Welcome to this week's episode of the sports curious podcast. Welcome to our Wednesday wisdom edition of the podcast. I'm your host, Amy Buchan on Siegfried. And today we are so excited to be talking about the WNBA season. Now there has been so much hype during the college basketball season leading up into the WNBA season. And here we are, we've made it. It is time for the season.
And joining me to talk about it is my favorite WNBA expert who is very biased of Las Vegas Aces fans, just so you know if you're listening. Scott, Scott is my cohost, my co -founder. Scott, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me excited to be here as one half of the top rated brother, sister sports podcast out there. Well, I'm pretty sure we might, could we in theory could be the only sibling podcast for sports out there, but I'm gonna take it. I will take it.
I did some research last week and it was like we're in the top, I think, what was I saying? Like 6 % of podcasts in the world. And I'm gonna take that as a bonus and excitement. And so we're gonna go with that. I'm not gonna say that there's probably thousands of podcasts that aren't even active right now anymore, but we're gonna go with it. Let's go with it. And I noticed your background's a little bit different this podcast than usual. I have a beautiful cityscape of the city of Chicago.
I am in town to host and emcee the Rockne Gala, which is, it's their 65th year, I believe, and it raises money for the Notre Dame Club of Chicago scholarships for kids in the Chicago area to go to Notre Dame. And it's such a great thing. And it ties in perfectly because part of the Rockne Gala is to interview someone who is involved in sports from Notre Dame. And last year, I had a chance to interview Niele Ivey who is the head coach of the women's basketball team at Notre Dame.
She's a phenomenal human, and it was such an honor, but she's also a former WNBA player. So, full circle that I'm here today to do this gala tonight, and that we're recording our WNBA podcast. Perfect timing. And I think what we see in research, she actually played for the fever. She did, she paid for Caitlin Clark's team, the Indiana Fever, on one of the teams she played for. So pretty exciting.
And speaking of the season starting, you're getting ready to hop on a plane yourself and head to South Carolina? Yes, right after this podcast, I'm flying to South Carolina, Las Vegas Aces, back to back WNBA champions are playing the Puerto Rican national team at the University of South Carolina where A'ja Wilson went to school, has a statue. She's a legend there. So it'll be exciting to see the game.
Yes. So it will be exciting to be amongst everyone's there for a common cause to see A'ja and Aces. wait to see the photos of Christmas card photos you're going to be taking there. Have you been to South Carolina? Have you been to South Carolina before? I have not, it's not the easiest place to get to in Columbia. I had to triple check I wasn't flying to the country, Columbia. me. I think there's a couple of Colombias in the country. So yeah, that's probably besides the actual country.
Yes, so it's a little tricky, so stay tuned. tuned. Take your passport just in case. Well, let's dive into this season for the WNBA. What's the one thing that is at the top of mind when it comes to the WNBA season this year? For me, it's the momentum that's been building for years with viewership and attendance since they've actually put it on TV and made it easy to see.
And all of that momentum is kind of spilling over now with this new rookie class coming in, which has brought it to the forefront. I mean, we obviously talk about Caitlin Clark, but it's Angel Reese who we saw at the Met Gala and she's in Chicago. And so we have Angel Reese, we have, why am I blanking on the girl, the name from Stanford? I'm drawing a blank. Thank you, yes. And so we've got this great class, Kamilla Cardoso, I think is she, yep. She's in Chicago as well.
So they got Angel and Camilla and Camilla is in the Netflix documentary coming out with Caitlin Clark and Kiki Rice who's still at UCLA. So if you haven't watched it already, Omaha Productions, which is Peyton Manning's company, produced a docu -series around the 2023, 2024 women's college basketball season, that record -breaking season that we all tuned into. So that's out right now. So get ready to watch that to get excited for the WNBA season.
Now, one cool thing that's been in the news and I really think is awesome is the WNBA has been really interesting. In 2020, they had a new collective bargaining agreement which put in maternity policies, you know, adoption, support for adoption and fertility, but travel, they changed their travel. So previously, these women were traveling, they were traveling on planes just like you and I. That collecting bargaining agreement gave them premium economy seats and their own hotel rooms.
And this season, because we've solved with Brittany Griner there have been a lot of requests for charter flights, private flights essentially, for the safety of the athletes, right? I know Brittney Griner Griner had a couple of incidents last year in airports. And so they've added in charter flights this year, which is a game changer. It used to be against the rules, even if your team could afford it.
Yeah, and the New York Liberty actually got in trouble for trying to charter flights for their teams. Previously, before this, you can only charter flights for playoffs and commissioners cup games. So they were flying Southwest or, you know, going seaboarding group. But it was just announced that they're just going to start phasing in charters for this season through Delta primarily, which is massive for travel.
back to backs, it's just gonna improve the overall product, the quality of the product immensely. Well, probably they're going to arrive rested. They're not going to be like you and I, delayed at an airport and some of those things that, I mean, there's still obviously opportunities for whether or not, but they're not going to be sitting in an airport just like you and I trying to figure out how to get the next flight when they have a mechanical error or something like that.
