Glen Taylor, owner of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, joined TheStreet to discuss what he feels Clark will bring to the league.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 One of the big stories surrounding women's basketball is coming out of
00:05 Kaitlyn Clark and what's happened there. She's already a household name.
00:10 What do you think her coming to the WNBA is going to do to elevate that league?
00:19 Well, first of all, I think it's just gonna increase the viewership. She's an
00:25 exciting young woman that just has great skills. Fun to watch. This was already
00:34 showed during her college career. She's gonna go to Indiana. I think it's gonna
00:40 really help their team. But if you go back a ways, we had Maya Moore
00:46 come into the league. Kind of the same thing but at a different time. And it
00:51 just upgraded the whole league and the style of basketball, the ability to play,
00:58 the people that came in. And I think that'll happen now. I think we see
01:04 already by attendance, almost as she, Indiana, goes to different towns to play,
01:11 their sellouts are ready. How do you think players will react to all of the
01:17 attention the new kids on the block are getting like Kaitlyn Clark?
01:23 Well, I think it's gonna go both ways. There's gonna be a group that'll look at them and
01:29 say, "These are great young women. They're upping the standards for the league
01:34 and let's ride it." But there's always gonna be a little jealousy that comes
01:40 with new players getting to the top faster than other players who have
01:46 worked for years to get themselves established. And I think that's human
01:50 nature, but I don't think that's gonna be anything that's gonna hurt the league or
01:54 anything. But it's reality and I accept it. I'm not worried about our
02:00 particular team because I know the players on our team and they'll be
02:04 supportive of another player that brings higher skills to the league. And I think
02:12 they'll try to copy her. So the WNBA is getting more attention these days and
02:20 sometimes more attention, there can be a downside, right? There seemed to be a lot
02:25 of confusion about contracts for female basketball players, outrageous to why
02:32 Kaitlyn Clark's salary was so low. So tell me what more can be done to help
02:39 increase WNBA salaries across the board and what kind of pressure do you think
02:45 is going to be put on the WNBA to raise salaries for these new players?
02:53 Well, there will be pressure. The difference is great. Everybody can see
03:00 that we are working under contracts and that we've worked out with the union so
03:06 we have things in place, but people are gonna try to get more. But the best way
03:11 to address that problem is to get more income. So if we can get more people
03:19 coming to the games and we can get our TV rights increased, that money can be
03:25 shared with the players and that'll address part of it. But it's gonna be a
03:29 problem or a concern for quite a while.
03:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]