Believe it or not: Pro female pickleball players earn more than WNBA, NWSL stars
Professional pickleball has become such a huge hit in the United States that scores of female players are earning salaries that are higher than those earned by their counterparts playing basketball and soccer.The average pay for the roughly 60 women competing in the Professional Pickleball Association Tour and Major League Pickleball is $260,000 — which tops the highest pay in the WNBA and is more than twice the average wage of athletes in the National Women’s Soccer League.The figures were first reported by CNBC.The highest paid player in the WNBA is Jackie Young of the Las Vegas Aces, who earns $252,450 a year, according to Front Office Sports.Caitlin Clark, the most popular WNBA player who started her professional career this past season after a stellar four-year college career at Iowa, earned $76,000 as a rookie.The highest paid WNBA players earn around half as much as those in the NWSL.Sophie Smith, a forward with the Portland Thorns, is the highest paid professional women’s soccer player — earning more than $500,000, according to Front Office Sports.The top 12 earners in the NWSL — a group that includes Trinity Rodman, Alex Morgan, Maria Sanchez and Crystal Dunn — earn between $250,000 and $450,000 a year.But there remains a significant gap between the high-end players and the rest of the league.The average salary is $65,000 per season, according to Essentially Sports.The explosion in the popularity of pickleball is reflected in the rapid build-up of the professional sports leagues, including the MLP and the PPA Tour — both of which operate under the umbrella of the United Pickleball Association, formed last year.Pro pickleball players earned more than $30 million in salary alone last year, the league said.Anna Leigh Waters, a former tennis player who is ranked No.
1 in the world in singles, doubles and mixed doubles pickleball, stands to earn $3 million from salary and endorsements this year, her agent told Forbes in September.Waters, the daugh...