NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Nneka Ogwumike and the other members of the WNBA players\u2019 union executive committee felt that movement was being made toward a new collective bargaining agreement after nine hours of negotiations Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to play. We\u2019ve heard that from the other side as well,\u201d Ogwumike, the union president, said just before midnight. \u201cWe need to see a more robust demonstration of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s negotiating session came on the heels of a marathon 12-hour meeting that began at 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. The sides plan to speak again Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat first day was a lot, but I think what we\u2019re feeling is like movement, you know, being able to be in the room, being able to exchange proposals,\u201d Ogwumike said.<\/p>\n
Ogwumike said the sides have exchanged seven proposals over the last two days and the union was waiting for one from the league. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league sent a new offer to the union after the players had left for the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur proposal on the table is a real historic and transformational deal for these players,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cHuge gains and salaries, benefits, everything you\u2019re seeing, but beyond that when you see the whole thing. huge, huge benefits. … We\u2019re proud of the deal we have on the table. I think it\u2019s, again, huge gains for the players, while again, balancing that with the health of the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
In its latest proposal, the league has increased its salary cap offer for the first year to $6.2 million \u2014 up from $5.75 million in previous negotiations, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.<\/p>\n
Last year, the salary cap for each team was $1.5 million. Average player salaries were $120,000, and that figure stands to increase fourfold to $570,000 the first year and $850,000 by the sixth year, according to the person. The maximum salary in the first year would be over $1.3 million and nearly $2 million by the final year.<\/p>\n
The executive committee taking part in negotiations also includes Breanna Stewart, Alysha Clark and Brianna Turner along with union executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson. The league was represented by Engelbert, head of league operations Bethany Donaphin and New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai. Connecticut Sun president Jen Rizzotti joined the negotiating team Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to say as a former player, I don\u2019t know that I ever thought I would see the day that such a transformational deal would be offered and on the table for these players and proud of that,\u201d Rizzotti said. \u201cAnd at the same time, I think time is of the essence to get this deal done. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re working for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Revenue sharing and housing are key sticking points between the sides, as well as assigning a franchise tag to a player and benefits for retired players.<\/p>\n
The league had said that at least a handshake agreement on a labor deal would need to be done by Tuesday to start the season as scheduled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get this deal done. We\u2019ve got to get it done soon,\u201d Engelbert said early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Ogwumike said the union never saw the Tuesday deadline as a real thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t ever really considered that as a timeline that\u2019s been something to prioritize on our side, because we have always been negotiating in good faith,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When a deal is reached in principle, the league has said it would need a few weeks to finish off the CBA. After that work is done, the expansion draft for new franchises in Portland and Toronto would be held sometime between April 1-6, 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 the more than 80% of players who are free agents. The signing period would take place from April 12-18.<\/p>\n
Training camps would open the next day and the season would be able to start on May 8.<\/p>\n
But for any of that to happen, the two sides have to figure out a revenue sharing model. The union\u2019s proposal from a week ago had asked for an average of 26% of the gross revenue \u2014 revenue before expenses \u2014 over the course of the CBA. That would include only 25% in the first year. The league has said that number was unrealistic.<\/p>\n
The WNBA\u2019s last few proposals have offered more than 70% of net revenue, with that number going up as the league continues to grow.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n
Doug Feinberg, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Nneka Ogwumike and the other members of the WNBA players\u2019 union executive committee felt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-531610","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\/531610","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=531610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}