Why is the biggest TV ratings star in sports getting paid about the same as an office manager in a moderately successful company?

@gruber @mathowie yeah, most of her money will come from endorsements, just as it entirely did in college. Many pro athletes (even Ohtani!) get paid so much for endorsements that they even do stuff like lose track of the bank account containing their salary

@mathowie Point of contrast: in 1979 the NBA was so unpopular that CBS broadcast them on tape delay.

Then came Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

Those are legendary shoes to fill but Caitlin Clark might be that type of player. She electric. She passes like a magician. And most importantly she *wins*.

@gruber @mathowie I was a Fever season ticket holder for years before I moved and my two biggest gripe are that a lot of teams seem to lean on marketing themselves as a cheap family entertainment, which is true, but doesn’t exactly generate buy-in from 20-30-somethings, regardless of the on-court product…

@gruber @mathowie I would add two things:
1. The NBA has largely treated W TV rights as a throw in to NBA rights deals, so we don’t have a sense of what the market has been/will be for them.

2. The W has done itself no favors with timing of programming, put its finals games up against the NFL last year, including the clinching game during Sunday afternoon.

@gruber @mathowie Just this spring, my parents (much to my surprise!) had watched a bunch of college basketball. They and I both live near-ish to Duke, but were rooting for underdog NC State in the men's tournament. But I also went over and watched the women's final with them. My mom, especially, never watches sports but she was enthralled. All sorts of new demographics opening up.

I'll have to ask if they saw Caitlin on SNL last weekend.

@jsnell @mathowie Or take their Dodgers salary 10 years from now.