Caitlin Clark Bringing $36M to Indiana Community Good for Nothing as Her “Embarrassing” WNBA Paycheck No Better Than a Local Reporter’s Salary

We all know about the Caitlin Clark effect — she’s been a game-changer for the WNBA. From filling stadiums to boosting viewership, she’s directly contributed to the recent surge in popularity. But the question remains: Is the WNBA actually paying her and her fellow players what they’re worth? Does she even receive 5% of the value she brings to the table?

Well, the WNBA isn’t exactly known for paying its athletes what they deserve. Over the years, plenty of players have called out the league for its low salaries, and the frustration is only growing. Just two days back, it was Natasha Cloud demanding Cathy Engelbert to give the players what they deserve!

Charly Arnolt on Outkick The Morning went deep into the salaries of the WNBA and she made some very embarrassing observations! She said, “When you look at the salaries league-wide including Caitlin Clark’s they are very embarrassing, I mean they are very much in line for what I was making for my third job out of school like pretty much spot on what I made as a young 20-year-old in a small market as a local reporter.”

Clark is set to make just over $78,000 in the 2025 season, while the highest-paid players in the WNBA can’t earn more than $241,984. That alone should tell you everything about how ridiculously underpaid these athletes are. No wonder stars like Angel Reese have to come out and say that their WNBA salary isn’t even enough to cover rent!

via Imago

It gets even more embarrassing for the Fever guard. Charly Arnolt digs deeper and finds out that Clark has had an even bigger effect on the city of Indianapolis. She says, “Her salary maybe does not make sense for her is because she hasn’t just had a major impact on the WNBA she has had a major impact on the entire city of Indianapolis, there’s an economic expert Dr Ryan Brewer he has calculated that Clark has made the city of Indianapolis $36 million dollars. Additionally, the calculations show that Clark contributed to 26.5 % of the WNBA’s economic activity this season.”

Now make no mistakes, Clark is definitely securing the bag with her sponsorship deals, which helps keep her finances in check. But it’s embarrassing for a league to massively underpay an athlete who has brought about such monumental changes. There is hope that the new CBA which will be implemented from 2026 will do a much better job in issuing the disparities in pay!

That said, let’s take a look at why Dr. Ryan Brewer believes Caitlin Clark has had such a massive impact on the WNBA

Dr. Ryan Brewer couldn’t believe the numbers himself. “The numbers are so staggering, they don’t even seem real,” he said after diving deep into his research on the massive impact Caitlin Clark has had on the game.

The Fever averaged over 17,000 fans per game, making them the first WNBA team to draw over 300,000 fans in a single season! Clark’s regular-season games pulled in an average of 1.2 million viewers,  a staggering 199% more than games without her.TV viewership has soared by 300%, and a whopping 45% of the total broadcast value now comes from Fever games. But that’s not all, merchandise sales exploded by 500%, with Clark topping the charts, followed closely by Angel Reese!

Caitlin Clark has had such a huge impact on the WNBA by boosting everything from viewership to merchandise sales, and she definitely deserves to be paid more for all of it. It’s high time that Cathy Engelbert and the W start paying its players fairly for the huge role they play in its success