The WNBA's two-way international exchange

But notoriously low salaries compared to other leagues across the globe and a rule that could penalize players for competing in international leagues stand in the way of these aspirations. 

“If you want to grow, if you want to get the best players, you have to pay them,” Nola Agha, a professor of sport management at the University of San Francisco, told ChicagoGlobal. “As the open leagues and open marketplace in Europe and around the rest of the world has proven, when you have an open marketplace for player talent or when you’re willing to pay them what they’re worth, you can absolutely have the best stars.” 

A global league

Of the 157 players that were on a team’s roster at some point this season, more than 30 came from abroad. On the Chicago Sky, this included veteran British player Elizabeth Williams and Brazil’s Kamilla Cardoso, a first-round draft pick this year who came to the U.S. at 15 years old to play basketball. Up in Minnesota, Canadian Bridget Carleton and Australian Alanna Smith have been standouts in the Lynx’s 30-10 record and ensuing playoff push. 

One of the incentives for international players to play in the WNBA is its association with the NBA, Agha said. The men’s league started the women’s league back in 1996 and still owns about 60% of it.   

“The association with that American brand gives the WNBA sort of a higher global reputation than some of the other European leagues,” Agha said. 

But foreign players aren’t only drawn to the WNBA for the opportunity it affords them in the States. They also play here because of what the league allows them to do abroad. There are professional women’s basketball leagues all over the globe, some of which offer foreign players the pride of working in their home countries and others that simply afford athletes more playing time and more pay. Most of those leagues, though, play in the winter, whereas the WNBA’s season happens in the summer. Playing in the WNBA, then, means a chance to compete year-round — which many see as crucial in a sport where the average career length for female pros is only five years. 

“You have a few years where you can maximize your revenue and your own personal income,” Agha said. “And so the way you can do that is by playing as much as you can.” 

The WNBA's scheduling rules, though, are beginning to threaten that balance. Under a policy known as the prioritization rule, players with over two years of experience in the WNBA must report to their teams by May 1 (or the start of training camp, whichever is later) or face suspension for the whole season. Not all global leagues are wrapped up by then, which means players with an interest in two leagues could be forced to choose. 

And such choices aren’t only faced by players born abroad. 

The finances of international play

When WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia two years ago while traveling for off-season play, many Americans learned what diehard women’s sports fans already knew: that female athletes — even the famous ones — can’t always support themselves on WNBA salaries alone. 

WNBA players’ salaries have long been a contentious topic. According to research by Agha and sports economist David Berri, in 2018-19, the average pay in the NBA was $6.2 million, with top player Stephen Curry making $37.5 million, while the average WNBA salary was just $80,000, with the highest-paid player making $117,500. 

The salary band has increased a bit since (the maximum was $241,984 for the 2024 season), but the minimum for players with less than three years in the league remains startlingly low at $64,154 — a figure that increases only to $76,535 once you hit three years.

Pro leagues abroad, though, offer the chance for significantly bigger payouts. Though the average pay overseas isn’t necessarily higher, foreign leagues are often willing to pay American stars handsomely. Agha’s research shows Russia’s Women’s Basketball Premier League as an example of this: While the league’s average pay range is $80,000 to $140,000, its American players typically make between $500,000 and $1.5 million.  

These international teams, then, can incentivize WNBA players to opt out of the U.S. league. For example, women’s basketball icon Diana Taurasi sat out of the WNBA season in 2015 at the request of her Russian team, which paid her $1.5 million that winter. 

“There are often players that, even if they're not getting paid to sit out of the WNBA season by their European team, they'll often opt out of the WNBA because if you get injured [in the WNBA], then that in some ways can really jeopardize your ability to earn your primary income, which is in a global league, not in the WNBA,” Agha said. 

Overcoming challenges 

With the league growing in popularity and the Midwest home to some of its biggest teams and stars, the WNBA should be poised to bring waves of visitors and revenue to our region’s cities. There’s no reason why Kamilla Cardoso couldn’t put Brazilian eyes on Chicago just as Athens-born Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo has trained Greek fans’ attention on Milwaukee. Caitlin Clark has already brought basketball star power to Indianapolis on a scale not seen since Reggie Miller.

But a system where local players have to travel abroad to make significant incomes, and where foreign players can be forced to choose between playing in the WNBA or competing in front of home crowds, threatens to quash that potential.  

According to Agha, fixing the league’s compensation system is key to continued growth. 

“Salary is probably the biggest change that has to happen in the WNBA,” she said. 

Collective bargaining between the league and its players’ union is one way this change could happen — and one where the sport’s rising profile could have a “profound impact,” says Agha, since “certainly the increased popularity gives the players more leverage next time they go in to renegotiate.” 

Individual WNBA teams and players alike have also been searching for solutions to keep players home. For example, in 2023 the Indiana Fever gave point guard Erica Wheeler a $40,000 time-off bonus for not playing overseas. A pair of players also recently launched Unrivaled, a new league aimed at keeping WNBA players in the States during the off-season. The average Unrivaled salary is expected to be $250,000, and the first season’s round of players will get equity in the league for at least the first year. 

Developments like these, along with wins already secured in previous bargaining rounds, have already had an impact on the number of players competing overseas (as have geopolitical considerations like those raised by Griner's Russian detention). Last winter, about 50% of WNBA athletes played abroad, compared to more than 60% in the late 2010s.

Ultimately, though, Agha says it’s the decisions of team owners that make the biggest difference. In the U.S., owners are often millionaires who see below-market-value salaries as a way to maximize profits. Owners overseas, though, know that a successful team is built by successful players — whom you attract by paying them well. 

“Those owners are willing to pay for top talent because they want to win,” she says, “because the owners know when you win, you actually — as a business — make more money.”