Reuters
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WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark took time out of celebrating her Indiana Fever’s Commissioner’s Cup win to call out the desire for better pay for the league’s athletes.
The injured Clark didn’t play in the Fever’s win Tuesday over the Minnesota Lynx, but in the postgame celebration on Instagram livestream, she pointed out the disparity in the financial rewards for winning the Commissioner’s Cup and winning the WNBA Finals.
“You get more (money) for this than you do if you’re the (WNBA Finals) champion,” Clark said to the camera Tuesday night. “It makes no sense. Someone tell (WNBA commissioner) Cathy (Engelbert) to help us out.”
Each rostered player on the winning Commissioner’s Cup team earned up to $30,000 as part of the majority portion of the $500,000 purse, per multiple reports. For comparison, players on the team that wins the WNBA championship reportedly receive $20,825.
In another postgame video Tuesday, Clark referred to the in-season tournament final as the “Cathy Cup.”
Clark’s comments come as WNBA players are negotiating for a new collective bargaining agreement amid surging popularity in the league.
The WNBA registered its highest attendance in 26 years for an opening month to the season as well as record TV ratings.
The league announced in June that 400,000 fans attended games since the season tipped off on May 14 through the end of the month, its highest since nearly the league’s inception; the WNBA began play in 1997. Further, more than half of all WNBA games were sellouts, a 156 percent increase year over year, according to the release.
Additionally, games are averaging 1.32 million viewers across all network partners, nearly tripling last season’s average (462,000 viewers), per the league’s June 10 release.
Clark won’t be back on the court when the Fever return to action Thursday against the visiting Las Vegas Aces. She will miss her fourth game in a row (counting the non-regular-season Commissioner’s Cup final) because of a left groin ailment.
A strained left quad kept Clark out for five games from May 28-June 10.