It's, it's, I think it'll be such a game changer and it's such a great quality of basketball. I actually, it's funny. I actually was, you know, now, now that I've, our Instagram feed changes to how you follow stuff. I'm getting all this women's basketball stuff and all these women's sports things now in our feed at last night's game.
And I saw this one going around and it was a tweet from someone that said, this little boy in my gym class just took a deep three and said, I'm going Caitlin Clark on you. And I was like, that is awesome. Like that is so cool. And it's so fun to see the quality of game that we have. Well, Caitlin Clark, you know, this year in the WNBA or the NBA, All -Star game, they had a three -point shootout with Sabrina Ionescu and Steph Curry.
Do you think Caitlin Clark will be against Steph Curry this year? I mean, that was just a monumental event they had anyways, just to have Sabrina and Steph go at it. I've heard rumors that Sabrina and Caitlin will team up, maybe go against Steph and somebody else, maybe Clay if he's still his teammate. So I think that'll be something moving forward that will definitely keep going. That would be really cool. It's just neat to see. So I guess where do I want to really take this?
Let's talk a little bit about the WNBA right there, owned by the NBA. I read a stat that you sent over that typically the NBA is pocketing about $10 billion in revenue. The WNBA about 200 million. They raised about 75 million last year in capital to push out more marketing, global expansion. So just talk to me a little bit about the business of the WNBA when it comes to all things. Yeah, so NBA owns 50 % of the league and then 50 % of the other 50 % is owned by the owners of the teams.
And I saw a good quote that put it in perspective. The NBA has been around 78 years. This will be the 28th season of the WNBA. So I mean, when you put it in that terms, they're really still a new league that's still trying to fight for revenue and things like charter flights. If you remember, NBA didn't have charter flights for a very long time. They were flying commercial and flying public as well. So it's just, if you build it, they will come.
So it's going to, it's kind of just going to take a while. So in theory, you're even saying that the WNBA could surpass the NBA with in popularity. I mean, they're in such an infancy stage at this point. They have 50 more years, more or less, to go to be to an NBA level. Exactly. So yeah, the NBA 28 years in was definitely not on TV. I don't even think games were live. You were watching replays from the night before, days before.
So to put it in that perspective, I think, well, everyone wants instant gratification. Everyone got upset about the salaries. You have to put it in that perspective. actually a really great perspective. So speaking of salaries, talk to me a little about that. Everyone was up in arms about Caitlin Clark making, was it $75 ,000 a first year? $78 ,000, right?
And so, you know, these are obviously why these players are going overseas, like Brittany Griner was over to Russia and a lot of players are doing Australia, et cetera, to make money in the off season. But it's on track. Right. And it's set. So talk to me a little bit about salaries because we also have then Jackie Young who's making $250 ,000 a year from your aces. Yes, so I mean the draft sellers were slotted where you got drafted.
Caitlin Clark's deal is I think four years at $78 ,000 and then after that, you know, you can renegotiate. But for now, there's what 21 players with salaries of at least $200 ,000, which is way up from previous years. So I mean, it's getting there. Obviously it's not the... Wembenyama who's a rookie who made, I don't know, he's gonna make $15 million in his rookie deal. I mean, it's gonna take time. Everyone wants it immediately. And luckily for these women, they're off the court.
They're so visible and important that they're getting these crazy sponsorship deals now, which will kind of offset not making millions of dollars. Yeah, it's incredible what's happening in the background. It's been really fun to watch some of this happen because it's not just Caitlin Clark. It's all of these athletes who are reaping the benefits of, she's basically, you know, rising tides raise all ships, right?
So it's really coming full circle and it's really cool to see something happening this off season or this season is the Olympics. Now, I... professional basketball players can play in the Olympics, unlike some other sports. What will we see? How will they handle that? Because the Olympics runs right in the middle of the WNBA season. It does. It's very unique season they're going to have with, you know, majority of the league heading to Paris on their national teams.
So the league's actually taking a break from July 18th to August 14th completely. That way all the players can go, you know, compete. The majority, I mean, Team USA is, you know, all WNBA players, so they're likely going to be there the entire time winning a gold medal. So legal shutdown for a full month. That is amazing. I think it'll be incredible to see the, it'll almost be like, you know, that was in 1992 dream team with like MJ and Magic.
I think the Team USA women's basketball is going to be on that level this year internationally. It's cool. It's really cool to see. And I look at it too, like it's kind of like the US women's national team, right? They were light years ahead of other countries for their talent. They came in and dominated. And the rest of the world has now caught up, obviously, as we saw in the last World Cup. But it's so cool to see that these women are going to roll in.
And it continues to infiltrate and build their brand, right? I mean, we've talked about the reason we know so much about Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark is because they are required by the NBA draft rules to stay in school. And so they have a chance to create a brand versus departing after their first year. And so, you know, it's really cool to see that this will continue to build their international brand when you think about it, right? I mean, that is phenomenal. Absolutely, yeah.
