LONG BEACH — I have to remind myself every so often that the WNBA is 27 years old. Given all of the failed leagues that have littered the landscape of professional sports in this country, it is already a success. In terms of staying power, it’s just a baby.
Consider, as this country’s premier women’s basketball league enters its 28th season, where the big brother NBA was in its 28th season in 1973-74. Players still flew commercial, and often in coach. The average salary was as high as $90,000 (which would be $635,570 today), the highest in pro sports at the time, but that was mainly because of the battle for players between the NBA and ABA. The top salary was $500,000 (or $3.5 million today), paid to Ernie DiGregorio of the Buffalo Braves, who you might know now as the Los Angeles Clippers.
Consider this, as well: The Lakers, then two seasons removed from their first NBA championship and starting to grab hold of the hearts of Southern Californians, still weren’t the most popular basketball team in town. UCLA was, in the waning years of the John Wooden dynasty, as none other than Jerry West told Scott Howard-Cooper in his recent book on the dynasty: “They far overshadowed us, and they overshadowed a lot of professional teams because of their excellence.”
All of which is a way of saying that the proud and outspoken women who make up WNBA rosters in 2024 are only starting to see the fruits of their labor. And while making the place better for those who follow doesn’t always pay the bills, the seeds are being planted today.
Yes, the excitement was palpable Wednesday night in Cal State Long Beach’s Walter Pyramid, when the rebuilding Sparks stayed with Atlanta in their season opener for most of the evening before falling 92-81, after head coach Curt Miller talked about the excitement league-wide and the entry of a rookie class headed by Indiana’s Caitlin Clark.
“I had anxiety watching those other four games (Tuesday) night,” Miller said. “You know, it was just fun to see. And it should be a really special year for the WNBA.”
But there was also this nagging thought: What is one of the league’s legacy franchises, in its second-largest market, doing playing in the Pyramid, capacity 4,000, on opening night?
We know. The Sparks had to farm out early season games both because of continuing renovations to their regular home in downtown L.A. and because the other three main tenants of that building all had the potential for deep playoff runs. The flops of the Lakers, Kings and Clippers in their first-round series freed up dates for the Sparks – including next Thursday’s visit by Clark and Indiana – but surely there could have been a way to get at least the opener into Pauley Pavilion or Galen Center, or maybe Honda Center, or even the larger Long Beach Arena with its 13,500 seats, couldn’t there?
Those of us who were there felt the excitement and enthusiasm, much of it whipped up by DJ Mal-Ski (as annoying as his schtick sometimes must be to those of us over a certain age). But people who weren’t there –i.e., potential future customers – probably saw the night’s attendance figure of 3,847 and yawned.
But, then, we shouldn’t be piling on the Sparks here. The WNBA has a chance to think big and act big in this of all seasons, and yet … the Washington Mystics opened at home against New York and drew 4,200, the capacity of their tiny home arena.
Clark and Indiana didn’t sell out Connecticut’s 10,000-seat Mohegan Sun Arena, drawing 8,910. The defending champ Las Vegas Aces drew 10,419 (against a capacity of 12,000) to their opener Tuesday against Phoenix in the Michelob ULTRA arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort. Minnesota and Seattle drew 8,508 to Climate Pledge Arena, which is configured for 13,500 for Storm games. Wednesday night, Chicago and Dallas drew 6,251 for Angel Reese’s debut, played in a 7,000-capacity building in Arlington, Texas.
Is it possible that some of the league’s teams, at a crucial moment with more attention focused on the WNBA than ever before, might fumble the moment?
Yet in another sense, as Sparks guard Layshia Clarendon noted Wednesday night, the progress is obvious. Lifting the ban on charter flights, as announced by commissioner Cathy Engelbert recently, is but one step. There seems to be more, and more serious, investment in women’s hoops and women’s sports in general than ever before. The increased scrutiny over the league’s pay scale and particularly Clark’s rookie salary of only $76,535 – much of that from people who probably hadn’t paid much attention to the league before – isn’t a bad thing, either.
There’s improvement in endorsement deals, Clarendon said, noting that No. 2 draft pick Cameron Brink was among those selected to participate in an ad campaign for the SKIMS underwear line, co-founded by Kim Kardashian (who was among those in attendance Wednesday night).
“A lot of these players in college got NIL deals that are carrying over, so that’s (a benefit) in a very tangible way,” Clarendon said. “Marketing dollars being spent on women athletes in the WNBA right now is putting money in people’s pockets, which is awesome. And I would think kind of building off that last (collective bargaining agreement), it’s just the dignity and respect of being a professional athlete.
“Like … we should have this amount of media before games, people covering us, putting us on ESPN, having pre- and postgame shows. So it feels good as an athlete to be like, yeah, I’ve been busting my (tail) for years and now we’re getting that level of respect of being a professional athlete.”
So, I asked, what might a crystal ball show the WNBA looking like another 27 years down the road?
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“I’d say there’s 30 teams, right?” Clarendon said. “We’re all over the country, definitely flying private. I think there’s $1 million contracts where players are coming out, making the level of money where we just don’t have to go overseas anymore. I would say we have some kind of feeder league to develop the talent of younger players. You’re seeing more of that investment in players who are good (enough) to come out of college but just need some development. And you see guys get the chance to do that in the G-League.
“So I think that would be the beautiful thing coming in 30 years from now. It’s just like it’s a big running machine … women are getting paid and they can retire. That can be their one job. We have a pension for players. They don’t have to worry about that second career afterwards if they’ve taken care of their money.”
Clarendon is more optimistic than I am. But it’s absolutely something to shoot for.
jalexander@scng.com
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