The 2025 season is within the books. A brand new champion has been topped. However because the offseason begins, the main focus shifts squarely again on collective bargaining negotiations.
The present collective bargaining settlement expires on Oct. 31. Each commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA Gamers Affiliation (WNBPA) have mentioned their purpose is a “transformational” CBA, however the two sides reportedly stay far aside in negotiations on the most important points.
What are these priorities? What occurs if a brand new CBA isn’t reached by the deadline? How reasonable is a lockout? Right here’s a run via every thing to know.
Elevated participant salaries is a key concern, however a very powerful is income sharing: the way it’s decided and whether or not the share will probably be allowed to develop in the course of the course of the CBA as a substitute of a hard and fast quantity at some point of the deal.
“The gamers are nonetheless adamant that we get a share of income that grows with the enterprise, which maybe contains workforce income, and that’s simply part of the dialog,” WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike advised ESPN in early August.
Phoenix Mercury ahead Satou Sabally mentioned a current proposal from the WNBA makes the gamers really feel as if “we’re not a part of the expansion of the league.”
“If we continued with this CBA, we might, percentage-wise, go down on our [compensation],” Sabally mentioned final week in the course of the WNBA Finals.
Within the NBA, followers are used to wage caps for groups being set primarily based on a share of what the CBA describes as “basketball-related revenue,” or BRI. Against this, the WNBA’s present CBA outlined the cap for every season forward of time with modest 3% annual raises. A mechanism within the CBA that may improve the cap primarily based on income was successfully invalidated by the timing of the deal.
As a result of the present CBA started in 2020 previous to the COVID-19 pandemic, income targets had been set primarily based on the earlier marketing campaign (2019) and made cumulative over the lifetime of the deal. The league made no cash off ticket gross sales in the course of the abbreviated 2020 season, performed in a bubble on the IMG Academy campus in Bradenton, Florida, and attendance was additionally restricted in 2021 by native restrictions. That made it unrealistic for the targets to be met regardless of the league’s elevated attendance over the previous two seasons.
In August, Ogwumike mentioned a suggestion from the WNBA dramatically elevated the wage cap and most base salaries — the supermax is $249,244 — however adopted the identical mannequin as the present CBA.
“It’s mainly the identical system that we exist in proper now,” Ogwumike mentioned. “They’re proposing a system that features income that may develop with the enterprise. Whenever you method it from the angle of their response to our proposal, sure, cash is extra, however finally for those who take a look at the expansion of the enterprise, the cash relative to the share of every thing is just about staying the identical.”
A report Friday from Entrance Workplace Sports activities cited sources estimating a supermax wage round $850,000, with the veteran minimal round $300,000.
The gamers see the astonishing leap in franchise valuations previously couple of years and query if they’re getting their correct share of that progress. The Las Vegas Aces, for instance, had been bought for $2 million in 2021 however at the moment are valued at $310 million, and the New York Liberty had been bought for between $10 million and $14 million after being on the market for greater than a 12 months and now have an estimated valuation of round $450 million.
On its face, that’s an inexpensive factor to ask. However what concerning the NBA’s claims for years of subsidizing WNBA losses? Will the NBA say the brand new cash is partly backfilling previous deficits? May it show that?
Some of the troublesome elements of following the WNBA’s labor negotiations all these years has been getting agency numbers from the league’s aspect of issues. The gamers have mentioned they don’t all the time really feel like they get that. By the identical token, the aspect we do hear far more from — throughout each CBA — is the gamers and their union. There was dramatic change within the WNBA — and what that signifies for the long run — in a brief time period after a few years that appeared stagnant.
The recognition of 2024 No. 1 draft decide Caitlin Clark has been an unlimited increase for a league that had clearly began to show the nook towards actual progress over the previous 5 years. If that progress continues as anticipated, it’s comprehensible the gamers are involved about how their a part of the pie grows, too.
“We’re seeing growth, and the gamers are simply saying, ‘Hey, allow us to have our justifiable share of that,'” Ogwumike mentioned. “Generally meaning proposing one thing new that is smart for the time. Probably not new — new to us, to not different leagues.”
