The WNBA sent a collective bargaining agreement proposal to the union a day after the league received one from the players, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
The league’s response to a union proposal from Friday comes a few days before a\u00a0Tuesday deadline\u00a0set by the league, which said it would need at least a handshake agreement with the union to start the season on time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unknown what changes the league and union made in their latest proposal. Revenue sharing is the key sticking point between the sides.<\/p>\n
The union’s previous proposal\u00a0from a week ago\u00a0had asked for an average of 26 per cent of the gross revenue \u2014 revenue before expenses \u2014 over the course of the CBA. That would include only 25 per cent in the first year of the new deal. The league has said that number was unrealistic.<\/p>\n
The WNBA’s last few proposals have offered more than 70 per cent of net revenue, with that number going up as the league continues to grow.<\/p>\n
Caitlin Clark said at USA Basketball training camp on Saturday that the two sides should stop sending proposals and instead meet face-to-face until a deal gets done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand why we don\u2019t just get in a room and iron it out and shake hands,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s how business is. You look each other in the eye, you shake hands, you respect both sides. For me, that\u2019s what I would love to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Union vice president Breanna Stewart agreed with Clark’s idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that would be great for us all to sit in a room until we really get it done,\u201d the New York Liberty star said. \u201cIf that means sitting in there for hours and hours at a time, let\u2019s do it. That\u2019s for the better of the player. While a situation like that has never happened before, there\u2019s a first time for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart isn’t going back to Puerto Rico with the U.S. team to play in the FIBA World Cup qualifier tournament next week. She said she’s going home to New York and would be available for in-person negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the deal to be done. We want to have the season,\u201d Stewart said. “We just need to find the right numbers that reflect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If a labor deal is agreed to by March 10, it probably would be signed by the end of the month. Under that timeline, the expansion draft for new franchises in Portland and Toronto would be held sometime between April 1 and 6, according to a timetable obtained by the AP.<\/p>\n
Free agent qualifying offers, including franchise player tags, would be sent out April 7-8. Teams would then have three days to negotiate with more than 80 per cent of players who are free agents. The signing period would take place from April 12 to 18.<\/p>\n
Training camps would open the next day and the season would be able to start on May 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019ll be tight. Hopefully, we do come to a resolution sooner rather than later,” Stewart said. \u201cBut even if we do, it\u2019s like these other things that need to happen need a moment. You shouldn\u2019t have to rush the expansion draft or free agency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA sent a collective bargaining agreement proposal to the union a day after the league received one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-523152","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\/523152","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=523152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}