Money talks: How women’s hoops is playing catch-up 

• Australia's BILLION dollar men's basketball players
• Female players in the WNBL are paid on average a minimum of $50,000 less than male players in the NBL.
• A new Collective Bargaining Agreement has improved salaries and opportunities for cash compensation for players in the WNBL.
• Women’s basketball requires support on the State and Federal level if it is to continue growing
• Complete list of Aussies in the WNBA

The gender pay gap between the NBA and WNBA’s highest paid players is a staggering USD$55.5 million, Sports Illustrated and Her Hoops Stats reveal.

In Australia, minimum salaried WNBL players are paid AUD $50,000 less than NBL players, while the WNBL salary cap is $1.3 million less than the NBL.

This isn’t a true reflection of potential, skill level or entertainment value. Rather, the pay disparity illustrates two vastly different evolutionary paths.

Men have been playing professional basketball since 1946. The WNBA was formed in 1996.

So, from a player development, viewership and salary perspective, professional men’s basketball has a 50-year advantage on where women’s basketball is right now.

But it’s catching up.

Seventy-five years ago, the NBA salary cap was (USD) $55,000. Today it’s more than $140+ million, a figure Boardroom.tv credits to global popularity, increased revenue and inflation.

The WNBA’s salary cap is about $1.5 million per team — 4,523% up from an estimated cap of just $32,500 in when the league launched in 1997.

The $1.5 million cap is an astounding 50% increase on 2020 because of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which led to wages and opportunities for cash compensation increase dramatically.

Although Adelphi University has identified the highest paid player in the WNBA has been consistently paid less than the lowest paid male player in the NBA, new multi-billion-dollar media rights negotiations are  set to propel the WNBA into "a new era of prosperity," Sports Illustrated reports.

While speculative, based on the surging trajectory of the WNBA, its  players can expect significantly increased  salaries, and financial benefits during the next several decades.

In Australia, despite basketball being a $400 million industry, it remains a largely male dominated sport, with women accounting for an estimated 28% of adult players, AusPlay data reveals.

Unlike in the United States, the NBL and WNBL were formed only a couple of years apart —1979 and 1981. However, the global popularity of the NBA, especially in the 1990s, propelled  the NBL into a distinct advantage long before the St. Kilda Saints or the Perth Wildcats made their debuts.

NBL stars such as Bryce Cotton and Xavier Cooks are benefitting from a salary cap of almost $2 million. Whereas players such as semi-professional NBL1 Sydney Comets star Abi Curtin rely heavily on secondary careers as a way of making ends meet.

“You need an astounding amount of support. You need a full time job or someone to fall back on,” said Curtin.

Curtin joined NSW Fire and Rescue as a firefighter in February 2025 after realising she needed a more reliable “way of existing”.

“When you’re immersed, you’re immersed,” Curtin said in response to whether she had noticed any changes in women’s basketball.

“The average person knows about women’s basketball now,” she said, “especially American women’s basketball. Everyone knows who Caitlin Clark is.”

The 2024 WNBA season attracted a historical 54 million viewers across several streaming platforms, a phenomenon the National Collegiate Athletic Association dubbed the “Caitlin Clark Effect”.

Clark’s record breaking career has been credited for increasing viewership across multiple leagues globally and has earned her 1,293,526 All-Star votes in 2025, superseding A’ja Wilson in 2023 by more than  one million votes.

As sport becomes increasingly accessible to view on-demand via streaming services such as Kayo Sports and Foxtel, historically less popular leagues that may have been omitted from prime time free-to-air television 10 years ago are now better positioned for attracting larger audiences.

“The growth of women’s basketball is super exciting,” Curtin said.

More views means greater opportunities and in April 2025 the WNBL and Australian Basketball Players Association (ABPA) announced a new four-year CBA, which doubles the minimum wage by the end of the 2028-29 season.

“This is more than a pay deal — it’s a declaration of intent,” WNBL CEO Jennie Sagar told Basketball.com.au.

“It’s creating an environment where players can thrive on and off the court. With this agreement, we are not only delivering pay parity, but we are investing and supporting the wellbeing and careers of our athletes.”

basketball.com.au reported a lack of basketball courts in Australia is impacting the growth of Australia’s second most popular sport.

AusPlay data showed 1.3 million Australians play basketball, a rapidly rising number of which are female.

The future of women’s basketball in Australia isn’t just a conversation for basketball CEOs — it’s one for the Federal and State governments.

Basketball.com.au’s multiple attempts to interview Federal Sports Minister Anika Wells on what the Government was doing to support the growth of women’s sport in Australia were unsuccessful despite Wells standing beside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in July 2024 when he announced the Government would invest a record $283 million in sport "during the next two years".

The investment included a $249.7 million upgrade to the Australian Institute of Sport's facilities ahead of the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.

Upgrading Australia’s most elite sporting facility is crucial to our global success but grassroots basketball infrastructure is impacting the pathway for athletes to even make their way to the AIS.

As it stands, Basketball NSW alone estimates it needs 55 new courts to meet the demands of one Australia’s fastest growing and popular sports.

That, coupled to the fact female participation in sport, not just basketball, starts to decline in mid-teens. A lack of facilities means a lack of opportunity, ergo participation rates continue to decline. The circle continues.

basketball.com.au estimates about 400,000 voters played some form of organised basketball in the past 12 months. This poses a specific challenge for governments at all levels, especially in swing seats with high participation rates. A large cross section of Australians may literally vote with their feet.

The Olympic Games in Brisbane are still seven years away, which means elite female basketballers now aged between 13 and 15 — future Australian Opals — are potentially at risk of continuing the cycle of walking away from the game without proper support and access to facilities.

Despite these challenges, Sager said the new WNBL CBA was a positive step forward for up and coming athletes.

“This is the kind of change that retains talent in Australia and signals to every young girl picking up a basketball that there is a future here," Sager said.