Posted on 10/19/2024 11:21:14 AM PDT by nickcarraway
While the WNBA is getting sellout crowds for the finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, the league’s owners will not be making a return on their investment for the foreseeable future, sources close to the situation said.
The NBA owns nearly 60 percent of the league.
When one combines the NBA owners’ personal stakes in WNBA teams and the WNBA itself, the amount rises to 75 percent, a source with direct knowledge of the numbers said. The NBA team owners have invested hundreds of millions in the WNBA since its 1996 formation, per sources.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I bet they could attract a lot of viewers if they had a really great star player. But, last I heard, all the really good players want to play in Europe. For some reason.
Is women’s basketball becoming more popular?
If so, eventually, these teams ought to start turning a profit and then the owners will make some money.
And eventually they could make some profits by selling these WNBA franchises.
I didn’t realize the NBA had been subsidizing the WNBA for so many years. Maybe those operating losses are a tax write off somehow?
Or the NBA owners want to show how enlightened they are by supporting women’s basketball, even though it cost them money?
The NBA may make up for it in the casual fan base of the NBA where you would find some women.
They do t want endless losses.
At some point t they will need to downsize or find another draw to make some cash.
Caitlin Clark should get her own private jet. Everyone else should continue to fly commercial.
Now they're losing more money because everyone gets to fly on a charter flight.
Maybe the NBA will stop subsidizing the WNBA.
It was never an investment. It was tribute. Now pay up, suckers.
If you go to the ESPN home page, they make it sound like the WNBA Finals are the biggest sporting event going on right now, even more than the MLB Playoffs and NFL and College Football.
One player recently quit the WNBA to play in Turkey. She said that women basketball players get paid much better overseas.
ESPN gaslighting the casual sports fan.
A Tax write off is still a loss of money net. If the parent Company is in the 35% tax bracket & makes $1,000,000 before taxes they would pay $350K in taxes but say that company has an 100% investment in a company that loses $400K they would only have to pay taxes on $600K and maybe that drops them into a 30% tax bracket then the taxes they would have to pay would be $180K. The company without the investment would net $650K after taxes, but the company with the losing investment would only net $420K. This is a simplistic example but in general losses do not generate addition savings in excess of the loss.
The average nba player gets $10M per year.
There are 15 players per team.
That is $150M per team just in payroll.
The average wnba player gets $70K per year.
There are 12 players per team.
That’s $840,000 in payroll.
Where is all the money going and how are they losing $40M?
TV money per year for the next 11 years:
NBA: $6.9B
WNBA: $200M
TV money per team per year:
NBA: $215M
WNBA: $14M (with 2 additional teams nextyear)
How to increase WNBA attendance:
Hire attractive non-lesbian women
Dress them in bikinis
Have frequent “wardrobe malfunctions”
Burr is the best comedian alive.
He runs left of center, but he’s brutal/can’t breathe funny when he’s right.
Caitlin Clark doesn’t care, she’s going to become a professional golfer. I’ve seen her golf swing on video and it’s pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EWIahpPzNpA
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.