She shoots, she scores: The WNBA gains recognition

Lily Howard, Emily Mathee, and Yoni Soloveychik • May 3, 2024

The WNBA is a league made up of 12 different teams all throughout the United States

Listen to sophomore NSN editors Yoni Soloveychik and Emily Mathee’s commentary on the WNBA wage gap above.

For many years, the WNBA has been notoriously underrepresented. If asked, many avid NBA watchers would exclaim they have never watched any of the games, or ever wanted to watch a game. However, after this season of the NCAA Women’s March Madness, this attitude towards the WNBA may be shifting.

From the start of the season, players such as Cailtin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Kamilla Cardoso, Angel Reese, and many more have started gaining recognition. Caitlin Clark in specific started being noticed heavily after achieving the most 30-point games by any man or woman in Division I in the past 25 seasons. This was just one of her many awards she acquired during her college career.

New fans began to look forward to Women’s March Madness, keeping up with player stats, team records, and competitive matchups. By the time the championship game arrived, fans couldn’t wait to watch the South Carolina Gamecocks face the Iowa Hawkeyes for the NCAA title.

Their watch outcome was so high that for the first time in history the Women’s NCAA championship game had more watchers than the men’s competition. The average peaked at about 24 million viewers between all different streaming platforms. The championship game also broke the record as ESPN’s most watched basketball game ever.

However, the excitement did not stop there. Now that the NCAA is over, fans can’t wait until the WNBA season. On Apr. 15, the WNBA draft was held which only further added to emotions. One of the biggest rivalries during the NCAA games was when Reese played Clark. During the draft, Reese was signed to the Chicago Sky, and Clark was signed to the Indiana Fever. This has created anticipation for a rematch game.

Due to the high numbers of views during the NCAA games, and the suspected excitement for rematches, hope has sparked that these successes can work towards solving a problem. The pay difference between the WNBA and NBA is unequal. For the top four rookies picked in the WNBA, they are suspected to make about $76,535 during their first year. This is a big difference compared to the NBA who’s rookies minimum salary is suspected to be 1.1 million.

Although it’s understandable that the NBA is watched more so they make more, both leagues work equally as hard and deserve to be rewarded for their hard work. Hopefully in the near future, we can see the WNBA gain the popularity it should have had from the start.