NIL’s impact on women athletes not as predicted

Another View

Women sports make up six of the top 10 highest-earning sports in compensation for name, image and likeness (NIL) through the first year-and-a-half of the NIL era, according to a new Opendorse report. Opendorse is the leading NIL marketplace company that started in 2012 to help athletes and their supporters “understand, build, protect and monetize their brand value.”

The report, “Cashing In: Women’s Sports and NIL Success,” boldly smashed a couple of myths, including that NIL is only for men’s basketball and football and it will ultimately ruin women’s sports.  

On the contrary, sponsorship of women athletes grew 20 percent in one year (from Sept. 2021 to Sept. 2022) compared to just two percent for male athletes, based on a SponsorUnited study cited in the Opendorse report.

    Opendorse broke down average NIL deal size by sports and position:

• Women basketball guards, $2,701/deal
• Women track and field sprinters, $452/deal
• Softball utility player, $1,777/deal
• Volleyball outside hitter, $464/deal

“It’s very promising and rewarding for us to see women continue to defeat the narrative that NIL was going to increase the gap between male and female sports,” MOGL co-founder Brandon Wimbush told the MSR, whose NIL company is one of the few such companies owned by Blacks and POCs. “As evidenced by these data points, without football, NIL is just about an even playing field. We at MOGL are striving to provide value for overlooked communities.”

Among the major conferences, ranked by compensation and by women’s sports activities, the Big Ten is fourth in compensation and tops by activities. Opendorse explained that this is based on student-athletes affiliated with these conferences who “have earned the most money and completed the most NIL activities since July 1, 2021, according to anonymized transactions completed or disclosed through Opendorse.”

“NIL is trending toward unprecedented access” for all athletes, especially female players, according to the report.

WNBA free agency

As WNBA free agency signings commenced on Feb. 1, last week the Minnesota Lynx announced that the club signed Tiffany Mitchell, a 5’9” guard who played for the Indiana Fever last season. The Lynx also re-upped Lindsay Allen, Damaris Dantas, Nikolina Milic and Bridget Carleton.

The 5’8” Allen was originally signed by the Lynx to a seven-day contract last July, then two more seven-day pacts. She appeared in Minnesota’s final nine games in 2022 and averaged 6.7 points and 3.4 assists per game, including a career-high 26 points in the Lynx’s final game of the season.

Dantas, who has been on the Lynx roster for two separate stints, averaged 5.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in 15 games last season before leaving the team for personal reasons. The 6’4” Brazilian native was originally drafted by Minnesota in 2012 and was part of the Sylvia Fowles three-team trade in 2015. She then signed back in Minnesota as a free agent in 2019.

Milic was a rookie last season and became a fan favorite after she signed a hardship exception contract. After two seven-day contracts, the 6’3” forward was signed to a rest-of-season pact but was released in August. She averaged six points and three boards and appeared in 31 games (four starts).

The 6’1” Carleton is going into her fifth WNBA season. She was one of three Lynx players to appear in all 36 games. The forward from Canada averaged 4.3 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 2022.

Finally…

Last week, the Lynx announced its season-long plans to celebrate the team’s 25^th anniversary later this year. Scheduled events include celebrating the top 25 players in franchise history, retiring Fowles’ jersey, and honoring Lindsay Whalen’s 2022 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction.