@isonno the two US soccer teams are paid equally now. The USWNT coach is the highest paid women’s soccer coach on earth, earning 2.5M per year to match up with the men’s team coach
@mathowie They play half as many games and draw a third as many fans. TV ratings stink. But it's changing: ratings went up 21 percent last year, before Clark. (Also: Clark surely has landed some endorsement deals commensurate with her star power.)
@mathowie Point of contrast: in 1979 the NBA was so unpopular that CBS broadcast them on tape delay.
Then came Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
Those are legendary shoes to fill but Caitlin Clark might be that type of player. She electric. She passes like a magician. And most importantly she wins.
@gruber@mathowie Just this spring, my parents (much to my surprise!) had watched a bunch of college basketball. They and I both live near-ish to Duke, but were rooting for underdog NC State in the men's tournament. But I also went over and watched the women's final with them. My mom, especially, never watches sports but she was enthralled. All sorts of new demographics opening up.
I'll have to ask if they saw Caitlin on SNL last weekend.
@gruber@mathowie yeah, most of her money will come from endorsements, just as it entirely did in college. Many pro athletes (even Ohtani!) get paid so much for endorsements that they even do stuff like lose track of the bank account containing their salary
@gruber@mathowie I was a Fever season ticket holder for years before I moved and my two biggest gripe are that a lot of teams seem to lean on marketing themselves as a cheap family entertainment, which is true, but doesn’t exactly generate buy-in from 20-30-somethings, regardless of the on-court product…
@mathowie Because she accepted the offer?
Just say no and see what happens. You might be able to find a job with better hours and treatment elsewhere, maybe even as a sportscaster.
Please don’t get upset for this comment, but after all the hype, this is ridiculous.
@bouriquet the contract was fixed for all the first five draft picks. These numbers were set in stone, she had no negotiations allowed. Draft picks after her got even less.
A couple years ago a friend ran into the second-string center for the Portland Trailblazers in town and I guessed as a bench warmer who only played a few minutes a couple times a week he probably made like 600-800k a year which was about double the NBA minimum salary until I looked it up on Wikipedia where his salary was listed at $2.4M/yr
Add comment