$11 million endorsements help Caitlin Clark join Serena Williams, Coco Gauff, and others after first WNBA season
Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark becomes only WNBA player to crack Top 10 highest paid female athletes list headed by Coco Gauff.
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Coco Gauff heads Top 10 highest paid female athletes list with WNBA and Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark in 10th
Caitlin Clark earned a mere $76K as salary in her first season as a professional athlete. The WNBA superstar, though, has numerous lucrative endorsements to her name. Those endorsements have now helped her crack a list that has the likes of Coco Gauff and Serena Williams on it.
The list is headed by Grand Slam winner Coco Gauff, whose $9.4 million winnings joined $21 million in endorsements. That helped Gauff become the third woman in sporting history to crack the $30 million benchmark set by Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka.
The list compiled by Sportico shows Caitlin Clark at 10th place with $11.1 million in earnings. Out of that $11 million comes from her endorsements and the $100k mentioned on the site, includes the $76K salary and All-Star and All-NBA Team bonuses.
That paltry salary makes her the second worst paid player in that list, with only skier Eileen Gu toppling her. But Gu makes a staggering $22 million from endorsements, proving that Winter Olympics and global acceptance are a more popular sport compared to the WNBA.
The Indiana Fever superstar has already started to turn fans into watching women’s basketball. But it is still a long way away from netting her some of the best endorsement deals. Another factor is that tennis, whose majority players dominate that list, are global athletes.
Coco Gauff is the world's highest-earning female athlete, taking home over $30 million this year.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) December 5, 2024
Roger Federer's agency reps Gauff, and she is just the third woman in sports history to crack $30M in annual income, joining Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams.
Caitlin Clark also… pic.twitter.com/zbSX3eJGS7
The NBA is a global sport, but outside of the Americas, the WNBA does not have many followers. In fact, the European, Asian and Australian leagues have a larger fanbase. It also explains why Americans rush to play abroad to bag those lucrative deals.
WNBA’s increasing popularity will help Caitlin Clark rise up in that list
The arrival of the Unrivaled League indicates American women’s basketball players get an option to stay back in their country. With promises of higher pay and equity, the league is trying to get the best players to sign up. However, they cannot accommodate them all.
The roster is limited to just 36 players whereas the WNBA will employ 156 or more player’s next season. Those other 120 players will still have to resort to other sources to increase their income, unless the next CBA negotiations ensure they do not need to.
Caitlin Clark has made the first move in bringing millions to the sport. With her getting ready for season two, the excitement is building up. If the league can work smart and funnel in more fans to watch their games, the next CBA might have a much higher base salary.
Those million-dollar salary dreams might take a couple of more CBA deals. But even then, if her salary increases along with the popularity of the league, the Indian Fever star’s endorsements could skyrocket. That should help her climb higher, and maybe even drag a fellow basketball star or two, onto the list.
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Joseph Varghese
(2265 Articles Published)