Maaaaannnn, I cannot disagree more with the WNBA take. While I agree that the Liberty story is an immense bummer, opening the WNBA up to a more European soccer style budget structure has the possibility of stunting all the growth that the W has made in the last few years. Those European leagues survive on decades, and in some cases centuries, of fandom in markets that don't really have a ton of other sporting options. Plus there are incentive structures for teams that will never have a chance to win a proper title. The W has none of these things. You can even see what a WNBA with that structure looks like in the European leagues, where the richest owners win almost every time.
Even in the NBA where there are relatively rigid salary structures you still run into issues with competitive balance. There are tons of rules/incentives in the NBA but you still end up with every major free agent debating which of the CA/NYC/Miami/Texas/Chicago teams they're going to join. While I disagree with many of the salary rules in the NBA, at least it allows for occasional breakthroughs for small market teams. Looking at the list of EPL winners, hell even the top three, of the last 20 years you see a hegemony that could kill a league that's looking to grow its fanbase. I'm down with creative ideas for the W but this one is certainly not it.
Maaaaannnn, I cannot disagree more with the WNBA take. While I agree that the Liberty story is an immense bummer, opening the WNBA up to a more European soccer style budget structure has the possibility of stunting all the growth that the W has made in the last few years. Those European leagues survive on decades, and in some cases centuries, of fandom in markets that don't really have a ton of other sporting options. Plus there are incentive structures for teams that will never have a chance to win a proper title. The W has none of these things. You can even see what a WNBA with that structure looks like in the European leagues, where the richest owners win almost every time.
Even in the NBA where there are relatively rigid salary structures you still run into issues with competitive balance. There are tons of rules/incentives in the NBA but you still end up with every major free agent debating which of the CA/NYC/Miami/Texas/Chicago teams they're going to join. While I disagree with many of the salary rules in the NBA, at least it allows for occasional breakthroughs for small market teams. Looking at the list of EPL winners, hell even the top three, of the last 20 years you see a hegemony that could kill a league that's looking to grow its fanbase. I'm down with creative ideas for the W but this one is certainly not it.