Soon after 93 percent of WNBA players voted to authorize WNBPA executive leadership to call a strike \u201cwhen necessary\u201d during on-going collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations with the WNBA, the WNBA leaked their latest proposal.<\/p>\n
The league again upped their salary offerings to the players. Maximum salaries would begin above $1.3 million and approach $2 million by the end of the deal. The average player salary has been increased to an estimated $770,00 over the term of the agreement, while minimum salaries would start at higher than $250,000 in the first year of a new deal.<\/p>\n
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The league also claimed that they had presented an uncapped revenue sharing model, albeit without disclosing any details.<\/p>\n
The WNBA, once again, appears to be attempting to entice players with bigger, up-front annual salaries. It\u2019s a strategy that has yet to work, and seems unlikely to ever work. A fair revenue sharing model remains the priority of the players, something that the league continues to resist.<\/p>\n
As WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN<\/a>, the league\u2019s revenue sharing model is \u201cnot adequate.\u201d<\/p>\n Ogwumike called on the league to be more creative, with Ogwumike suggesting to ESPN that<\/a> \u201cthe level of creativity and innovation from our side to try and meet them closer to their side of the table\u201d has not been reciprocated by the league. She further shared that she feels like negotiations remain \u201ca bit in their infancy\u201d because nothing \u201chas substantially changed in our conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n Ogwumike\u2019s claim seems to be substantiated by the league\u2019s repeated, and unsuccessful, move of trying to persuade players by simply raising salaries. They keep dangling a shinier and shinier carrot that players clearly see as fool\u2019s gold.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Ogwumike additionally indicated to ESPN<\/a> that she believes there can be more \u201ccollaboration and cohesiveness across the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Her comments echoed those voiced by Breanna Stewart, a WNBPA vice president who said at Unrivaled media day<\/a>:<\/p>\n More often than not we\u2019re the ones that are willing to compromise and they still aren\u2019t budging. So if they are not going to budge, we\u2019re going to get to this point where we\u2019re going to be at a standoff. That\u2019s kind of where we\u2019re at right now.<\/p>\n When then asked about recent comments from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about joining the negotiations, Stewart said that players would be \u201cmore than happy\u201d for Silver, as well as deputy NBA Commissioner Mark Tatum, to become more involved.<\/p>\n At press conference before the NBA Cup championship game, Silver had said<\/a>, \u201cWe\u2019re available to do whatever is necessary to help get a deal done,\u201d while also emphasizing, \u201cI remain optimistic we\u2019ll get something done.\u201d<\/p>\n For all their critiques, Ogwumike and Stewart likewise expressed a (slight) measure of optimism. Ogwumike said to ESPN:<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m hopeful. I want to play, and I know that I\u2019m going to get a good deal done on behalf of these players, along with the amazing leadership of this executive committee. So I\u2019m looking forward to seeing how conversations can be more collaborative.<\/p>\n