WNBA season tickets and actually watch their games. Almost nobody who complains about WNBA pay inequity ever personally invests their own time and money into the sport.
The dirty secret is women basketball players have been playing for stupid money in Russia for decades because many of those teams were laundering factories for mafia types. I don't knock women like Griner going over there to get paid well, but the narrative out there is a bit incomplete.
Makes sense. Women's basketball in Russia actually being a stand alone entity that financially sustains itself would be surprising to learn. Can't fault WNBA players for taking a bite out of that apple.
Somewhere around two thirds of NBA owners are worth at least a billion dollars with many worth far more than that, but yes, it is the fans who need to do something more. Which one of their payrolls are you on?
Those dudes didn’t make billions by flushing money down the crapper. Which is what the WNBA is more or less.
I doubt an extra 500k to a million bucks from each one into the league’s salary “pool” is going to put any of them into financial peril. But they definitely want the average joe to think that it will, so the average joe will continue to stump for their money.
You cannot actually be serious with this take. You think it's on the owners and not the free market to determine what WNBA players should be paid? Beyond idiotic way of thinking about this. Completely detached from the reality of basic economics. The janitorial staff that cleans these NBA arenas owned by these owners are paid a lot less than the players. They-like the WNBA-do not generate any profit, but gosh darnit if those mean ole greedy billionaire owners would just fork over an extra 500k or so to each member of their janitorial staff there would be a little more fairness in the world!
It's not even about "sticking up for billionaires". It's about thinking your Utopian fantasy that just because NBA owners are rich they are expected to personally subsidize a professional sports league that attracts maybe a few hundred fans in person and maybe a few more thousand TV viewers nationwide on a good night is nothing but ludicrous. Some arguments, like this one, just aren't worth advocating for. The silliness.
Yes silly me for thinking labor should get more money and ownership should get less. In fact, next time I’m offered a raise, I’m going to suggest our CEO take the money instead.
