WNBA expected to lose $50 million despite popularity — league is 'hard-pressed to exist without the NBA,' executive says

A report citing WNBA sources, including an executive from one of the teams, revealed that despite the league's wall-to-wall coverage, it will still lose $50 million for the 2024 season.

With the basketball association reportedly taking in between $180-$200 million the previous season, it is still just a fraction of the $10 billion+ earned by the NBA.

Given that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in 2018 that the WNBA loses about $10 million per year, that would amount to at least $200 million and upwards of $260 million in losses since the league's inception in 1997.

The report by the Washington Post detailed that the WNBA is expected to lose $50 million from the current season, citing two unnamed sources who are aware of the financial figures. The sources told the outlet that they did not have permission to publicly discuss the league's financial status.

'The truth is, this league would be hard-pressed to exist without the NBA.'

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said publicly that the NBA provides a "huge advantage" for the women's league in terms of marketing, "especially with streaming services who rely on a 12-month subscription model."

"If we're only there for 4½ months ... how attractive is that? But we and the NBA are maybe the only sports properties that can give 330 days of live programming — almost the entire year. That’s hugely valuable to a subscription platform."

Despite this, another anonymous WNBA team executive admitted in the report that WNBA likely would cease to exist without the financial backing of the NBA, an idea that has been the theory of sports fans for some time.

"The truth is, this league would be hard-pressed to exist without the NBA."

Even with all the apparent success, it doesn't seem like the league can be pushed into the black simply by the existence of star Caitlin Clark, who has been a marketing sensation for the WNBA.

Recent attendance reports noted that as of June 11, 2024, Clark sparked an 87% increase in attendance in away games compared to her opponent's average home attendance.

Her presence also accounts for 33.5% of the WNBA's total attendance in 2024, according to Sportscasting.

Average attendance of Clark's games are double the league average, as well. The league brings in 7,645 fans on average, but that number increases by 105% for Clark, to 15,142 at her games. These latest figures confirm a recent sample size, where Clark's games saw twice the attendance of other games that were played the same weekend.

The Clark bump also equates to more eyes on screens. Through the first weekend of June 2024, WNBA games that featured Clark had an average of 1.099 million viewers. Games without her averaged only 414,000 viewers.

Given all this information, WNBA players may want to be cautious when making complaints about Clark's favoritism, as the league is seemingly a long way from profit.

Complaints about charter planes not being luxurious enough could easily result in that expense being axed, which reportedly costs around $25 million per year.

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