Opinion: Napheesa Collier exposes the central problem of the WNBA
Apparently not to hug the player who raised the WNBA, the league runs the risk of losing her new followers base.
Caitlin Clark and his fans army are the most valuable commercial asset of the WNBA Not the most valuable player (at least, not yet) … but a commercial asset.
Clark’s arrival in the spring of 2024 shot the television ratings, assistance, transmission rights, sponsorships and the value of the league franchises. Overnight, billionaires struggled to pay 250 million dollars for their own equipment.
Clark offered more than simple outstanding moments from logo 3. He gave hope to the League.
The main objective of the WNBA It should be to convert that huge fans base that followed Clark from Iowa into fans of the entire league … not only of a single player or team.
It doesn’t matter how or why new customers arrive. Everything should focus on taking the opportunity to turn them into regular customers, selling them the excellent product that is already offered daily.
The WNBA received a lottery award that was not seen in sports since the arrival of TIger Woods al PGA Tour. The league should stop triaking it.
The latest evidence of self -staining comes from a conversation between The WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, and the star of Minnesota, Napheesa Collier.
The specific theme were rookie contracts, which with an approximate value of $ 75,000 per year undervalued Clark and other young talents such as Angel Reese and Paige Bueckerswho attracted a smaller, but still valuable fans base, and own attention from the university.
“I asked him how (Engelbert) planned to solve the fact that players such as Caitlin, Angel and Paige, who clearly generate huge income for the league, win so little during their first four years,” Collier said at a press conference. “His answer was: ‘Caitlin should be grateful to win $ 16 million out of the court because without the platform that the WNBA offers, he would not win anything.”
Collier added later that Engelbert said: “The players should be on your knees thanking their good star for the transmission rights agreement that I got them.”
Collier reported the conversation as part of a diatribe against Engelbert for the quality of arbitration, the league fines to silence criticism and other problems. All are valid points, especially for the negotiations of a new collective agreement. However, complaints about arbitration, however ruthless they are, are quite common. Entertaining, yes, but they would fade.
Collier is very intelligent, however. Clark’s comments attributed to Engelbert should have been an intentional bomb.
Clark fans already distrusted the reception he had received in the WNBA, and rightly.
Hard offenses. Sarcastic comments. Derogatory media comments. The Olympics. Part of this can be ignored as the reality of competitive sport. No one has the right to a flower walk. However, part of this is probably based on politics, pride, jealousy, rivalry or … fills whites. Sometimes, everything in Clark looks like a discord circus.
Although Clark herself has never complained, many of her fans perceive – and perception quickly becomes reality – that Clark is not totally welcome in the league.
In turn, they are either.
That the WNBA commissioner says that Clark should be grateful because without the League he would not win “nothing” confirms the suspicion. In addition, the old cliché takes up that athletes should be grateful simply for the opportunity to play. Are we in 1972?
All this is ridiculous, of course. Clark already participated in national sponsorship campaigns while he was still in college. For his junior season, he was more popular than any WNBA player. He arrived with a fortune.
Maybe Engelbert didn’t know.
That the WNBA commissioner had an opinion about who should be grateful to whom, much less that another active player will be expressed in a unimportant way, she is almost unimaginable.
It is not Clark who should thank the WNBA its sponsorship. It is the league that should thank you for the business boom. I should be grateful that she and other young charismatic stars are in her league. “I am discouraged by the way Napheesa described our conversations and league leadership,” said Engelbert. “But even when our perspectives differ, my commitment to the players and this work will not falter.”
That does not deny what Collier said of Engelbert. Nor does it add the main problem.
The worst that could happen to the female basketball business is that all new fans think that the League not only does not appreciate its favorite player, but is openly hostile and condescending with them.
This is precisely how a sport does not develop. Caitlin’s parties (or Angel and Paige) may tune in, but now they have the motivation not to support, see or deliberately worry about anything or anyone.
Suddenly, WNBA is no longer a business that greets them as life for life.
It is the enemy.
