WNBA players don’t make a lot of money. And Caitlin Clark is not afraid to point that out.
Clark’s Indiana Fever beat the Seattle Storm on Sunday, 92-75. The No. 1 pick finished with 23 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds. Her teammate, Lexie Hull, added another 22 points.
After her breakout game, a reporter asked Hull if she was going to be buying season tickets for her family from here on out. But Clark interjected.
“Those are pretty expensive. Our salaries… it is like our entire salary to get those,” Clark said. “I’m not kidding. We need people to help.”
Hull added: “I might have to [get tickets]. We’ll make sure that people get working on that. We’ll have someone work on that, for sure.”
Clark’s bank account, of course, is doing just fine. In April, the rookie superstar signed a Nike deal worth $28 million over eight years — significantly higher than her four-year, $338,056 rookie contract, which averages $84,514 annually.
And that’s pretty standard for the league. The average salary for a WNBA player during the 2023 season was $147,745. That’s certainly a respectable salary for a normal person, but it’s poverty compared to the NBA — where players make, on average, $9.7 million per year.
The highest-paid WNBA player earns a base salary of around $240,000.
Caitlin Clark joked about low WNBA salaries in her post-game press conference.
(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
So could a WNBA player afford a couple of season tickets? Sure. According to a user on Reddit, the cheapest Fever season ticket for 2024 was $910. The most expensive (for a courtside seat) was $4,953.
But the price is climbing …thanks to Caitlin Clark. In a recent social media post, Indiana highlighted that ticket sales are up 264.6%, jersey sales are up 1193%, and corporate sponsorships are up 225%, among other things.
So yeah, by this time next year, Fever season tickets for the whole family might be out of Hull’s budget.
Maybe Caitlin can help her out.
