The 24 Seven: Money Edition
On paying players, players getting paid, and the ever expanding Georgia Senate field.
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‘Pay is what you owe us’
Interest in women's sports has exploded recently, spurred by the superstardom of the Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark. The WNBA All Star Game in Indianapolis featured the league's biggest stars, including Clark, wearing shirts saying "Pay Us What You Owe Us" as the players negotiate their first new contract since the explosion of popularity -- and money -- in women's sports.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the U.S. open, featuring Naomi Osaka and Venus Williams, took over the city last week. So I reached out to Gwen Young, CEO of the Women's Business Collaborative, to ask about the state of pay disparity in the increasingly popular world of women's sports. (Catch our previous discussion here on the state of pay equity and disparity here.)
The following Q n A is edited lightly for clarity. Emphasis added by yours truly.
TL: Thanks for your time, Gwen. Last time we talked was with the release of the film about Lilly Ledbetter's efforts to close the pay gap writlarge, what's the state of things in sports?
GY: The WNBA is expanding aggressively, aiming to grow from 12 to 18 teams by 2030, with new franchises in cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Toronto. Teams are paying up to $250 million each in expansion fees. But WNBA players still receive just about 9.3% of league revenue, whereas NBA players receive around 50%.
The average WNBA salary is just over $100,000, with top players capped at under $250,000 in 2025 and rookie contracts—like Caitlin Clark’s—are in the high $70,000s. As one Reddit discussion notes, even a five-fold increase in total player pay would represent a tiny fraction of team valuations and league growth: average franchise values have soared to $269 million, and the league as a whole is worth $3.5 billion.
TL: What are some success stories in the world of sports?
GY: The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) recently negotiated a groundbreaking CBA (running through 2030): minimum salary is rising to $48,500 in 2025 and climbing to $82,500 by 2030. The team salary cap will increase to $3.3 million in 2025 and $5.1 million by 2030. Players are also guaranteed a revenue share if the league turns profitable.
And women’s cycling continues to thrive—particularly the Tour de France Femmes. Media coverage and sponsorships are up, average Women's WorldTour salaries have more than doubled since 2020, and riders now earn around €40,000 annually—a sign that the sport is gaining more competitive investment and visibility.
TL: Where are you focusing your efforts with the Women's Business Collaborative? What works best in this environment? Are you sporting Caitlin Clark merch saying, "Pay Us What You Owe Us?"
At the Women’s Business Collaborative, we focus on:
Amplifying leadership: building high-visibility platforms like the Women’s Capital Summit, roundtables, and programs to elevate women in business, finance, sports, and STEM.
Driving system change: partnering with business leaders, athletes, and investors to influence policies and culture—especially around equity, access, and capital.
Using storytelling and data: transforming research into compelling experiences that engage organizations and individuals across sectors.
What works best? Multi-sector collaboration, leveraging momentum from women’s sports stars and visibility to advocate for business-led structural changes in compensation, sponsorship, and investment. When brands, investors, and leagues align behind equity, change becomes possible.
And I am going to sport some Caitlin Clark merch accompanying my women's soccer Megan Rapinoe T-shirts!
The Big Money in Fake News
It would be easy enough to ignore
, who has spent more than a few years now pursuing junk reporting. But with the onetime legacy journalist-turned-conservative-influencer pushing the new Russia storyline crafted by the White House, I reached out to to help explain what’s happening. (If Taibbi were screaming into a tabloid at the grocery store, rather than a government megaphone, we may not be here, so for that I am grateful.)Cohen’s been doing some great reporting recently over at The Banter on not just what Taibbi has been whiffing on, but *how* he got it wrong. I’ve found this especially interesting because Taibbi’s flops offer a deeper look into how conspiracy-theory style reporting (which is as old as The Swamp itself) operates in picking out and dissecting select storylines while ignoring pertinent (and easily accessible) information which clearly undercuts or negates the overarching Narrative.
In short, Russia helped Trump in 2016. For the deeper read, I’d recommend the very excellent Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.
Recommend the watch/listen, it’s colorful, a bit more colorful than this write-up. One of the things we discussed is just how lucrative it is pushing false reporting in this era of disinformation (whether that’s paid in clicks/engagement/ad revenue or by the Kremlin itself.)
And a giant tip of the 10-gallon hat to Russia investigation afficionado Uri Berliner, who peaked my interest in Ben’s recent reporting on Taibbi. Berliner, who used to work on the business desk at NPR wrote a diatribe against NPR in large part accusing their reporters of flopping on the Trump Russia coverage. As someone who covered Trump-Russia extensively, first at CNN and later at The Associated Press, I was surprised to see Berliner flop his 2024 attack. It was a big, complicated and deeply important story, which Berliner got wrong.
The Georgia Field Grows
The GOP Senate primary in Georgia is heating up, with conservative GOP Rep. Mike Collins officially throwing his hat in the ring on Monday. The list of Republicans vying to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is expected to grow.
Collins — a staunch Trump ally who has made a name for himself as a lawmaker with a strong internet presence, frequently posting memes and comical content on X — launched his campaign by posting his first ad, touting his work on the Laken Riley Act, his support for the president's agenda, and declaring, "It's time to send a trucker to the U.S. Senate to steamroll the radical left."
Collins is the second House member to enter the race, following Rep. Buddy Carter, who announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the battleground state in May.
Former football coach Derek Dooley is also said to be considering a bid, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has been floated as a potential contender.
Georgia GOP political consultants told 24sight News that Collins "shouldn't be underestimated," noting he is seen as the most conservative of the potential candidates, as he and Carter jockey for the Trump endorsement.
Operatives noted that Ossoff could be tough to beat, with any GOP candidate needing a strong campaign operation and fundraising prowess given the competitiveness of the state.
Trump has not yet endorsed anyone in the race, which the Cook Political Report rates as a "toss-up."
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