The history of the WNBA is spotty at best.
Since inception, it has been a money loser. The survival of the league has transpired due to the subsidies provided by the NBA. Without that, the nearly $50 million that was lost last season would have sunk the league.
When you have an entity that has not generated one cent in profit, in over a quarter century, there is reason to concentrate on the long-term sustainability. Of course, this was something that many have asserted throughout the years.
Things are coming to a head. The one storm that is brewing is the collective bargaining agreement. These situations are always hairy for the established leagues. A few years ago, Major League Baseball suffered a short work stoppage, although no games were lost.
It is expected that another lockout will occur after next season. Whether it interrupts games remains to be seen.
The MLB contract is not the only one that expires. We also have the CBA for the WNBA.
There is a very good chance this will be the last season of the WNBA.
Contract negotiations can be horrific, even for the most established of leagues. For those old enough to remember, MLB almost cut its head off by having a strike in the 1990s. It took the homerun chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to revitalize the sport. There were a few years where the league was down. Some question whether it would have survived if not for that.
And this is a league which has more than 100 years of success.
The WNBA has nothing of the sort.
What it does have is entitled players who feel they should be paid millions of dollars. I state they are entitled because that is what people are when the feel something unearned should be given to them.
Just because players make tens of millions in the NBA, that does not mean the women's league is worth a fraction of that. Again, it lost $50 million last season, even with the boost it got from Caitlin Clark.
Contrast that with the NBA which signed a television deal worth more than $70 billion. In spite of that, interest in the men's league seems to be waning. Some believe the recent sales of teams, including two cornerstone franchises is a sign that the owners see the writing on the wall.
That said, $70 billion does go a long way.
MLB lost a notable percentage of its fan base. After the strike wiped out the rest of the regular season along with the playoffs (and World Series), many swore the game off. I know a few who were diehard fans who never attended a game again.
The problem for the WNBA is they have few fans. Work stoppages pushes the casual fan aside. Diehards will return, counting the days until games start again. Leagues cannot, however, survive on diehards.
It is the casual fans that make up the numbers. A Caitlin Clark can draw them in, much in the same way Michael Jordan did. The latter was a tremendous ambassador for the game, the face of the league, because he did nothing to alienate the fans.
Unfortunately, the same is not true for today's NBA. This is part of what is causing the deterioration. The WNBA, on the other hand, is in quicksand by comparison.
Losing games for a league few people care about is catastrophic. What is ironic is a contract dispute might end up alienating someone other than the fans: the NBA owners.
These are the ones footing the bill. Their financial interest in the league was nothing more than a money loser. So why would they care to negotiate in a way that gives the players more money, causing them to write a larger check each year to cover expenses?
It is a big risk to upset the fans yet it is bigger to upset the owners who have nothing to lose.
