The WNBA and its players union will not agree to another extension of the collective bargaining agreement after the deadline passes Friday night, WNBPA vice president Breanna Stewart said.<\/p>\n
That does not mean players will strike or the league will lock them out. Stewart told reporters Thursday at a practice for the Unrivaled three-on-three league that players would continue to negotiate in good faith.<\/p>\n
With the deadline just before midnight Friday, the league wouldn\u2019t confirm that the sides won\u2019t reach an extension. A spokesman did say the league would \u201ccontinue to negotiate in good faith with the goal of reaching a deal as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus remains on reaching an agreement that significantly increases player compensation while ensuring the long-term growth of the business,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The league and the players had two previous extensions and met several times this week. Any stalled negotiations could delay the start of the season. The last CBA was announced in the middle of January 2020, a month after it had been agreed to.<\/p>\n
It easily could take two months from when a new CBA is reached to get to the start of free agency, which was supposed to begin this month.<\/p>\n
While a strike or lockout isn\u2019t imminent, both sides could change their viewpoints.<\/p>\n
Stewart said calling a strike is \u201cnot something that we\u2019re going to do right this second, but we have that in our back pocket.\u201d The league hasn\u2019t been considering a lockout, according to a person familiar with the decision. The person spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
As of Thursday, the sides remained far apart on many key issues, including salary and revenue sharing, and it seems unlikely a deal could be reached before Friday\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n
Revenue sharing a sticking point in talks<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s most recent offer last month would guarantee a maximum base salary of $1 million that could reach $1.3 million through revenue sharing. That\u2019s up from the current $249,000 and could grow to nearly $2 million over the life of the agreement, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told AP. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, players would receive in excess of 70% of net revenue \u2014 though that would be their take of the profits after expenses are paid. Those expenses would include upgraded facilities, charter flights, five-star hotels, medical services, security and arenas.<\/p>\n
The average salary this year would be more than $530,000, up from its current $120,000, and grow to more than $770,000 over the life of the agreement. The minimum salary would grow from its current $67,000 to approximately $250,000 in the first year, the person told the AP.<\/p>\n
The proposal also would pay young stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, who are all still on their rookie contracts, nearly double the league minimum.<\/p>\n
The union\u2019s counter proposal to the league would give players around 30% of the gross revenue. The players\u2019 percentage would be from money generated before expenses for the first year and teams would have a $10.5-million salary cap to sign players. Under the union\u2019s proposal, the revenue sharing percent would go up slightly each year.<\/p>\n
Union wants expansion fees included; league saying no<\/p>\n
The union feels that the $750 million in expansion fees that the league just received with the addition of franchises in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia by 2030 should be considered revenue and included in projections. The league says that the money actually goes to all the current teams to make up for the future money they\u2019ll be losing by dividing the total revenue by more franchises.<\/p>\n
Other major sports leagues like the NBA, NHL and NFL don\u2019t include expansion fees in their revenue-sharing structures. Major League Baseball\u2019s salary structure is not tied to its revenue, so expansion fees don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
League wants players to pay for own housing<\/p>\n
With the potential new minimum salary at approximately $250,000, the WNBA has said that like most every other pro league, players should pay for their own housing.
The union\u2019s stance is that teams should continue to pay for players\u2019 housing.<\/p>\n
Why stalled negotiations could delay the season<\/p>\n
An extended delay in getting a deal done could cause a number of problems, specifically getting the season started on time or even played for several reasons. There are several factors that indicate that time is near:<\/p>\n
Free agency: With nearly all the veterans free agents this offseason, this will be the biggest year in the league\u2019s history as far as potential movement. Free agency was supposed to start this month. However, once a new CBA is reached, it could take both parties two months to get free agency started.
Revenue-generating events could be delayed: The release of the schedule has been delayed. In the past the league tried to get it out before the holidays so teams could sell tickets. With so many players potentially changing teams as free agents, new merchandise wouldn\u2019t be able to be sold.
Expansion draft: With Portland and Toronto entering the league this year, an expansion draft has to be held. Last year when Golden State came into the WNBA, a draft was held in December. Teams need to figure out who they will be protecting from being selected in the draft, and that is made more complicated because of all the free agents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA and its players union will not agree to another extension of the collective bargaining agreement after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,138137,85824,14108,151252,2002,7480,24754,172,10492,168526,19159,168527,82,2341,630,2552],"class_list":["post-399297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cba-deadline","tag-expense","tag-free-agency","tag-gross-revenue","tag-league","tag-month","tag-negotiation","tag-person","tag-player","tag-player-union","tag-proposal","tag-several-time","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-wnba","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399297","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=399297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}