Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Basketball, WNBA
Luke Davies
A WNBA team were reportedly slapped with a record fine back in 2022 for an ‘unsanctioned’ trip.
The WNBA is constantly gaining fans with several players, such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, helping bring more eyeballs to female basketball.
In recent times, a huge talking point within the WNBA community has been player pay compared to their male counterparts who compete in the NBA.
Earlier this year, Indiana Fever’s Clark was one of several players to wear t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Pay Us What You Owe Us” before the All-Star game.
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This came shortly after the league and the players failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement.
Meanwhile, Reese previously spoke about how she was struggling to pay her bills despite being one of the most well-known players in the sport.
Speaking on Instagram last year, Reese claimed: “The WNBA don't pay my bills at all. I don't even think it pays one of my bills. Literally."
As reported by SI in April, WNBA salaries roughly range from $66,000 to $250,000 per year.
As for NBA salaries, the estimated median annual salary is around $6,696,429 per annum, with players receiving less than 10 per cent of the league’s annual revenue according to Market Watch in 2024.
Despite the players’ protestations about pay, an article from the New York Post back in October 2024 suggested that the league will continually make a loss for years to come.
It was initially forecasted that the WNBA would lose around $50 million in 2024 - although some statistical figures suggest otherwise.
Team expenses have increased in recent years, with clubs now having a $25m per year commitment to charter planes to matches rather than having their players board regular flights, which was often the case previously.
And back in 2022, flights were a hot topic when, according to ESPN, the New York Liberty were fined $500,000 for chartering flights to away games - including an unsanctioned team trip to Napa, California - during the WNBA season and for “other violations of league rules”.
SI even reported that the “WNBA considered terminating… the Liberty” for “violating the league’s collective bargaining agreement”.
At the time, the collective bargaining agreement did not allow for such travel arrangements, as it was deemed an unfair advantage.
The Liberty was originally fined $1 million, but this was halved after an appeal.
Then, in October 2023, the New York-based team were fined $25,000 for violating league rules related to “governing postgame media interview access”.
As per the NBA, the fine resulted from “select Liberty players not participating in post-game media availability following Game 4 of the 2023 WNBA Finals”.
Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Betnijah Laney were each fined $2,000 for declining to make themselves available to be interviewed.
WNBA fine money is usually donated to charities and other league initiatives.