Players are determined to avoid a lockout with WNBA owners and consider the latest offer from the league \u201ca win\u201d for the WNBPA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to play, and players want to play,\u201d Kelsey Plum, the WNBPA first vice president, said on Monday before the Unrivaled semifinals are held in New York. \u201cAnd so obviously we\u2019re \u200bgoing to continue to negotiate and do everything we possibly can to get this done in a timely \u200cfashion. But obviously a strike would be the worst thing for both sides, because we are in a revenue (sharing system), so no revenue, no revenue to share.\u201d<\/p>\n
The delta between what players have asked the league to share and the revenue percentage the league is offering remains the main sticking point in negotiations, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n
Players sent the league a proposal on Friday that outlined a share of 26% of gross revenue (before expenses) \u200cand \u200ballowances for housing and travel. The WNBA said the proposal was \u201cunrealistic\u201d and would amount \u2060to significant financial losses.<\/p>\n
Plum is on a \u2060player-led executive panel which is attempting to avoid losing games on the regular-season schedule and a lockout in any form. But the WNBPA was given a deadline of March 10 to agree to a term sheet. The risk in negotiating beyond that date, according to the league, would be lost games \u2014 and revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point it\u2019s not really \u200ba negotiation any more,\u201d Paige Bueckers said. \u201cI feel like we need to continue to have these conversations and have change actually implemented for us to move forward on our stance. We as players \u2014 we don\u2019t want to strike. We want \u2060to have a season. I love playing basketball. That\u2019s all I want \u2060to do. But again, there\u2019s things that need to be handled. We need to do it \u200bas professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bueckers, entering her second WNBA season with Dallas, and Britney Griner, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft 13 \u200byears ago, shared different perspectives.<\/p>\n
Griner, who turns 36 in October, said the progress is significant coming \u200cfrom a past CBA that \u201cdidn\u2019t value\u201d players.<\/p>\n
The latest league proposal, sent to the player\u2019s association on Sunday, provides a quicker path to a higher max contract. A player who is named All-WNBA First Team or Second Team can receive the max extension on the fourth year of their rookie deal, for example.<\/p>\n
Breanna Stewart said neither side has a full proposal without negotiations to make adjustments.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth \u2060of them are not ready to be voted on. They need to be negotiated either up or down and in a number of ways,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
Natasha Cloud believes players are still getting short shrift on salary. She said a $200,000 increase in salary \u2060would be before taxes and housing, which \u200cthe latest league proposal would eliminate.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Mid-range salary players) are still not making enough for housing \u2060to be taken off the table,\u201d Cloud said Monday. \u201cI still am focused on our \u200bmiddle (pay range). \u2026 I \u200cthink there\u2019s a lot more that we can do to protect our middle man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plum \u200bsaid talks will \u2060continue and noted the progress gained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been someone that\u2019s focused on the gain, not the gap. And to be honest, I think if you look at where we\u2019ve come from since I came into the league until now, and now that we\u2019re in a revenue share, it\u2019s a tremendous win.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we\u2019re going to continue to negotiate. I can\u2019t emphasize that enough. Like we\u2019re not just settling. I want to be very clear about that. But I\u2019m super proud to be a part of this opportunity to \u200bchange women\u2019s sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013Field Level Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Players are determined to avoid a lockout with WNBA owners and consider the latest offer from the league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-510429","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\/510429","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=510429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}