Caitlin Clark and her army of fans are the WNBA’s most valuable business asset. Not the most valuable player (at least not yet) … but business asset.
Clark’s arrival in the spring of 2024 sent the league’s television ratings, attendance, media rights, sponsorships and franchise evaluations soaring. Overnight, billionaires were fighting to pay $250 million for teams of their own.
Clark offered more than just logo-3 highlights. She gave the league hope.
The WNBA’s No. 1 goal should be to take that massive base of fans who followed Clark from Iowa and turn them into fans of the entire league … not just a single player or team.
It doesn’t matter how or why new customers arrive. Everything should be about seizing the opportunity to make them regulars by selling them on the strong product already playing out on a nightly basis.
The WNBA got handed a winning lottery ticket not seen in sports since Tiger Woods arrived on the PGA Tour.
The league should stop trying to light it on fire.
The latest evidence of self-sabotage comes from a conversation between WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and Minnesota star Napheesa Collier.
The specific topic was rookie contracts, which at around $75,000 per year undervalue Clark and other young talents such as Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers who brought smaller — but still valuable — fan bases and attention of their own from college.
“I … asked how [Engelbert] planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin, Angel and Paige, who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little for their first four years,” Collier said in a news conference. “Her response was, ‘Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court because without the platform the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.'”
Collier later added that Engelbert told her, “players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.”
Collier relayed the conversation as part of a screed against Engelbert over the quality of officiating, league fines to silence criticism, and other issues. All valid points, especially heading into negotiations for a new labor deal. Yet a rant about officiating, no matter how ruthlessly delivered, is pretty common. Entertaining, yes, but it would fade.
Collier is very smart, however. The Clark comments she attributed to Engelbert had to have been a purposeful grenade.
Clark fans were already wary of the reception she has received in the WNBA, and they have good reason.
Hard fouls. Snide comments. Dismissive media commentary. The Olympics. Some of this can be brushed off as the reality of competitive sports. No one is owed a walkway of flowers. Some of it, though, is likely based on politics, or pride, or jealousy, or rivalry, or … fill in the blank. At times, everything about Clark seems like a circus of contention.
While Clark herself has never complained, many of her fans perceive — and perception quickly becomes reality — that Clark isn’t fully welcome in the league.
In turn, neither are they.
Having the WNBA commissioner say Clark should be grateful because without the league she wouldn’t make “anything” just confirms the suspicion. It also plays on an old trope that women athletes should be thankful just for the chance to play. Is this 1972?
The whole thing is ridiculous, of course. Clark was doing national endorsement campaigns while still in college. By her junior season, she was more popular than any WNBA player. She arrived rich.
Maybe Engelbert wasn’t aware.
That the WNBA commissioner would have an opinion on who should be grateful to whom, let alone that she would unprofessionally express it to another active player is almost unfathomable.
It’s not Clark who should thank the WNBA for her endorsements. It’s the league that should thank her for the boom in business. It should count its blessings that she and the other young charismatic stars are gracing its league.
“I am disheartened by how Napheesa characterized our conversations and league leadership,” Engelbert said as part of a statement. “But even when our perspectives differ, my commitment to the players and to this work will not waver.”
That isn’t a denial of what Collier said Engelbert said. It also doesn’t address the main issue.
The absolute worst thing that could happen for the business of women’s basketball is for all the new fans to think the league not only doesn’t appreciate their favorite player, but is openly hostile and condescending to them.
That’s precisely how you don’t grow a sport. They might tune in for Caitlin games (or Angel and Paige games), but they now have motivation to purposely not support, watch or care about anything or anyone else.
The WNBA suddenly isn’t a business that covets them as lifelong customers.
It is the enemy.
You made some excellent points here. Well done!