ArticleReview2 Essays - Summer Olympic Games, Free Essays

ArticleReview2 Essays - Summer Olympic Games, Free Essays Donald Metoyer Mrs. Gerber Hist, Org, Admin of Phys Ed 15 April 2019 Article Review 2 - (W)NBA wage gap A'ja Wilson, the first pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, will earn just over $52,00 in her rookie season. Compared to the first pick of the NBA draft, Deandre Ayton, she will be earning more than $6 million less. This shows a huge gap in pay between the WNBA and NBA, and it is a huge deal. In the article, Yes, the WNBA Wage Gap Is a Real Thing, Al Neal discusses some of the main reasons critics use to make the argument against the wage gap. But first he gives some the brief history on a wage gap in general, according the U.S. Census Bureau women make 80% of what males do annually. There are hard evidence to show wage gaps in everything but a lot of people just ignore it. The first excuse he attacks is the NBA bringing in much more money than the WNBA so it just makes sense the male athletes get paid so much more. Well, in crunching the numbers Neal found that the WNBA makes at least $51.5 million in revenue, but the maximum salary is just over $100k for a veteran player. Excuse #2 is people not wanting to invest in a young, unstable league that doesn't draw a crowd. In 2017, the WNBA had it's highest league total and average attendances. It goes past attendance too, I have noticed that WNBA is playing more WNBA games than ever before. Excuse #3 is "We're losing money" - team owners. WNBA teams have generally not been very profitable, but so have some teams in other leagues. But the difference is that in other leagues, the owners are willing to invest much more money to make these teams more profitable. And the fourth and final excuse he discusses is the WNBA hasn't been around long enough. The NBA is now in their 23rd season, and they are at the peak of their powers so far. Neal has two suggestions for how the WNBA and it's players should handle their wage gap. Suggestion #1 is raise the player revenue sharing to 50% like the NBA, which seems very reasonable. His second suggestion is just waiting for the inevitable strike that WNBA players will go on. Now, I would always say WNBA players can't be paid more because of how much money the league brings in. I was not educated on these facts, and was unaware. I do believe WNBA players should be paid more, the league definitely makes enough money to raise the maximum salary from $100,000. In doing so, the WNBA will protect their investment in players much better. As of now, many WNBA players go and play overseas because the wage is much higher over there. In the past and recently, I have seen many WNBA players talk about wanting equal pay as men's players. But that is just impossible, the excuses people make about "not enough revenue" or "not enough interest" are real in that interest. The NBA is a multi-billion dollar league and one of the fastest growing sports globally. The WNBA can't afford to pay players equally to the NBA but I do think they could be paid equally considering the percentage of salaries to the revenue brought in. If not, players must go on strike to try and get things to work out. The WNBA players plight of not receiving enough money is real, unfair, and shows the inequality of men and women sports in general.