The ongoing CBA standoff has once again pulled back the curtain on the financial realities women athletes face every day. With no resolution in sight and uncertainty hanging over the league’s biggest stars, the situation continues to raise uncomfortable questions about value, leverage, and long-term security. As stars like Caitlin Clark continue to dominate headlines, a surprising new voice has entered the debate with a take that’s already proving unpopular.

Speaking on Episode 2 of Journalisming, hosted by Jack Mac for Barstool Sports, former Elmhurst Bluejays volleyball player Hannah Pearl Davis made a controversial statement about WNBA player pay.

“I think they deserve less money. Less money. Because I’ve seen the entitlement firsthand. I was in those gyms, so I know nobody’s going,” Pearl Davis said when asked whether WNBA players deserve the pay they’re asking for.

When the host countered, mentioning that there are standout players like Paige Bueckers, especially since Davis was recently in Dallas. “Bueckers is massive,” he said. To which Davis replied dismissively, “Not really.” She continued, “Women are famous in women’s sports for a few reasons. You know how media works—it’s a big social media following, and that generally has to do with drama.”

This line of thinking has existed for decades. Since the WNBA launched in 1997, questions around profitability and player pay have followed the league closely. Because the league has struggled financially and has yet to turn a profit, critics have long argued that players are already paid more than the league can realistically sustain.

Back then, the average WNBA salary sat at just $28,000, and even the league’s biggest stars struggled to reach $50,000. For perspective, in 2000, the WNBA’s highest-paid player, Cynthia Cooper, earned $75,798. That same year, the NBA’s top earner, Shaquille O’Neal, made a staggering $17.4 million.

And this has been the pattern for years. But are the players really wrong for asking what they’re asking now? With Caitlin Clark entering the league, the WNBA has seen a surge in attention unlike anything in recent history.

In 2024, the league reached 54 million unique viewers and posted its highest attendance in 22 years, nearly doubling its 2023 numbers. Clark’s regular-season games alone averaged 1.2 million viewers, a staggering 199% increase compared to games without her.

This year only strengthened that case. The league once again broke its single-season attendance record, and it’s worth noting that Caitlin Clark appeared in just 13 regular-season games. It shows that the fans are tuning in to watch women’s basketball–not just one player. The sport’s popularity is at an all-time high right now.

And the numbers are backing that too.

With the WNBA projected to bring in $925 million in expansion fees by 2030, the players’ demands start to look far more reasonable. That financial jump followed a landmark $2.2 billion TV deal that will pay the league about $200 million per year over the next 11 seasons–nearly six times more than the previous ESPN deal.

It’s the direct result of the sport’s surge in popularity.

And the league’s quality has risen alongside its growth. Teams are building new training facilities and prioritizing player development, making claims about a lack of quality increasingly outdated. With each draft class, more elite talent enters the WNBA, raising the level of play each season.

But Hannah Pearl Davis wasn’t done there. She went on to make another controversial claim during the podcast, this time directly addressing Caitlin Clark’s rise to fame. To back up her point about “drama,” she said, “Caitlin Clark is famous because she was going back and forth with Reese, or whatever her name is. It’s not because people are thinking, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to watch missed layups.’”

It’s hard to deny that the rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese has been enormously beneficial for the league. Putting Clark and Reese on opposite sides has always been a no-brainer. Their clashes quickly became must-watch TV, dating back to the 2024 NCAA Tournament showdown that drew 12.3 million viewers.

During their rookie season, the trend only intensified. One of their June 2024 matchups drew 2.25 million viewers on CBS on a Sunday afternoon, before climbing to 2.7 million on ESPN for the season opener.

While the rivalry traces back to the 2023 NCAA Championship Game, where Angel Reese pointed to her ring finger and mimicked the “you can’t see me” gesture, that rivalry alone doesn’t diminish what Caitlin Clark has accomplished on an individual level.

She’s the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I history, has more 30-point games than any player—man or woman—in the last 25 seasons, and followed that up by winning WNBA Rookie of the Year while setting the rookie assist record in her debut season. This is what you call a once-in-a-generation player.

So while Pearl Davis has built a reputation for taking positions that run against popular opinion, this is one take we simply can’t agree with.

That said, while we’ve discussed why players are pushing for more, we haven’t really broken down what they’re actually asking for. So let’s take a closer look.

What do Caitlin Clark and co want from the league

The plain and simple answer is a better revenue-sharing model. WNBA players currently receive less than 10% of the league’s Basketball-Related Income, while NBA players earn nearly 50% of their league’s BRI.

Under the league’s latest proposal, players would receive roughly 70% of net revenue, with that share projected to increase from 65% to 80% over the length of the deal. However, none of that is explicitly guaranteed. Because the net-revenue formula doesn’t ensure owner profitability, teams could still be left covering losses if revenues dip or expenses spike, per Sportico.

Which is exactly why Caitlin Clark and co have countered with their own proposal. The players are pushing for a system that would guarantee 30% of gross revenue and introduce a $10.5 million salary cap. It’s a far simpler structure than the league’s current net-revenue model. While it may lack the complexity seen in other leagues, it offers clarity and certainty. Under this setup, the remaining 70% would stay with the league to cover expenses.

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As per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, the WNBA felt the proposal didn’t warrant a response, viewing it as largely similar to previous submissions from the union. Instead, the league is waiting for what it considers a more “realistic” offer from the players.

As things stand, the league is staring at the possibility of losing games to a work stoppage for the first time in its 29-year history. With both sides still far apart on valuation, there’s a real chance fans may not see the likes of A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, and Paige Bueckers take the W court this season.