In general, within the basketball community, women’s basketball has always been overshadowed by men. Very recently on March 18, 2026, the WNBA reached a verbal agreement to raise their salary. According to an article by ESPN, they state, “ The average salary will be around $600,000 ($120,000 in 2025), with the minimum salary surpassing $300,000 ($66,079 in 2025), sources said”(WNBA, players’ union reach verbal agreement on new CBA terms, 2026). Compared to last year, WNBA players’ salaries increased greatly. However, even the max amount they will earn this year is still incredibly lower than NBA players salary. In an article by The Athletic, it showcases the statistics of the professional men’s team’s annual salary of 2026. The article states, “The projected $166 million salary cap means a 25 percent max contract would start at $41.5 million, a 30 percent max at $49.8 million and a 35 percent max at $58.1 million”(NBA cap space, spending power projections for the 2026 offseason). While the WNBA player’s revenue increased by nearly 20%, the NBA got a 10% increase and still earns 50 times more than the WNBA.
When discussing a smaller section within the basketball community, this type of unfair treatment can also be seen in San Diego State University’s basketball program. The SDSU’s women’s team is highly overlooked due to comparison to the men’s team’s popularity. To contrast between the fanbases of the two teams, the men’s Instagram account has 61.5k followers while the women’s team only has 9,882 followers. Both teams use the rhetorical appeal of pathos, by posting entertaining clips of the players, up to date game scores, containing emotional and wholesome captions. Both women’s and men’s SDSU’s basketball teams use the exact same marketing strategies when promoting on their social media. The reason this strategy does not work for the women’s team is simple; men’s teams in general have always had a larger fanbase. This insists that in order for the SDSU girl’s team to gain more attention, they must change their marketing approach.
Although the women’s San Diego State University’s basketball team has a well polished Instagram page, they still fail to grow a following. This proves that their tactics, even when using rhetorical strategies, have not worked for them due to them being overseen by the men’s team; thus suggesting that they should try a different approach. The women’s program needs a new incentive. Instead of just promoting by posts, there should be discount codes for the SDSU bookstore for students and can only unlock the codes if they attend the games. This gives students a reason to support the team and hopefully by watching a physical game, it would make them want to go to more future games.
Ultimately, marketing strategies must be changed within women’s basketball. Their current approaches and efforts are being overshadowed by the men’s basketball teams. Whether incentives need to be altered or if rhetorical appeals need to be fabricated more towards their audience, changes do need to be made in order to see any positive outcomes.