The 2023 WNBA season will look totally different from these of the previous, with gamers mandated to report back to their groups by the beginning of the common season or face suspension. Showing up in time for the ’23 marketing campaign just isn’t essentially a easy process, with many gamers competing overseas by means of the WNBA offseason and sure worldwide leagues extending into the spring. Mercury star Brittney Griner’s launch from Russian imprisonment after being wrongfully detained for 10 months has highlighted the potential dangers concerned in WNBA gamers competing overseas whereas underscoring the monetary incentives that draw expertise abroad.
Griner was competing for Russian membership UMMC Ekaterinburg when she was arrested at a Moscow-area airport, with officers accusing the 32-year-old of possessing lower than a gram of hashish. Like a lot of her WNBA counterparts, Griner has lengthy supplemented her league revenue with profitable worldwide contracts. Storm guard Breanna Stewart was one of many highest-paid gamers within the WNBA final season, raking in a wage of $228,094, a fraction of the $1.5 million she reportedly made enjoying for UMMC Ekaterinburg in a single season. The former WNBA MVP has since signed with Turkey’s Fenerbahce Safiport, with Hungary and Turkey rising as prime locations for WNBA gamers now not competing in Russia. Sun heart Jonquel Jones, who additionally performs in Turkey, instructed ESPN that she makes her WNBA yearly wage in a single month abroad.
Those who play overseas can have a fast turnaround come the 2023 preseason, with a prioritization clause going into impact this yr. The rule states that gamers who don’t return to their WNBA groups for coaching camp will probably be fined, and people who aren’t again for the beginning of the season will probably be suspended. In ’24, the mandate is stricter, with athletes going through suspension in the event that they don’t report back to their staff by the beginning of coaching camp. Prioritization was agreed upon by the gamers and the league as part of the WNBA’s ’20 collective bargaining settlement.
The transfer is supposed to incentivize gamers to remain stateside through the offseason and prioritize the WNBA over different aggressive alternatives. But the problem stays that athletes, particularly star gamers, make exponentially more cash abroad than they do within the WNBA. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, nevertheless, is trying to change that. “We have to build an economic model,” Engelbert mentioned throughout a press convention following Griner’s December launch. “We are only 26 years young. We are building rivalries. We are building household names.”
Part of Engelbert’s try to hold WNBA gamers in-market through the offseason is thru league advertising and marketing agreements. The commissioner instructed reporters that the league has 10 gamers below contract for this offseason, a bounce from final yr’s three. For the lesser-known athletes and for many who don’t get supplied advertising and marketing offers, Engelbert factors to alternatives supplied that assist with the post-basketball transition. “There are also internship opportunities that aren’t part of big marketing agreements like the stars might get or endorsements from corporations,” mentioned Engelbert, including that these packages are designed to assist gamers hone abilities mandatory for his or her post-playing careers.
Whether the present slate of alternatives supplied by the WNBA is sufficient to incentivize its gamers to remain put through the offseason stays to be seen. Come May, it’s going to develop into clear whether or not the league’s prioritization cut price has paid off when the WNBA’s stars are summoned again to coaching camp.
Source: www.si.com
