Not all WNBA athletes get the benefits they deserve from their contracts.

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“League Papis will not be forgotten again.”

In a banner year for women’s professional sports, athletes who dominate the game are reaping financial benefits.

The WNBA is a prime example. Last month, it concluded a historic season that set records for viewership and attendance, as well as securing brand deals and corporate sponsorships for its players along the way. On Sunday, the league will hold its draft lottery for the 2025 season.

Many of the WNBA’s young stars, like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, have signed name, image and likeness deals since their college days, resulting in endorsements with companies like Nike, Reebok and Gatorade. Players from a variety of backgrounds have signed various sponsorship deals with companies like CarMax and State Farm.

But for all the players enjoying their newfound wealth, there are still others who are being left behind. The WNBA recently partnered with Kim Kardashian’s underwear brand SKIMS to feature women of color and LGBTQ+ players in ads. However, the company faced backlash for excluding masculine-looking athletes from its May campaign.

Natasha Cloud of the Phoenix Mercury posted on X after SKIMS’ “Fits Everybody” campaign ended, “No one in the league will be forgotten again.”

Two-time All-Star Natasha Howard of the Dallas Wings also criticized the campaign, saying she felt it was “a slap in the face” to the league’s more masculine players, and said that black LGBTQ+ athletes are not allowed to be part of the brand. He said it would be “absolutely” difficult to get a contract.

“I feel like a lot of people don’t want to look at queer and lesbian people head-on,” Howard told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

SKIMS did not respond to requests for comment.

Cloud and Howard decide to forge their own path. Both women have formed a partnership with Woxer, a Latina- and LGBTQ+-owned women’s boxer brand that offers a line designed for gender-nonconforming customers.

Alexandra Fuente, founder of Miami-based Wuxer, said working with Howard, Cloud and Las Vegas Ace Kierstan Bell was “just a great match,” and the company plans to work with more female athletes in the future. He said he plans to cooperate with

“I think the big brands are offering deals to people who qualify, which is great because it leaves an opportunity for brands like us,” Fuente said. . “For us…everyone is in a box.”

But for mainstream brands, in today’s increasingly polarized cultural climate with anti-diversity backlash, partnering with athletes who don’t fit the traditional mold is a challenge that some brands are reluctant to embrace. “This creates a collective risk,” said Keturah Armstrong of the University of Michigan. Professor of Sports Management and Director of the Center for Race and Ethnicity in Sports.

Armstrong said many brands are “halfway there, they want to be safe and they don’t want to offend other demographics of consumers.”

Lisa Isard, an assistant professor of sports management at the University of Connecticut, analyzed online coverage of the 2020 WNBA season from ESPN, CBS Sports, and Sports Illustrated, and found that black WNBA players outperformed white WNBA players in a peer-reviewed study. It turned out that there was less media attention. Furthermore, black athletes who did not traditionally express their gender “receive little media attention, while white athletes have the freedom to express their gender in a variety of ways and still receive media attention.” There is.”

Media attention is important because it shapes an athlete’s perceived advertising value for a brand deal, and it is especially important for WNBA players because WNBA players are paid much less than NBA players and are instead compensated for safety concerns. Despite the concerns, Isard said he instead relies on recommendations and playing overseas in the offseason to pay his bills. Said.

But Ajanai Keaton, a sports management professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who studies the intersection of race and gender identity, said brands’ disparagement of Black LGBTQ+ women misses the point.

Like some players, the WNBA’s fan base is gender-fluid, and companies may be underestimating the extent to which consumers with different identities admire and identify with LGBTQ+ players. Keaton said. “Sponsors and brands are way behind the curve in this regard.”

Nevertheless, progress has been made.

Brianna Scully, the goalkeeper for the legendary 1999 World Cup-winning team, was one of the few openly gay “out” players of her era. Scully, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, said sponsorship opportunities in women’s soccer have improved significantly since her playing days.

Scully said that after making the crucial penalty kick save that helped his team win the World Cup, he was “sure we were going to get a huge sponsorship deal” but “in the end we didn’t.”

At first she thought it was because he was a goalie. “Then, sadly, I realized that it might have something to do with the color of my skin or my sexual orientation,” she said. “There was no other explanation for it.”

Women’s soccer has “made great strides” today, according to a former Washington Spirit assistant coach. When Scully played, she was the only player of color to start. Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson currently make up the strong front three of the U.S. Olympic team, and Ms. Scully believes several advertising and marketing campaigns reflect that star power. He said he saw it.

“It was such a joy,” she said.

And the endorsement opportunity that eluded Scully 25 years ago? They are now starting to surface.

“We weren’t able to do that back then, but now we’re having a lot of success,” she says, so she expects to see more sponsorship opportunities for Black LGBTQ+ female athletes.

“Women’s sports are now seen as a business proposition,” Scully says. “It’s not charity anymore.”

Those who question the marketing potential and social capital of Black LGBTQ+ athletes are greeted with fire emojis, heart-eyes emojis, and “Where were you getting those shoes?”