Erica Barris

Remember when Kaitlyn Clark broke the NCAA all-time scoring record?

She got so popular, she was invited on Saturday Night Live.

So now money is coming in from skyrocketing ticket prices and advertising revenue.

The league is projected to get $3.1 billion over the next 11 years from a new media rights deal.

They got parental leave and they got somewhat higher salaries.

Last year, the minimum salary, like for a rookie, was around $66,000.

And for the first time, the players did get a bonus because the WNBA made enough money to trigger it.

CBA.

The entire collective bargaining agreement.

And if you're going to ask for more of everything Alicia learned, you have to be able to explain why.

But there was no comparable professional women's basketball league in the country.

And just asking for the same as what the men make, the average men's salary is around $10 million, just wasn't going to work.

Because despite all the growth of the WNBA, it still doesn't bring in nearly the kind of money the NBA does.

The new pie is not that big.

You heard that right, Planet Money fam.

The Claudia Golden, the Nobel Prize winning economic historian and labor economist.

When the WNBA players asked Claudia, after she won the Nobel, to help them negotiate their pay, she said, OK, but for no pay.

So she was one of the people advising the player's side.

Did you get to meet her?

Via Zoom?