Throughout her four-year career with the Iowa Hawkeyes at the college basketball level, Caitlin Clark emerged as a nationwide superstar as she brought a surge in attention to the sport, selling out arenas and breaking viewership records. Now, the superstar is headed into the WNBA, but she certainly is not going to be paid like one of the nation’s top superstar athletes.
Shortly after Caitlin Clark was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft on Monday night, Michael Ginnitti of Spotrac shared the details of what she will be paid for the first four years of her professional basketball career – and it’s not much compared to most superstar athletes.
Over the course of her four-year rookie contract, Clark will make $338,056 in total, averaging just over $84,500 per year.
https://t.co/hqF3Oq155B pic.twitter.com/Q5cmWaMz9c
— Spotrac (@spotrac) April 15, 2024
Obviously, these numbers came as a shock to a lot of fans given how little she will be making compared to many male athletes, and many people took to social media to express their outrage.
On this salary Caitlin Clark would qualify for low income housing in San Francisco https://t.co/ZbOkPp4xBc
— Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) April 16, 2024
There are department store managers in Indianapolis who are gonna make more next year. This is WILD https://t.co/sKqSG6icQc
— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) April 16, 2024
I feel like Caitlin Clark should make more money than me. I’m pretty good at my job, but I’m not the Caitlin Clark of what I do professionally. https://t.co/fQYBp8tuGH
— Mark Kastner (@mkstnr) April 16, 2024
I’ve seen Houston Outlaws 2018 contracts that are more lucrative https://t.co/AacqUm9Fto
— MarkySauce (@markysauce_ow) April 16, 2024
If her contract offends you, there’s 3 tangible ways you can help fix the problem…
1. Watch WNBA games on TV
2. Buy a Caitlin Clark jersey
3. Attend a WNBA gameHer contract is just an unfortunate byproduct of the league’s low annual revenue https://t.co/yIs2mlGRib
— Josh Larky (@jlarkytweets) April 16, 2024
The Indiana Fever (of which I am a fan of), went from zero national exposure to like total national exposure because of this young lady.
$76k in Indianapolis is like six figures elsewhere and even still, this is absurd. https://t.co/SowJJEYZzJ
— Eli (@degenEli) April 16, 2024
It’s worth noting that Clark has many endorsement deals that will likely bring her total earnings well into the millions, but her contract still paints a pretty clear picture of how little WNBA stars are paid.
[Spotrac]
