Caitlin Clark reportedly offered 10 times her WNBA salary to join Unrivaled league
Clark’s 2024 salary was $76,535 with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is the WNBA’s top attraction. (Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
There are six roster spots left in the Unrivaled basketball league — will Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark join her fellow WNBA players? The 2024 rookie of the year is reportedly being courted with a rich offer.
According to Sports Business Journal, Clark and Unrivaled have held talks about her participating in the 3-on-3 league that is set to tip off in January in Miami. The offer to Clark is believed to be worth over $1 million, which would include an equity stake.
By comparison, Clark signed a four-year, $338,056 contract after being drafted by the Fever. She made $76,535 during the 2024 season and could earn up to $97,582 in annual salary in the final year of her deal. There is also her endorsement contract with Nike, which is reportedly $28 million over eight years.
Clark is one of two high-level WNBA stars, along with A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, who has yet to commit to playing.
“We’re always going to have a roster spot for Caitlin Clark,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell told Sportico this week. “We’re not applying a full court press the way people think. We are letting her decompress from basketball. … She knows that we have a spot for her when she’s ready.”
In those talks with the league, Clark was reportedly told to “take as long as she wants” to make her decision. Opening night is scheduled for Jan. 17.
On Thursday, Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx announced that the league had outperformed its financial projections and that the total number of roster spots would be increasing from 30 to 36.
In a move potentially to entice Clark to join, the league announced this week that her Fever teammates, Lexie Hull and Aliyah Boston, as well as her teammate from Iowa, Kate Martin, had signed on.
The expanded player spots will see six teams with six-player rosters play 14 games each, with the season ending with a single-elimination Final Four. Games will be played on a 70-foot court and feature an 18-second shot clock, three 7-minute periods and a final 15-point runoff in the last quarter.
There will be an All-Star event Feb. 10, as well as a one-on-one tournament featuring all 30 players. The winner will receive a $250,000 prize.
League play will take place between Jan. 17 and March 17, with 45 games being broadcast in prime time following a media rights deal with TNT Sports.
Last week, the Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom and Vinyl were announced as the six team names.
