Caitlin Clark was the top NCAA women’s basketball player this past season, and was the number one draft pick by the Indiana Fever. She was the major reason that the Iowa Hawkeyes’ women’s team got more coverage this year, and that the women’s tournament drew a lot more viewers than the norm. And, as her rookie season begins, the advance television schedule shows that the Indiana Fever will get a lot more national television coverage.

WNBA salaries are far lower than those of NBA players. That’s just so terribly unfair, the advocates scream, but the WNBA’s regular season of 40 games is less than half of the NBA’s 82 game schedule, and the women’s games draw far fewer fans in the stands.

You know who else doesn’t get paid as much as NBA players? National Hockey League players, because they just don’t have as sizable a fan base.

And now, in what the advocates see as the ultimate insult, Miss Clark, who is white, got a high value shoe contract:

The Caitlin Clark Effect and the uncomfortable truth behind it

by Jim Trotter | Thursday, April 25, 2024

It’s not surprising that corporations are lining up like fans along arena railings to get Caitlin Clark’s autograph. The former Iowa star is a transcendent talent who has proven she is as proficient at breaking viewership records as scoring marks, drawing capacity crowds at home and on the road and even attracting 17,000 spectators to an open practice during Final Four weekend. Her WNBA jersey sold out within hours of her being drafted No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever, and multiple teams have moved upcoming games to larger venues to accommodate “unprecedented demand” for Fever games.

So, it makes perfect sense that she has been hired to pitch everything from home and auto insurance to performance drinks, from trading cards to supermarket chains, from automobiles to financial investment firms. She’s not only deserving of every opportunity but also has earned every endorsement deal that’s been placed before her, including a $28 million Nike pact that includes her own signature shoe line, as reported by The Athletic.

That being said, we should not delude ourselves into believing her appeal as an influencer is based solely on basketball, because it’s not. Arguing otherwise is an affront to history and reality. Clark’s attractiveness to local companies and national corporations is heightened by the fact that she is a White woman who has dominated a sport that’s viewed as predominately Black; a straight woman who is joining a league with a sizable LGBTQ+ player population; and a person who comes from America’s heartland, where residents often feel their beliefs and values are ignored or disrespected by the geographical edges of the country.

Because sport and society are constructed from the same fabric, it’s impossible to separate them, which is why it’s foolish to act as if basketball is the only thing fueling The Caitlin Clark Effect. The primary thing? Yes. But not the only thing.

There’s more at the original, and the article is also reproduced here, for those who don’t like The Athletic’s registration process to see the article.

But can we tell the truth here? If you look at the sports schedules on ESPN, you’ll see mostly men’s contests, but the women’s games you do see are mostly ice skating, NCAA gymnastics, and volleyball, and especially beach volleyball with the athletes wearing bikinis, with basketball very much behind. Why? Because the executives at ESPN understand their audience, and know that their mostly male viewership would rather see pretty white women! Hey, I’m a normal man: I’d rather look at pretty women than less attractive ones.

The shoe contract? The execs at Nike don’t really care about some sort of ‘equality’ in sports; they care about selling basketball shoes! And if the viewership for women’s basketball has been driven up by the success of a white player, they’re going to ride that success to what they hope will be selling more shoes.

The racial component when discussing brand ambassadors may make people uncomfortable, but it’s a conversation that merits consideration. Sue Bird, who is White and gay and one of the legends of women’s basketball, addressed it in 2020 while discussing the league’s inability at that time to capture the country’s attention in the same way that the U.S. women’s national soccer team had done.

“Even though we’re female athletes playing at a high level, our worlds, you know, the soccer world and the basketball world are just totally different,” she said. “And to be blunt it’s the demographic of who’s playing. Women’s soccer players generally are cute little white girls while WNBA players — we are all shapes and sizes … a lot of Black, gay, tall women. … There is maybe an intimidation factor and people are quick to judge it and put it down.”

Miss Bird might, just might, have left something out. Her ‘partner’ is now-retired soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who has a long history of far-left activism and has alienated many people. And in stressing that “Women’s soccer players generally are cute little white girls,” she’s telling you a lot about some WNBA players, who aren’t necessarily that physically attractive. Miss Bird and Miss Rapinoe also just led some 400 current and former women athletes who signed a letter to the NCAA urging the protection of ‘transgender’ athletes, allowing them to compete under the ‘gender’ with which they identify rather than their actual sex. I wonder how they’d have felt if Dennis Rodman decided that he identified as a woman and tried to join the WNBA?

You know who else has lost popularity due to activism? LeBron James, the greatest current NBA player, though clearly on the downside of his career.

The businesses which have signed deals with Miss Clark — and there haves been more than just Nike — all have one goal in mind, and that’s to make money. American consumers who are influenced by whether Miss Clark sports a specific shoe? They are free people, able to take their own decisions, for whatever reasons they have.
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Also posted on American Free News Network. Check out American Free News Network for more well written and well reasoned conservative commentary.