And like you said, it took 20 to 30 years for other countries to catch up in soccer. And I think we're on that precipice now with women's basketball that Team USA is going to force other countries to really invest and develop talent for these women. And it's just going to be an exciting time. gonna be really exciting. Now talk to me because typically within the season they do this commissioners cup and you talked about that when it came to the charter flights.
What talked about the commissioners cup? I know it's a little confusing. The NBA is also put in in season tournament now too. Similar like they do in soccer in Europe. So talk about the commissioners cup and what that is. In -season tournament, so Commissioners' Cup, sorry I got a little confused there, is it's not necessarily an in -season tournament like the NBA had.
So it's like, I think it's 10 designated games throughout the beginning of the season to where, you know, you're playing Commissioners' Cup games which go towards Commissioners' Cup standings and then the two best teams from each conference will play in the Commissioners' Cup championship. Okay, so they have basically won, they're big games, probably big rivalry games, I'm assuming, that are part of this Commissioner's Cup.
And then they will have the two that are at the top will have one extra game this season for that sort of Commissioner's Cup championship. Yes, and there's, I can't remember the exact number, but there's a very generous cash prize for winning the commissioners cup. Yeah, I do remember it was pretty, it was pretty significant and I could probably look it up while we talk. It's cool to see it. It's neat to be, get those excited where they're on Prime Video, where we're looking at ABC, ESPN.
I mean, there's these games, as you mentioned, are available, where that wasn't the case before. I remember, you probably remember, like texting you one day watching Sportscenter Center, this was probably two or three years ago, not that long ago, and they used a WNBA highlight. to start off Sportscenter Center and I was like, my gosh, this is monumental. I've never seen them start a sports center with a women's sporting event.
So then just to be visible, to make it easy access for people to see it is the biggest hurdle that they've had to overcome. And I think we're getting there with the amount of TV games on TV that you're saying with multiple options from ESPN to Amazon to Ion TV, which I don't know if you have Ion TV. I found out last year I did. So I was able to watch a lot of games on there as well. I think they have like Friday nights on Ion or something. That's amazing.
Now, let's wrap us with a couple other things that have just come up. Expansion teams. The league announced earlier, a couple months ago, that Golden State will get a WNBA team and they'll start playing in 2025. But we've just realized that Toronto's getting a team too.
Yes. I mean, WNBA has been looking at expanding for quite a few years and I think they've done the smart thing and slow playing it and not rushing to add new teams and in fact, quickly as possible to mess with, you know, revenue and things like that. So we have Golden State who will play at the same arena as the Golden State Warriors coming in in 2025. And I mean, just before this podcast, we found out Toronto is getting a team.
So I think that likely had to do with the charter flights being available now. because it would be very challenging to get a team into Canada. Yes, I think they had to wait for that to come through completely. And Toronto is a huge basketball market. I mean, the Raptors are, I mean, they're pulling tons of fans, people are outside watching games. So it'll be huge for the league to get into Canada.
really cool and someone we won't, and I'm gonna give us a total left -hand turn, but someone we won't see on the court this year is Candace Parker. Candace Parker has been a fixture in the WNBA, probably the best WNBA player we've had. She has just taken a job as the president of Adidas Women's Basketball, but she has hung up her sneakers and will not be playing this season. I mean, she walked so players like Caitlin Clark Angel could run.
She had quite possibly the most remarkable 16 year career of all time with multiple MVPs, multiple championships, multiple defensive player of the years, gold medals. So for her to kind of leave the game at this point to where it's gotten to reach such a popularity is kind of impressive. And I think maybe she felt comfortable that it was in a good place. Well, and one thing that's also incredible is she's a mother. She raised her daughter throughout her career.
This is, you know, she's done what so many women are doing in an everyday scenario and she's done that. She's excelled and she's integral. We talked about this in our Mother's Day podcast and getting daycare at the ACES facility and things like that where these women are making an impact in a much broader scale than just the numbers on the And I think that is a really cool thing to see that they are still making an impact and driving change within the league as it is.
And she'll be on TV throughout the NBA. And she'll be involved in basketball still with Adidas, so she's not going anywhere. It's cool. Is there anything you want to share with us before we wrap up this podcast? Can we talk CBA real quick? I think that's a big deal. The last CBA was negotiated in 2020 when the league wasn't necessarily quite in this financial and popularity that it is now. And it goes through 2027, but they can renegotiate after this year.
Okay. They will absolutely be renegotiating for bigger revenue share and things like that. So this year is massive for the league. It's awesome. It's awesome to see what they will do. And I did just see that Disney Plus is streaming Caitlin Clark's debut game. You can catch the games as they launch and as they start on Tuesday, May 14th. And it'll be an incredible season. Of course, stay tuned with us at lastnightsgame .com and follow us on social where we'll be sharing all of those things.
Thanks, Scott, for joining me. Thank you. Go Aces, go.