(05-11-2013 12:52 AM)crusher38 Wrote: wnba oughta be ashamed since the nba runs that league. its really stupid because the tickets arent that much cheaper than an nba game. so wheres all the money going?
The short answer is that nobody knows where the money is going because the NBA doesn't have to release its financials.
The longer answer is that it's suspected that the WNBA loses a ton of money and doesn't have the sponsorship, attendance, and TV money to be sustainable on its own. It's widely suspected that the revenue sources (ticket sales, TV contract, sponsors) don't come close to covering the operating expenses of the WNBA. The NBA already subsidizes it and won't put any more money towards the league. Last season, the salary cap per team was $878,000 and the max for a player was $105,000. To put things in perspective, Kobe Bryant was the highest paid NBA player and he made about $340,000 per GAME this season.
The NBA has a lot of initiatives to build its brand across many demographics all over the world and unfortunately for women's basketball, that is how the NBA treats the WNBA. The tough part is that without the NBA, the WNBA wouldn't have the sponsors it does have, wouldn't have access to the facilities it does, and wouldn't have the small TV contracts it has. We have seen how long leagues have lasted trying to make it independently. The ABL had better players, had much better salaries than the WNBA, played in lower-cost facilities, had much lower expenses, and still couldn't make it beyond two seasons.
Basically, the WNBA needs the NBA to exist, but the money the NBA is putting into it is keeping it from growing, and the NBA won't put more money into it because it views the league at a marketing initiative that loses money.