{"id":256441,"date":"2025-11-02T09:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T09:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/256441\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T09:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T09:46:15","slug":"how-wnba-cba-negotiations-affect-womens-sports-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/256441\/","title":{"rendered":"How WNBA CBA negotiations affect women’s sports investors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was supposed to be the day\u2014the deadline for the WNBA and its players union to reach a contract or risk a major disruption to the rocket-ship growth of women\u2019s basketball. But both sides have agreed to a 30-day extension, sources told ESPN<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And thankfully so, because it seemed as if the league and its players were far apart on key issues that will decide the future of the sport\u2014most significantly, revenue sharing. WNBA players earn low salaries compared to other professional athletes, but they also earn a paltry share of their sport\u2019s overall revenue\u2014about 10% compared to 50% of the NBA\u2019s basketball-related revenue that goes to their male counterparts. WNBA players have been seeking to earn a similar percentage, not a similar dollar amount. (You can read my 2024 deep dive<\/a> for a refresher on all of this!)<\/p>\n

It became clear that the two sides were on different pages on this topic earlier this month, when NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked if players \u201cshould be getting a larger share of the revenue in the WNBA.\u201d He said<\/a> that \u201c\u2018share\u2019 isn\u2019t the right way to look at it\u201d for the WNBA. The league wants to look at \u201cabsolute numbers,\u201d which is likely more focused on salary increases.<\/p>\n

It will be a difficult disconnect to address in negotiations. And it followed an especially dramatic period<\/a>, during which star player Napheesa Collier went after WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a press conference, sharing conversations the pair had had in private that she found disrespectful. The tense environment brought up a question: if the league and the players\u2019 union can\u2019t reach a deal, what does that mean for the growth of the sport? <\/p>\n

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of moderating a conversation with WNBA legend Sue Bird, now retired and a co-owner of the Seattle Storm, and Laura Correnti, the founder of Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment, at Nasdaq\u2019s Economic Opportunity Summit. Deep Blue has become one of the biggest behind-the-scenes players in the business of women\u2019s sports, handling the nuts and bolts of bringing commercial investment to the space. <\/p>\n

That involves working with brands, advertisers, and rights-holders who are entering the women\u2019s basketball space for the first time. It\u2019s not just brands\u2014media rights and teams have new investors involved, too. \u201cThere are so many new rights-holders at the table. We\u2019re talking billions of dollars in new money that\u2019s come in in the last 12 to 18 months alone,\u201d Correnti explained. \u201cYou have people who they\u2019ve maybe never even been to a WNBA game, and they\u2019re seeing these headlines. It looks like a very volatile, risky investment you just made.\u201d <\/p>\n

Many brands are in industries that haven\u2019t dealt with their own labor negotiations, and aren\u2019t used to the drama of the CBA process. If they\u2019re new to sports, they might lack some basic familiarity with what can happen next\u2014like a lockout, or the shutdown of a league by owners after failing to reach a deal. Correnti has spent time fielding calls from new investors. \u201cI\u2019ve got clients call me and ask, \u2018What\u2019s a lockout?’\u201d she said. \u201cTo be able to go back to a client, explain the dynamics and situations, as much as I know as a fan and practitioner. \u2026 Those clients have calmed down. We\u2019re going to wait to see how it all shakes out.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sports is always dramatic, with sensational headlines especially during a contract negotiation\u2014there\u2019s no reason to expect women\u2019s basketball to be any different. The best investors for the future of women\u2019s sports see the long-term opportunity\u2014how much room there is to grow, still, by overhauling the way TV coverage, media buying, and a host of other processes work. <\/p>\n

Correnti\u2019s favorite example of the big picture is a U.K. study<\/a> that showed that the average loss for a girl who drops out of sports is \u00a330,000 of economic value in her lifetime. And what causes girls to drop out of sports? Body confidence issues\u2014which are impacted by the very advertisers who are now spending millions in women\u2019s sports, calling with questions about what a lockout means for their sponsorship deals. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really care about short-term headlines,\u201d says Correnti. \u201cWe\u2019re in this for the long haul, and that really requires a maniacal focus on systems.\u201d <\/p>\n

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune\u2019s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES<\/p>\n

Prince Andrew has been stripped of his royal title.\u00a0After years of calls for it over his close ties to Jeffrey Epstein, King Charles finally took the step. His brother will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and will be evicted from the royal mansion he’s lived in. CNN<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fortune 500 will get another female CEO.\u00a0Murphy USA, the chain of gas and convenience stores, named COO Mindy West its next CEO<\/a>, effective in January. Murphy is No. 231 on the Fortune 500, with $17.9 billion in annual revenue. Barring any other changes, this brings the number of female CEOs in the Fortune 500 up to 53.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Bari Weiss’s CBS is taking shape.\u00a0Broader Paramount layoffs included under 100 staffers at CBS<\/a>. Eight on-air personalities, all women, were let go<\/a>. There’s some reporting that suggests Gayle King’s role at the network could be changing<\/a>. All eyes are on who Weiss will choose to lead CBS Evening News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson are split.\u00a0The liberal justices disagree on how to handle the rightward shift of the court and any threat to democratic institutions\u2014whether to try to make a difference internally, or whether to go public.\u00a0New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

ON MY RADAR<\/p>\n

The surgeon general nominee who wants to make MAHA moms mainstream\u00a0WSJ<\/a><\/p>\n

Gigi Hadid’s soft power\u00a0Puck<\/a><\/p>\n

With demand from women for the hormone surging, Midi Health introduces testosterone therapy CNBC<\/a><\/p>\n

PARTING WORDS<\/p>\n

“I would suggest it for anyone else who has to pay coaches and GMs millions and millions of dollars.”<\/p>\n

\u2014Carlie Irsay-Gordon on her hands-on approach to ownership of the Indianapolis Colts. Fans have been loving the new owner wearing a headset<\/a> on the sidelines during NFL games.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

This is the web version of MPW Daily, a daily newsletter for and about the world\u2019s most powerful women. Sign up<\/a> to get it delivered free to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today was supposed to be the day\u2014the deadline for the WNBA and its players union to reach a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[461,49,48,151,41128,41129,41130,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-256441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-career","12":"tag-most-powerful-women","13":"tag-mpw-daily","14":"tag-no-copyright","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}