INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2014 NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has called on the WNBA and its players’ association to increase their urgency to get a labour deal done in time for the new season to begin on schedule in early May.<\/p>\n
Silver didn’t propose a firm deadline for a\u00a0WNBA\u00a0collective bargaining agreement Saturday in his annual address during\u00a0NBA All-Star weekend, but he urged both sides to pick up the pace to avoid a work stoppage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019d love to accomplish is sort of putting pressure on everybody,\u201d Silver said. \u201cI\u2019ve been through so many cycles of collective bargaining, and often things tend to get done at the 11th hour. We are awfully close to the 11th now when it comes to bargaining.\u201d<\/p>\n
The WNBA delivered its latest proposal to the players’ union a week ago and offered small increases in revenue sharing along with concessions on housing issues, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press last week. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.<\/p>\n
The league and the players are still not close on the main issue of revenue sharing. The players want roughly 30 per cent of the gross revenue, while the league has offered over 70 per cent of net revenue \u2014 after expenses that include upgraded facilities, charter flights, five-star hotels, medical services, security and arenas.<\/p>\n
Silver has already said\u00a0WNBA players will be getting a \u201cbig increase\u201d in pay from the next CBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m encouraged there has been more back and forth over the past few weeks,\u201d Silver said. \u201cI think there\u2019s been more direct engagement from players and team owners. I have not been at the table, but I\u2019m very involved behind the scenes. I want to play whatever role would be most productive in getting a deal done. But again, I think we need to now move toward the next level sense of urgency and not lose momentum in terms of the amazing amount of progress we\u2019ve seen in women\u2019s basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver knows the clock is ticking on the WNBA’s offseason business as well as its regular-season schedule. The negotiations have already delayed the expansion draft for the new franchises in Portland, Oregon, and Toronto, and the WNBA draft is scheduled for April 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraining camps are scheduled to open roughly two months from now,\u201d Silver said. \u201cWe have to get not one, but two drafts done. We have an expansion draft and a collegiate draft, and then we need to fit in free agency. Plus whenever we shake hands on a collective bargaining agreement, the lawyers have to go to work and memorialize it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Union president Nneka Ogwumike recently said a strike is not imminent, but it remains a possibility. Silver wants both sides to do everything possible to prevent a momentum-draining stoppage of a league coming off a 2025 season that featured record-smashing attendance and television audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate where we find ourselves right now, both from the team standpoint and from the players,\u201d Silver said. \u201cWe\u2019re coming off tremendous momentum in the WNBA. It\u2019s not lost on anyone. I feel like in the last few years in particular, the league has turned a corner in terms of fan interest, commercial success, popularity of players. All arrows are pointing up in terms of the WNBA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2014 NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has called on the WNBA and its players’ association to increase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-476046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476046","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=476046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}