About this episode
Alysha Clark shares her experience negotiating a groundbreaking contract for WNBA players.
Today the WNBA season tips off, but Dallas Wings veteran forward Alysha Clark has already won a high-stakes competition. She – and a Nobel Prize winning economist – were on the team that negotiated a ground-breaking contract for the players. And Alysha wrote all about it in her journal. Alysha is the oldest player in the league – and when she started she was making a yearly salary of about $36,400. The players flew economy, the rookies in middle seats. They doubled up in hotel rooms. The league was just starting out, wasn’t bringing in money, and, as Alysha says, “That's just what you got.” Jump forward to 2025 and fans are crowding into stadiums, games are on primetime TV, and the WNBA has a 3.1 billion dollar media rights deal. So when the players’ contract came up for renewal, they had a once in a generation opportunity to change the future for all of women’s basketball. Maybe all of women's sports. Today on the show, we hear Alysha’s minute by minute account of what it’s like to be a rookie doing high-stakes bargaining. It came right down to the buzzer. Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life is in stores now. Subscribe to Planet Money+…
People in this episode
Host: NPR
Guest: Alysha Clark
Topics covered
- WNBA
- sports negotiation
- women's basketball
- contract negotiation
- economic impact
- sports history
Keywords
- WNBA
- Alysha Clark
- contract negotiation
- women's sports
- economic impact
- sports history
- Nobel Prize economist
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: WNBA, Planet Money, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR app, Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life
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