I do hope the players get a better CBA and it is awesome that the league is growing and attracting more eyeballs.
My point here is simply that the “same percentage of revenue as the men” sounds reasonable until you pause and realize that the expenses don’t operate on that same sliding scale. Charter jets cost the same no matter who is on them and $25 million per year is 1/8th of the new annual TV payout for the WNBA. The NBA’s TV deal is 7 billion per year. I guarantee that the NBA aviation budget is not $875,000,000. I could bet it’s less than a quarter of that number.
The other WNBA employees are needed and their costs don’t dramatically change. And so much of the other demands are wrapped up in spending the money it takes to be a “real” pro league. The team doc, trainers, marketers, support staff can command close to the same amount no matter who they are working for.
Venue fees and all that go into that don’t slide on a scale either. They aren’t as much as an NBA game, but you’re still paying to open the arena, run crowd control, etc. The delta between NBA and WNBA non-player and staff expenses per game isn’t pro-rated in line with the revenue difference.
They absolutely deserve a raise, I’m just pointing out that pushing it even to something like 30 percent of revenue likely means total league collapse.