I watch game after game, seeing massive skill, teamwork, and more, all the things that make great basketball players. When I watch the NBA I see the same things, but they are making millions more.

The average number of fans at a WNBA game is 12,500, but at NBA games the average is 18,000. Plus, the WNBA season is shorter. The money comes from the fans, and when there aren’t enough of them, the players can’t make what they deserve.

According to the news source Axios, the average NBA bench player makes more money than Caitlyn Clark and the whole Indiana Fever team combined. Steph Curry, the best paid NBA player is making almost 60 million dollars per year while Jackie Young the best paid WNBA player, is making about 250 thousand dollars per year. It doesn’t help that WNBA tickets are way less that NBA tickets cost, since the NBA is more popular.

There is change happening, though. ESPN says that Jackie Young, Kelsey Mitchell and other longtime WNBA athletes will be paid over 1 million dollars this coming season thanks to the WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Also, in the next 7 years, most athletes will be making over 10 million dollars. This is amazing, but that still isn’t how much the men are making.

If WNBA can get more fans, make better ticket prices, and get more attention, one day they can make just as much money as the men. Fans can help by getting others more interested in WNBA and by going to more games. This way the stands can be more full and they can get the attention and money they deserve.

I’m not asking for the WNBA to pull money out of nowhere, and I’m not complaining while being uneducated on the actual problem. I just want to try to make a better future for the WNBA.

Ava Stetzel
WNBA Fan
VUMS Student

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Students at Vergennes Union Middle School finished a civics unit by writing open letters. Our driving question was: What makes democracy work?

To create this final project, teachers and students used The New York Times open letter contest framework. Students could choose any topic they felt passionate about. The letters are being published in several different venues: in our school newsletter, on Front Porch Forum, in the Addison Independent, and on school bulletin boards. Two students submitted their letters to the NYT contest!

Our students did a wonderful job writing these letters, and we hope you enjoy reading the ones that appear here. We expect these students will continue to use their voices to highlight issues they care about!

Libby Payeur and Nan Guilmette
VUMS Humanities Teachers