On the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast titled “The Future of Everything with Derek Thompson,” Bill Simmons Derek Thompson predicted… well, the future of everything.
And while The Ringer duo discussed a variety of subjects — when it comes to politics, Simmons predict that conspiracy theories are about to have a moment — they inevitability touched on the future of sports, with The Sports Guy making a bold proclamation about what’s ahead for the WNBA.
Noting that the discrepancies between the WNBA’s $2.2 billion media rights package and the NBA’s $76 billion rights package relative to the leagues’ respective ratings, Simmons expressed his belief that a labor strike in the WNBA — which is co-owned by the NBA — is inevitable. And if that happens, that could open the door for a competitor to the WNBA to soon form, throwing an even bigger wrench into the future of women’s basketball.
“What if there’s an alternate league?” Simmons asked. “This is how the ABA started, right? The NBA players — underpaid, didn’t make enough money, didn’t really have some basic labor stuff in their favor until they unionized in ’64. But then the ABA came in ‘ 67. And guess what? All of a sudden all this s**t changed and salaries went up by four times. And then in the 70s, all of a sudden, NBA players were worth three times what they used to be worth.
“T he thing that I think is gonna happen is I think somebody’s gonna try to form an alternate league. Because it’s not like all of these WNBA players are tied to their teams forever, right? S o you could start a league. You’d be like, ‘You know what? We have more money over here.’ That would seem to be the move.”
Thompson concurred, calling the decision to include the WNBA’s rights package in the NBA’s negotiations “shortsighted.”
“Of course something is going to happen that has the potential to blow up the WNBA as the rights deal exists,” he said.
At the crux of Simmons and Thompson’s argument is their belief that the NBA failed the WNBA by not selling the league’s media rights separately, which Simmons said happened because the NBA was trying to benefit from the WNBA’s growing popularity after funding the league since its inception in 1996. While the WNBA quadrupled its previous rights deal with the $2.2 billion agreement, it would be tough to argue that the league couldn’t have gotten even more money had it negotiated separately as opposed to in conjunction with the NBA.
As for the possibility of an alternate league, it’s certainly intriguing, although matching the infrastructure and credibility the WNBA has established over the course of the past 28 years would be easier said than done. It’s also worth noting that the WNBA’s new deal includes an agreement with its media partners to revisit the rights deals “with good faith talks” after three years, which both Simmons and Thompson seemed unaware of as they discussed the subject.
[ The Ringer ]
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