Eric on WNBA salaries:

Color me baffled, but I think the relationship between salaries in the WNBA and the NBA is more akin to the difference between Arena Football and the NFL.

I'm not sure the analogy is entirely apt. The AFL operates partly like a minor league for the NFL. Players in the AFL can at least hope to move up to the big leagues and make more money. Players in the WNBA have no such hope.

Putting that aside... I don't mean to put words in my friend's mouth, but it sounds like Eric believes that gender, per se, has little to do with the disparity. He suggests that the WNBA isn't as good as the NBA in the same way that the AFL isn't as good as the NFL. And thus that the players make less money.

Ultimately, salaries are a function of the market. Lots of people watch the NBA on TV and pay big money to attend games. The same isn't true of the W, so the salaries are less. It's just a function of market preferences.

But why are market preferences what they are?

The simplest answer goes something like this: sports fans (who comprise the market) prefer watching the highest level of competition. The NBA is a higher level of competition; the Atlanta Hawks would crush the Seattle Storm. Therefore, the NBA is far more popular, and its players command far higher salaries.

There is something right about that, but I don't think it tells the whole story.

If sports fans only like the highest level of competition, then why are college sports still so popular? The Atlanta Hawks would also crush North Carolina, and yet March Madness is enormously popular and profitable.

If sports fans only like the highest level of competition, then why is women's tennis so popular? Any top-100 men's player would crush Serena, and yet her matches often draw far bigger crowds and higher ratings than those on the men's side.

And why is the disparity between men's and women's pro ball so much larger here than it is in Europe?

The "men are better" argument can't fully explain the vast disparity between the NBA and the W. (And keep in mind how vast it is. Each of the top 50 or so NBA players makes more than all WNBA players combined.)

I think there are myriad other contributing factors.

The WNBA is young, and hasn't always been managed and marketed particularly well. The WNBA hasn't yet had an individual superstar who has caught the national attention. Media coverage remains spotty, making it hard to follow the game. Lots of folks think that basketball without dunking is boring, no matter how good the quality of play is in other aspects. Some folks, like me, find it a little painful to sit inside during the summer.

And some folks just don't really like the idea of women playing sports.

How much each of these factors contributes to the salary disparity is impossible to measure. All we can do is keep working, keep trying to improve the league... and keep making efforts to change market preferences.