Dave Portnoy calls out morons who think WNBA…
Dave Portnoy is fed up with those who consider WNBA gamers don’t deserve a greater payday.
In the wake of gamers sporting warmup shirts that stated “Pay Us What You Owe Us” at Saturday’s All-Star Game, the Barstool Sports founder and proprietor made his stance clear with a prolonged post and subsequent video on X on Sunday.
“I don’t know how anybody in the world with a brain, and maybe my brain is just bigger than most, can rationally say women don’t deserve more money at this point,” Portnoy stated in the video.
Portnoy went on to reference how Caitlin Clark’s rookie wage, $76,000, is much less than what Barstool personalities Nicky Smokes and Ben Mintz make per yr, calling the disparity “insane.”
As of the 2024 season, the WNBA’s average wage was $147,745, according to DirecTV.
Portnoy famous how some WNBA critics have referenced reviews of the league shedding tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} each yr, but stated the funds of the league are “a mess, tied in with the NBA and purposely murky.”
Barstool Sports founder and proprietor Dave Portnoy thinks WNBA gamers deserve a pay raise. @stoolpresidente/X
In October 2024, The Post reported the WNBA can be shedding $40 million in the 2025 season.
But, as Portnoy put it, the league is “exploding.”
“Franchise values are exploding. Ticket sales, merch, tv rights all exploding. The players have an opt out in their CBA. Of course they took it. It’s all about leverage in re-negotiations and for the 1st time in history of [the] league players have power,” Portnoy wrote.
Dave Portnoy attends a recreation between the Indiana Fever and the Connecticut Sun at TD Garden on July 15. NBAE via Getty Images
The league agreed to an 11-year, $2.2 billion TV rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal final summer season, and TV rankings (up 23%), ticket gross sales (up 26%) and attendance (13%) are all surging midway through the season, according to NPR.
“The players make virtually nothing while the entire league explodes,” Portnoy added. “Of course they deserve more money.”
Portnoy, who is one of Caitlin Clark’s most vocal superfans, also refuted the notion that the league’s current success is unsustainable because it over-relies on Clark’s star energy.
“This league is so white hot right now, and I know everyone’s going to say, ‘Well, it’s only Caitlin Clark, it’s a one-person league,’” Portnoy stated. “Caitlin Clark was 100% the match that lit the fuse…but, Caitlin’s not going anywhere. She’s year two of a 15-year career.”
Fever star Caitlin Clark sporting a “Pay Us What You Owe Us” shirt before the WNBA All-Star Game on July 19. Getty Images
He added that different younger stars like Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and the soon-to-be professional JuJu Watkins mark a shiny future for the league, too.
Portnoy concluded by writing that if he may buy a Boston-based WNBA franchise for $250 million, he “would do it without blinking.”
“That’s all you got to know about the WNBA finances,” he added.
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