SEATTLE, WA – The Los Angeles Sparks (7-10) made a phenomenal showing against the Seattle Storm (11-7) on Saturday night. The team was aggressive on both sides of the ball, and we saw rookie Olivia Nelson-Ododa once again level up her play as she made a strong showing every minute she was on the floor.
There were a lot of things that went right during the Sparks 85-77 win over the Storm. Yet once again, All-Star forward Nneka Ogwumike was very calculated and intentional with the way she addressed questions during the post-game. You can almost tell that as president of the WNBAPA she is pushing for change sooner rather than later.
After the win over the Washington Mystics on June 23rd, Ogwumike was asked what it was like for players who travel to Russia and play.
Her response was, “It’s kind of disappointing to me that people don’t know what our experience is like over there.”
Ogwumike was responding to questions regarding Brittney Griner who has been detained in Russia since February.
Ogwumike continued with, “That brings up the larger conversation in pay equity. We go over there not necessarily because we want to, but because we have to supplement our income.”
After the win against the Storm where Ogwumike used her whole body and will to not only lead the Sparks with 24 points and passed Sheryl Swoopes (4,875 points) for 24th on the WNBA all-time points list, she made it a point to draw attention to other issues facing players in the WNBA such as travel.
While Brittney Sykes hoped to gloss over the teams’ traveling issues to get to Seattle, Ogwumike gave a step-by-step account of how the team had to miss shootaround after their noon flight to Seattle was canceled. Not only did the Sparks arrive after midnight on game day, but their flight leaving Seattle on Sunday was also canceled.
Ogwumike went on to say, “We have a staff that is literally working day and night to figure out how we can get not only where we need to get safely, but also within the terms of the CBA. It’s not easy!”
The Sparks’ return flight was canceled causing the team to have to take five different flights to get back to Los Angeles. Those flights were leaving between 3:30 and 5 AM all before the Sparks have to face the best team in the league, the Las Vegas Aces on Monday night.
It’s not entirely accurate to call the low salaries of the WNBA a “pay equity” issue when as a league, the WNBA struggles to make a profit. On average, the WNBA generates $60 million in revenue annually, but it also costs more than $70 million annually to run. That means on average, the league has turned an average $10 million net loss (revenue costs) per year, since its inception in 1996.
On the low end, providing chartered flights for the season would cost between $540,000 and $600,000 per year. There are individual owners who could afford that, but as a whole, the league cannot.
Still, it is almost a self-forfeiting prophecy. Sparks President of Basketball Operations Vanessa Sky said the key to increasing revenue for the Sparks is to start winning. However, when teams are facing chaotic travel schedules that do not allow for adequate rest, and they can’t give their bodies time to heal, because they are playing year-round, that directly impacts player performance.
Not every player is Candace Parker, who has enough endorsements or Chiney Ogwumike, who has an evolving media career, making going overseas unnecessary. However, it is also not fair to compare the salaries of the women in the WNBA to the men in the NBA.
The NBA is 75 years old. When the NBA was 25 years old, teams had to pay into a pool to guarantee the salaries of top draft picks. In 1969 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the first player to receive a $500,000 contract over five years. The average salary in the WNBA is $128,369 per year, which is $28,000 higher than what men were making when the NBA was in its 20s.
Sure the cost of living is exponentially higher now, but if we are comparing apples to apples, the WNBA is progressing at the same rate the NBA did in its infancy. That doesn’t change the fact that the women in the WNBA are expected to perform at an elite level, while most of them had better accommodations, especially regarding travel, in college.
After their lengthy day of traveling on Sunday, the Sparks will face the Aces (13-4) on Monday at 7:30 PM PST at Crypto.com Arena.
