The WNBA is to basketball what EVs are to cars - if you like them, great, but most people either don't or are supremely indifferent.

If you watch them/want one, awesome - but the vast majority of people don't.

The concept is terrific, but can it stand on its own two feet without massive subsidies supporting it because enough consumers are clamoring for more?

In both cases, again, that's a 'no.'

Which is kind of a problem in both cases, EVs and WNBA, because however dear to someone' heart both or either are, they are both what used to be known as 'businesses' and eventually have to be reliant on their popularity with folks willing to purchase their product to make the 'business' viable.

Oh. Alas.

[Cue: sad trombone]

Neither of these two makes the 'business' cut (Tesla prior to the current lefty lunatic terrorism being the singular exception).

Now, in the interest of full disclosure and the spirit of this new era of transparency we've entered, I will admit upfront not only am I a Luddite when it comes to EVs, but I am not a fan of women's professional sports in general.

For instance, in my case, once the real, crackling personalities of women's golf left the scene to the Asian automatons, with gimmicks like the networks' manufactured excitement over Michelle Wie's talent being shamelessly exploited - and wasted - by her father, I thought it became a massive bore. As little as I had watched faded to nada.

The litany of complaints on this reader board from 2024 sounds very familiar.

I guess I'm not alone as far as female interest in that goes. As of 2022, more women are playing, but women's viewership has remained static for 'golf' in general.

Between 2019-2022, the number of women playing golf increased by 15%. Despite the increase of women playing golf, viewership is still predominantly men.

In 2023, the final Sunday round of the Women's Open (for the first time at Pebble Beach, also a draw factor) hit an all-time viewership high - 1.59 million. By comparison - which also translates into dollars and purses, the final round of last year's Masters, even after coming in 20% below the 2023 rating, clocked in at 9.59 million.

HELLO

Whatever the rationale or excuses why - and there are always plenty 'Why Isn't Women's Golf More Popular' articles - it boils down to good entertainment that's worth your time.

The LPGA isn't.

Neither is the WNBA. based on viewership, revenues, and attendance.

But there is one thing the LPGA is that the WNBA is not, and that's INDEPENDENT. The PGA does not subsidize the LPGA, and a majority of their revenues go to prize money, aka players' salaries.

Girls on that tour have no sugar daddies. They are paying their own way.

In the WNBA, they have had NBA money underpinning them from the very beginning in 1996. In fact, in order to exist, the NBA owns half of the WNBA and its now 12 teams.

Never once in all 29 years has the women's league turned a profit.

Hello, salary gap.

...The financial realities can’t be ignored. The WNBA, despite its passionate fanbase and growing popularity, has never turned a profit. This is a key factor in the salary gap.

The NBA, recognizing the potential of women’s basketball, has provided significant financial support since the WNBA’s inception. This annual subsidy, currently exceeding $15 million, helps cover operating costs like team facilities, travel, marketing, and administrative expenses. While this support is crucial for the league’s stability, it also underscores the economic disparity between the two entities. Ideally, as the WNBA continues to grow and secure its own revenue streams, the reliance on NBA subsidies will lessen.

 'The potential' of women's basketball.

Welp. After thirty years and not much of an excitement bump outside of Caitlin Clark - whom the world has seen beaten to a pulp and pretty blatantly mistreated  - I'd say they're pretty much an indulgence, not a flower just waiting to bloom.

It does not help that 'potential' when the same women who can't be decent to an unassuming newcomer like Clark then posture for the cameras over 'what they deserve.'

Reese plays the punk bad girl convincingly, and - if X wasn't still in meltdown, I'd have video - she has her truly lousy moments on the court as well.

But for a 'sport' that relies on the goodwill of folks to want to find the games to watch and who might have tuned in because of Caitlin Clark, Reese has stomped all over that golden goose with her 'what about me' 'tude, and now this?

...The next Collective Bargaining Agreement term will start in 2026 after the players decided to opt out of the current CBA, which was set to expire in 2027.

While it is true that ratings for WNBA games jumped as did attendance at games- primarily thanks to the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark- the Women’s National Basketball League has still never made a profit.

Last October, for instance, it was reported that the NBA—which subsidizes women’s pro basketball—lost between $40 and $50 million. It has never earned a profit from investing in the WNBA since 1996, when the men’s basketball league helped found it.

She might learn something from the NBA guys who pay her freight - how to be a showman.

You have to win the fans over to your side before you can start demanding what you don't have and haven't earned.

Especially when not many people noticed you were there, to begin with.

Who'd even know you were gone?