As discussed many times before, the profit is a red herring. Their new TV deal has gone up 6X and the W will now by making close to $500MM/year in TV money alone. The cost side of the equation 1) not disclosed by the owners, so the talking point about "losing money" is a "sure-billionaires-we'll-take-your-word-on-that" point, and 2) is also conveniently pumped up by those same billionaire team owners who have the teams play in facilities owned by them (paying themselves, loss harvesting).
Just like the NBA, the billionaire owners do not buy WNBA franchises to turn a profit. They make their money on selling the franchise at 50 or 100X what they bought it for down the road. Those owners benefit greatly by the increasing values of the franchise, and the players do not. That's fine, that's what ownership is all about since they put up the money, "took the risk," whatever we want to call it.
However it's selling the players short to say they don't deserve a much larger slice of the pie than they're currently getting. Caitlyn Clark's WNBA salary was $76,535 in 2024 and will go all the way up to ... $97,582 in 2027 before she's a RFA. That's less than what my company pays an entry level product manager, and it's ridiculous considering the value that CC and the players bring to the WNBA and to the owners.