How a City Sponsorship Could Signal Change in the WNBA

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the WNBA continues to be a hot topic, showing fans and the world that excitement around women's basketball is expanding beyond a “moment.” With all the chatter about aggression towards rookies, vet players, crazy record stats, and even team mascots dominating the floor, there is one thing that has been looming top of mind for many over the last few weeks: money. The two-time reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces are again at the forefront, as all twelve of the players on the team are negotiating with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) on a $100,000 sponsorship deal. A number even higher than the league salary minimum. The news came as a welcome surprise to many, but also sparked an investigation from the league. So today Aces beat reporter, Callie Lawson-Freeman of the Las Vegas Review-Journal is here to share what she has been able to find out on the ground about this sponsorship and what it could mean for the league. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Callie Lawson Freeman, your sister, who's a beat writer in the
0:03.3	W. M. A. What are the vibes like? Give me a vibe check on just where we are
0:07.8	in terms of how you represent your position, how you feel about,
0:12.4	you know, what everybody's doing and just in general you know what I'm saying
0:15.4	here well I want to say kudos to you I saw you around the horn the other day you
0:19.4	killed that you said what need to be said in the the macro, there's a very real conversation
0:23.1	to be had about the advantages that white women,
0:24.9	particularly athletes get in terms of the W&BA,
0:27.3	in terms of exposure, in terms of opportunities,
0:29.2	and in terms of marketing regarding who they are.
0:31.4	Now, does that necessarily apply to Caitlin Clark
0:33.4	specifically in this instance? No, but it would be polyanna to the point of
0:36.6	insulting to act like that doesn't have a important factor in this entire
0:40.4	discussion. You said what need to be said.
0:42.8	People are trying to kind of like force these,
0:50.8	honestly racist and sexist undertones into the way they discuss this star
0:55.5	rookie. Now it's like however anything that happens in this league it gets almost
1:01.3	like forced into that context and so there's just like this heaviness and there's like this frustration there
1:07.8	It's my job to navigate that because it's my job to interview these players. I still have to write stories all the time.
1:13.2	When Caitlin Clark comes to town I can't go, hey I know you guys are tired of
1:16.9	talking about Caitlin Clark so I'm not going to ask you any Caitlin Clark
1:20.0	questions like I still have to do it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ESPN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ESPN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.