Prioritization is one other concern that the gamers agreed to within the 2020 deal that they’re anticipated to push again on extra in these negotiations. Because the WNBA’s launch, gamers have been allowed to play in different leagues — principally abroad — even when that meant lacking coaching camp or a couple of early-season WNBA video games. New guidelines had been put in place within the final CBA that required gamers to prioritize the WNBA. Whereas there are built-in exceptions for youthful gamers and time spent with gamers’ nationwide groups, prioritization has saved some gamers out of the WNBA for a complete season.
Sabally mentioned that gamers are in so many alternative conditions primarily based on the place they’re of their careers, how a lot cash they make and if they’re coming back from accidents that she doesn’t suppose it’s useful to place restrictions on them enjoying in different leagues. But it surely appears unlikely the WNBA house owners will utterly again away from prioritization.
Sabally additionally mentioned she has talked with athletes in different basketball leagues, in different sports activities and in different nations about their very own labor negotiations.
“It’s attention-grabbing to listen to concerning the stream of negotiations,” she mentioned. “Generally you need outcomes immediately, however it does take time for each events to come back to the desk and actually agree on sure issues.”
Final 12 months, the league introduced an 11-year deal — which begins in 2026 — with Disney, Amazon Prime Video and new rights holder NBCUniversal. The deal is valued at about $2.2 billion, a supply advised ESPN, however future agreements with further companions may deliver the league’s total media offers nearer to $3 billion. In line with sources, the settlement may be revisited after three years.
The gamers see that cash, together with the significantly elevated growth charges, and need to be certain they’re getting what they suppose is a good reduce of it. Beneath the deal, Disney (utilizing ABC and the ESPN networks) will telecast eight semifinals collection and 5 Finals, whereas Prime and NBCU every will present seven semifinals and three Finals.
Engelbert was loudly booed by followers Friday in Phoenix when she introduced the championship trophy to the Aces and the WNBA Finals MVP award to A’ja Wilson. Commissioners listening to followers’ wrath in these conditions is just not new in professional sports activities — the NHL’s Gary Bettman and MLB’s Rob Manfred have skilled the identical remedy as current examples — however it has raised the problem of how the fractured relationship between Engelbert and the gamers will have an effect on CBA negotiations.
Throughout a four-minute assertion to open her exit interview on Sept. 30, Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier mentioned the WNBA had the “worst management on this planet,” accusing Engelbert of being “negligent” in her governance.
Collier mentioned the league has didn’t sufficiently handle points with officiating, compensation for gamers and the state of the general product. She additionally alleged that Engelbert advised her in a non-public dialog in February that Clark and different younger standouts “ought to be on their knees” in gratitude for the platform the league has given them.
Three days later, the commissioner mentioned there have been “a number of inaccuracies” in Collier’s assertion and vehemently denied saying the remarks about Clark. “I didn’t make these feedback,” Engelbert mentioned Oct. 3 at her annual information convention forward of Recreation 1 of the WNBA Finals on Friday.
Collier then canceled a gathering she and Engelbert had tentatively deliberate for the next week, sources advised ESPN. Engelbert’s assertion that Collier’s depiction of the personal dialog between them was crammed with inaccuracies has “just about pushed the connection past restore,” a supply mentioned.
On Oct. 6, because the Las Vegas Aces had taken a 2-0 lead over the Phoenix Mercury within the WNBA Finals, NBA commissioner Adam Silver mentioned a brand new collective bargaining settlement with WNBA gamers will probably be reached however acknowledged relationship points have to be repaired following.
“There’s no query that the WNBA goes via rising pains, and it’s unlucky that it’s coming simply as their most essential video games and their Finals are on proper now,” Silver mentioned Monday. “We’ve had two improbable video games up to now, and we need to have fun the sport in the meanwhile, after which we’ve bought to take a seat down with the gamers and negotiate a brand new collective bargaining settlement.”
Many WNBA gamers, together with Ogwumike, have mentioned they assist Collier, however she didn’t inform Ogwumike or the union about her assertion earlier than making it. It got here at a troublesome time for Collier, after she had suffered a season-ending harm in Recreation 3 of the semifinals, adopted by the top-seeded Lynx being upset within the collection by Phoenix.
Whether or not the connection between Engelbert and the gamers may be repaired would take religion effort from each side, which is likely to be even more durable to make occur throughout CBA negotiations when tensions are all the time excessive.
Finally, the assist of Silver and the house owners that Engelbert is representing in CBA talks is of utmost significance for her to remain in her place.