The issue of “decent” pay for WNBA players is the subject of our Sunday Surmising today, as we found ourselves unamused by the TV options to watch some key league games on Saturday night when we decided not to attend the Golden State Valkyries game in San Francisco due to illness. We couldn’t watch the game on local television, oddly enough, and even the other game of the night was not shown in the S.F. Bay Area.

Why not? Is there not enough demand for the product? Evidently not, and without that demand, the pay will not increase. This is a basic tenet of the entertainment industry, which does not want to lose money on a regular basis. But since most of the WNBA is owned by the NBA, the established men’s entity doesn’t really need to worry about money making, for a variety of fiscal reasons that have nothing to do with “fair”!

And thus, this is the WNBA’s problem: no national TV contract. The NBA itself generated 41 percent of its revenues in 2023 from its national media contract, and the WNBA does not have one of those. As a result, the league’s revenue is dependent on ticket sales (which is less than the NBA even though the arenas used are the same, because … again … supply and demand), local TV/media, team sponsors, and on-site stuff.

That means the WNBA is operating at a very low revenue level, since all demand is less than it is for the NBA. So if the men’s league gets 59 percent of its revenue from ticket sales (26 percent), local media deals (13 percent), team sponsorship (12 percent), and parking/concessions (8 percent), those same revenue streams are going to be significantly smaller for WNBA teams—without the benefit of the national TV cash.

See the problem here?

Meanwhile, the NBA’s own TV channel is not even being used to show WNBA games, as Saturday night during the two games noted above—Los Angeles at San Francisco and Chicago at Indiana, without Caitlin Clark—we saw the 1991 NBA All-Star Game being shown on NBA TV. Yes, that’s right: a men’s exhibition game from 34 years ago was deemed more lucrative than showing either of the women’s 2025 games live.

Therein lies the rub: the demand is not there, still. The Chicago-Indiana game was supposed to be on CBS, but the local S.F. CBS affiliate chose to run the San Francisco 49ers in the preseason, against the Denver Broncos, instead. Without true access to national broadcasts for all games, the WNBA is never going to be able to secure the revenue to pay the players what they think (erroneously, sadly) they deserve. Reality bites.

The NBA could remedy this, but it’s choosing not to. Again, it’s not cost effective, really: follow the money.