Simply because Angel Reese is a giant deal doesn’t imply she’s making massive bucks, oddly sufficient. After a record-breaking 12 months, the Chicago Sky ahead has cemented herself as a veritable expertise and a rising star. However she will be able to’t pay her hire on her expertise alone.
“I just hope y’all know the WNBA don’t pay my bills at all. I don’t even think that pays one of my bills,” Reese stated on Instagram reside this week. Her wage stands at $73,439. “Does that even pay my car note,” Reese jokingly requested.
Doing a little fast math, Reese disclosed that she pays $8,000 month-to-month for hire, which comes out to $96,000 yearly. “I’m living beyond my means like y’all think,” she stated, laughing. Whereas Reese’s life-style is perhaps unaffordable for many Individuals, her story highlights the disparity inside the sports activities world.
Curiosity within the WNBA has skyrocketed as of late, a phenomenon partly attributed to rookies akin to Reese and Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark. Some tune in for these dynamics alone. “People watch for compelling content and rivalries,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated on 60 Minutes.
Even so, this rising recognition has but to totally attain the wallets of gamers. Within the NBA, the highest rookie of the present season will make round $12.6 million and the ultimate choose will make a nonetheless hefty $2.5 million, in line with Sport’s Illustrated. Clark, the primary choose of this 12 months’s WNBA, has a beginning wage of $76,535.
“That WNBA check don’t pay a thing,” stated Reese on her Instagram Stay. Her endorsements are actually what make a distinction, as Reese referred to as her test “a bonus” to her different streams of revenue when chatting with ESPN.
Legendary former basketball participant Sue Fowl stated at Fortune’s Most Highly effective Girls Summit stated “the money is around the corner,” mentioning that girls’s leagues have signed huge media offers. “I pretty much lost money playing in the WNBA,” she stated, mentioning inflation.
The place WNBA stars truly make their cash
All-star athletes are pressured to different means to afford their life-style to pad their salaries. Many flip to creating offers that use their likeness. Reese, as an example, labored with manufacturers from Goldman Sachs to Reebok and Airbnb in school. These partnerships have been valued at $1.8 million in whole by On3.
Reese additionally plans to take part in a three-on-three league referred to as Unequalled, a selection she made partly to make more money with out having to journey globally. “Nobody wants to go overseas,” she stated this summer time.
“For a long time, a lot of us had to play overseas, but really, recently, you’ve been able to make money off the court,” stated Fowl. Noting that within the final portion of her profession she was capable of make inside the $250,000 vary, Fowl stated she was caught on the $100,000 bracket.
Certainly, WNBA gamers having to play internationally turned a hot-button concern final 12 months when Brittney Griner was detained in Russia for almost 10 months after being charged for having vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her baggage. Griner solely turned caught in a political maneuver as a result of she was trying to complement her life-style.
“The whole reason a lot of us go over is the pay gap,” she stated in a press convention in 2023. “A lot of us go over there to make an income to support our families, to support ourselves.”
