Count It: Australia, A Three Week Summer Camp Program for the Global Growth of the WNBA

Abstract

This poster examines the effects of the wage gap on gender inequality in professional basketball, and proposes a global summer camp program with the goal of helping close this wage gap. The fundamental cause of the wage gap between the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) is the revenue-share model. In this case, there was an 80-20 revenue split in the WNBA (players receive 20% of the leagues revenue), and a 50-50 revenue split in the NBA (players receive 50% of the leagues revenue). This has been the source of many issues for the WNBA, and they decided to attempt to fix it in January of 2020 by signing a new collective bargaining agreement. This agreement promised players a 50-50 revenue split, as soon as the WNBA can become profitable. As of the 2021 WNBA season, the league is still not profitable, and they only exist because they are subsidized by the NBA. In order to help the WNBA become profitable and begin to pay their athletes what they have promised, I have created a summer camp program titled Count It: Australia. Count It: Australia is going to be a three-week summer basketball camp program for Australian boys and girls ages 6-16. The name "Count It: Australia" was chosen so the camp can be consistent with the current Count It campaign that the WNBA implemented for their 25th season. Each week of the camp will take place in a different Australian city, and the WNBA players will join forces with the WNBL (Women's National Basketball League) team of that city. The WNBL is the professional women's basketball league in Australia. The camp program will run from October 31st- November 19th, 2022, and will be held in Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney, respectively. These three cities were chosen because they each have a WNBL team, and they are three of the most populated cities in Australia. The camp itself will run from Monday to Friday, and each week there will be an exhibition game held on Saturday between the WNBA and WNBL teams. Count It: Australia can help the WNBA close the wage gap and pay their athletes 50% of the leagues revenue. If the program can reach its goals, revenue from new fans and broadcast agreements could generate money for the WNBA. Globalizing was the desired approach for this because it has already worked for the NBA, and helped the league grow tremendously since the 1980s. Additionally, if this program proves to be successful it is one that can be replicated in other countries for similar effects. Count It: Australia is just the beginning of a global future for the WNBA; and will simultaneously assist the league in achieving a 50-50 revenue split for their athletes.