OutKick's Clay Travis says Caitlin Clark is lucky to be getting any salary: “Nobody cares about their profession”
Travis: “That the WNBA exists at all is a testament in many ways to, well, the government”
Published
There has been widespread shock over the minuscule contract of basketball phenom and WNBA top draft pick Caitlin Clark. While right-wing media figures question the appeal and market viability of women's sports, Clark is reportedly finalizing a massive deal with Nike and has even been offered a much more lucrative contract from the Big3 league.
OutKick' Clay Travis says Caitlin Clark is lucky to be getting any salary: "Nobody cares about their profession"
Citation From the April 17, 2024, edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
CLAY TRAVIS (CO-HOST): Now, Caitlin Clark drafted number 1 overall, WNBA. Her salary for the next four years went viral — somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 a year within the first three years and then a little bit of a step up in year four. I think the total was in the neighborhood of $350K over four years, something in that neighborhood. Now this is important data here. This is from EndWokeness. The revenue produced by the NBA is $10 billion a year. The revenue produced by the WNBA is around 60 million. And if you actually do the math as a percentage of revenue, WNBA players actually make more than NBA players. Just nobody cares about their profession.
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BUCK SEXTON (CO-HOST): Who determines what fair pay is for professional athletes? First of all, the fact that you can make money playing a — it's a kid's game. Right?
TRAVIS: Yes.
SEXTON: I'd say that with, I think that's a good thing. Right? But it's a game meant for, you know, young people and the fact that as an adult, you can make a living playing a sport, which for most people is a form of recreation, is a pretty rarefied and remarkable thing in and of itself. Lot of countries, you know, it's not really a thing you can do. Certainly can't make a living doing it depending on what the sport is. And so I'd want to know what is fair. And you point out the NBA makes, like, a hundred times in revenue what the WNBA makes. So we know what the numbers tell us.
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TRAVIS: Also, I asked this question, and I bet the answer is no. Can you think of any business that has existed for 25 years and never made a profit and still exists? The fact that the WNBA exists at all is a testament in many ways to, well, the government, I guess you could say.
SEXTON: There's the government. There's probably some media publications that have to have, like, you know, rich heiresses.
TRAVIS: But I don't think they're — even some of these media publications, I don't think they could go 25 years with never making a profit. Now maybe you've got an owner who just doesn't care. I mean, basically, you know, there are nonprofits, but I'm talking about an ostensible business venture. The WNBA exists theoretically to make money. It has never made a profit in its entire history.
SEXTON: But I think you stumbled onto something there. I don't think the WNBA exists to make money. Right? I think this is what — I think the Democrats, you know what I'm saying? I think that the truth is —
TRAVIS: But that point would be they're already benefiting. The fact that she makes 75K is a testament to the fact that this organization needs to exist to make Democrats and leftists feel better even though they don't support it themselves.