{"id":279092,"date":"2025-11-12T22:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279092\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T22:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:35:07","slug":"sophie-cunningham-hits-back-at-fan-while-caddying-for-caitlin-clark-at-the-annika-amid-cba-negotiations-tell-them-to-pay-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279092\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham hits back at fan while caddying for Caitlin Clark at The Annika amid CBA negotiations: ‘Tell them to pay us’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fan at The Annika yelled out to both Lexie Hull and Sophie Cunningham on Wednesday, urging the two Indiana Fever players to re-sign with the team this offseason.<\/p>\n

Cunningham \u2014 who was walking with Hull as they helped caddie for teammate Caitlin Clark in the Pro-Am at the LPGA Tour event<\/a> at the Pelican Golf Club in Florida \u2014 had a very simple response.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTell them to pay us,\u201d she replied, via Fieldhouse Files\u2019 Scott Agness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cunningham was referencing the ongoing negotiations between the WNBA and the players association over the new collective bargaining agreement, which hasn\u2019t been great so far. The two sides initially had an Oct. 31 deadline to strike a new deal after the union opted out of the 2020 CBA<\/a> in October 2024, but they struck an agreement for a 30-day extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tensions escalated throughout the playoffs and in the weeks after the WNBA Finals, and WNBPA president Terri Jackson called out NBA commissioner Adam Silver and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert last month<\/a> publicly after Silver\u2019s comments on revenue shares and salaries.<\/p>\n

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The revenue sharing structure has been the biggest issue<\/a> for the players amid the CBA negotiations. The union wants a system that ties player salaries to the business and pays a percentage of revenue generated with a fluctuating salary cap. The WNBA has instead proposed a more lucrative version of the current CBA, which sets a fixed salary cap and additional revenue sharing if certain targets are met.<\/p>\n

WNBPA first vice president Kelsey Plum said in August that the union wants the \u201csame percentage of revenue of a similar percentage of revenue\u201d that NBA players receive. By comparison, the NBA, NFL and NHL are all close to a 50-50 split.<\/p>\n

Hull averaged 7.2 points and 4.3 rebounds last season, both of which were career-highs, with the Fever. She is a restricted free agent this offseason after she played on the club option of her initial rookie deal last summer. Cunningham averaged 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds with the Fever last season. She is a free agent this offseason.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s unclear if any progress has been made on the negotiations since the extension was reached, it\u2019s clear that, at least based on Cunningham\u2019s comments, that players still aren\u2019t backing down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fan at The Annika yelled out to both Lexie Hull and Sophie Cunningham on Wednesday, urging the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,735,48,4233,2803,631,7086,127253,10879,82,630,15457],"class_list":["post-279092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-canada","tag-cba","tag-indiana-fever","tag-kelsey-plum","tag-lexie-hull","tag-scott-agness","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-finals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279092","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=279092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}