It turns out that the girlbosses of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) aren’t just bad at putting on an entertaining game. They’re also incapable of understanding basic math.
On Saturday, players participating in this year’s WNBA All-Star Game (yes, that’s apparently a thing) took to the court for pre-game warm-ups wearing black shirts that read, “Pay Us What You Owe Us.” According to left-wing ESPN, “The collective demonstration occurred two days after more than 40 players met with the league in the latest round of collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The players didn’t think the meeting produced enough progress with a late October deadline looming.”
“We wanted to do something that was united as a collective, and I thought that it’s a very powerful moment and got the point across,” Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum told the outlet. “Sometimes, you don’t have to say anything.”
Plum is absolutely correct in saying that the players’ pity parade “got the point across.” And that point is that these ladies have no idea how fundamental economics works.
Consider that in order to keep operating as a league, the WNBA relies on substantial financial support from the male-led National Basketball Association (NBA). Some estimates place NBA ownership of the women’s league at roughly 60 percent.
Subsidization of the WNBA isn’t exactly a profitable venture. In October, the New York Post reported that the female-dominated league lost $40 million in its 2024 season alone. And losses in the millions have apparently been a routine pattern since the league’s inception.
While it’s true the WNBA has experienced a rise in popularity in recent years, that increase is almost exclusively driven by Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, who has arguably done more to elevate women’s basketball in a few years than the entire league has in its existence. Clark’s popularity has garnered her ire from her fellow (seemingly jealous) WNBA players, who have continued to enact brutal fouls against her — even after she renounced her “white privilege.”
And yet, even with Clark’s fanbase, the WNBA is still losing money.
The simple truth is that viewers just aren’t as interested in watching women’s pro-basketball as much as they are the men’s. And that’s why the NBA is a more financially successful league.
If the WNBA players really want to talk finances, they can start by repaying the male-dominated league responsible for its continued existence the millions of dollars they’ve lost in the decades prior. After all, that is what they’re “owed.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood