Why None Of 2026’s 50 Highest-Paid Athletes Are Women
Key takeaways
- A half-decade after Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis bought the cross-town Aces for $2 million, the WNBA’s defending champions are valued at $420 million, and all of the league’s teams are worth at least $250 million.
- Those advances are gradually trickling down from the ownership suite to the field of play.
- But there’s still a wide gap between the top-earning female athletes and their male counterparts.
The business of women’s sports is growing fast, but media rights revenues still pale in comparison with major men’s leagues, holding back salaries.Few investments have performed better in recent years than a women’s sports team. A half-decade after Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis bought the cross-town Aces for $2 million, the WNBA’s defending champions are valued at $420 million, and all of the league’s teams are worth at least $250 million. Meanwhile, NWSL teams are now worth $200 million on average, four years after the $35 million valuation in healthcare entrepreneur Michele Kang’s purchase of the Washington Spirit was thought to be an exorbitant price.
Those advances are gradually trickling down from the ownership suite to the field of play. The WNBA, for instance, more than quadrupled its salary cap this season, to $7 million under the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, from $1.5 million in 2025.
But there’s still a wide gap between the top-earning female athletes and their male counterparts.