From eclipsing males’s viewership to promoting out Nike collabs in minutes, the WNBA’s momentum is simple. Now Caitlin Clark’s memorabilia is shattering public sale data—pulling in sums that dwarf her annual wage.
Clark’s Rookie Royalty WNBA Flawless Logowoman card, a bit of memorabilia which is one-of-one, bought for a whopping $660,000 final Thursday night time.
It’s a uncommon discover for collectors, as the cardboard is signed and inscribed with Clark’s scoring whole for her rookie season on the Indiana Fever, and in addition features a Logowoman patch adorned on WNBA jerseys.
The cardboard began at an prolonged bidding value of $336,0000—the earlier sale value of Clark’s 2024 Panini Prizm WNBA Signatures Gold Vinyl 1/1 PSA 10 again in March. However when it bought for practically double that, the collector’s merchandise made historical past for essentially the most cash made at a public public sale for a girl athlete—and it’s a far cry from what the celebrity makes in a single yr.
The truth is, Clark makes lower than the typical New Yorker; regardless of being the primary draft choose within the WNBA final yr, she solely earned a wage of $76,535 for her first yr on the Indiana Fever. That’s a rock-bottom wage for the phenom of ladies’s basketball, as her card that fetched tons of of hundreds at public sale is over 8.6 instances increased than her annual pay. Even Clark’s four-year contract, wherein she’ll make a complete of $338,000, is nearly half of the cardboard’s worth.
WNBA wages have did not preserve tempo with its surging recognition; final yr, the ladies’s NCAA March Insanity event last had 18.7 million viewers tuning in, in comparison with 14.82 million watching the lads’s final recreation. But the primary choose of the NBA season was anticipated to make $10.5 million—137 instances greater than what Clark makes in a yr.
‘Pay us what you owe us’: WNBA gamers leaning on NIL offers and side-hustles to make ends meet
Clark is likely one of the greatest names in U.S. sports activities, with fellow stars Cameron Brink, Rickea Jackson, and Angel Reese serving to shatter data for the league. However their pay is in stark distinction to their cultural and enterprise influence.
In 2023, the typical WNBA participant made a base of $113,295 per yr, in comparison with the standard NBA hooper making round $9.7 million. Girls’s low pay within the league has been a sizzling matter of dialogue; about 40 gamers just lately met with the WNBA to barter their compensation, however failed to succeed in a brand new collective bargaining settlement (CBA). The basketball stars had opted out of their final CBA in October 2024, and had hoped to dealer a greater revenue-sharing mannequin, increased salaries, cushier advantages, and a extra lenient wage cap.
However negotiations fell by means of, prompting Clark and different WNBA gamers to put on “Pay us what you owe us” t-shirts forward of their All-Star recreation on Saturday final week. The sold-out area of over 16,000 attendees, and thousands and thousands of viewers tuning in at dwelling, watched the celebs push again in opposition to a long-held challenge. Proper now, WNBA hoopers obtain 9.3% of their league’s income—as compared, NBA gamers reap between 49% and 51% of the league’s basketball-related earnings.
“That is no laughing matter. That is no pattern, that is no second in time,” A’ja Wilson, a Las Vegas Aces participant and three-time league MVP, instructed NPR. “You’re coping with me, my livelihood, my future, the following technology. So we’re going to take this very, very critically.”
Fortune has contacted WNBA for remark.
WNBA gamers make their thousands and thousands in facet hustles as an alternative
Though the WNBA just lately signed a $2.2 billion media cope with growth charges of $250 million, the feminine athletes aren’t raking in thousands and thousands from the game itself. As an alternative, many ladies’s basketball stars are getting inventive within the methods they complement their earnings.
One standard means is thru identify, picture, and likeness (NIL) offers—Clark made $3.1 million from NIL agreements in 2023, within the last yr of her school stint.
There’s additionally the choice to play abroad; Olympian Brittney Griner made 4 instances her WNBA wage in Russia, incomes greater than $1 million.
Others with out million-dollar model offers must resort to juggling part-time jobs. Chiney Ogwumike, who performed for the Los Angeles Sparks, has since grow to be a basketball analyst and host for ESPN; Haley Jones, a guard for the Dallas Wings, has additionally commentated for NBA TV and the WNBA finals. And the Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Grey has a side-hustle shelling out wings and burgers because the proprietor of WNB Manufacturing unit restaurant.
