{"id":541999,"date":"2026-03-17T09:10:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/541999\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:10:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:10:26","slug":"another-marathon-wnba-cba-negotiation-drags-past-330-a-m-with-no-deal-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/541999\/","title":{"rendered":"Another marathon WNBA CBA negotiation drags past 3:30 a.m. with no deal done"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Another marathon negotiating session between the WNBA<\/a> and its players union didn’t end with a new collective bargaining agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the seventh consecutive day the two sides met for over 12 hours and while they said progress was being made heading into Monday’s negotiationing session, there was still work that needed to be done when the sides ended discussions for the night around 3:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Revenue sharing continues to be the big sticking point between the sides.<\/p>\n

Neither side spoke to reporters after the session, but both had said earlier Monday that progress had been made over the last few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working as hard as we can to get it done as quickly as possible,\u201d WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said<\/a> after Sunday’s 15-hour session finished that also ended after 3 a.m. \u201cIt\u2019s complex. There\u2019s a lot. There\u2019s a lot of system elements. There\u2019s a lot of structure elements. … This is a big, big league and we want to do everything we can for the players. So, we\u2019re going to keep making progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long week of discussions with the WNBA and union meeting face-to-face for around 90 hours since the first in-person bargaining session last Tuesday. None of the sessions have ended before midnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still working. We\u2019re still fighting. There\u2019s still some things that we have to \u2014 big issue things \u2014 that we have to get through,” union executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said before Monday’s session. “So, we\u2019re just going to stick with it and stay with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson said there is agreement on some areas but there’s still work to get done on big items.<\/p>\n

Before Monday’s negotiating session, union counsel Deborah R. Willig was asked if she thought a deal could get done that day. <\/p>\n

“For myself, I thought we were going to get this done yesterday, and I thought the day before so I would hope, but this has been an extraordinarily unusual set of labor negotiations, and I\u2019ve been doing this for over 50 years,\u201d the managing partner of Willig, Williams and Davidson said. \u201cI think the why, frankly, is because the league underestimated seriously the resolve of the players and what they sought to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The executive committee of players have been putting in the time alongside the union leadership throughout the negotiations, showing their resolve. Committee members Nneka Ogwumike, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Brianna Turner and Alysha Clark have been there for most of the discussions, frequently leaving well past 2 a.m. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that they just don\u2019t want to stop, both sides, it\u2019s not just the league side, it\u2019s even the union,” said Connecticut Sun president Jen Rizzotti, who is on the labor relations committee. \u201cThey want to get it done. I think it\u2019s admirable to know that they\u2019re paying attention to the fact that this is crucial and time is of the essence and we need to have a season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key sticking points have been revenue sharing and housing.<\/p>\n

League proposals have involved net revenue \u2014 revenue after expenses \u2014 and union ones have talked about gross revenue \u2014 revenue before expenses. When negotiations first started more than a year ago, the union was asking for 40% of gross revenue and had come down to 26% before the marathon in-person bargaining session Tuesday. The league had been offering more than 70% net revenue for the players.<\/p>\n

Teams have paid for player housing in the WNBA since the beginning and the league wanted to amend that in the new CBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re trying to enter into this transitional space where we are now making enough money to be able to take care of that, but we\u2019re not quite at the point where we can eliminate it outright,\u201d Ogwumike said.<\/p>\n

If these two major items can get figured out, the season most likely would be able to start on time on May 8. But the clock is ticking. Engelbert said she didn’t know if training camp would be moved from April 19 if a deal isn’t done soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I knew the answer to that. I do not know the answer to that,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cBut you see us here at three in the morning, four in the morning, at five in the morning. So that gives an indication that both sides are motivated at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson said the players understand what’s ahead schedule wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a season schedule that has their own milestones. Right? Absolutely. We recognize that and we respect those,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cBut do we also recognize that these are big time negotiations and so there may be a need to adjust? Absolutely. And the players more importantly, recognize that, understand that, and are prepared for it as they always have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league’s first two preseason games are on April 25 with Caitlin Clark and Indiana visiting New York and Seattle playing Golden State.<\/p>\n

Before the preseason games even happen, there’s a lot to do with an expansion draft for Portland and Toronto as well as free agency for 80% of the league. The college draft also needs to take place.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n

Doug Feinberg, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Another marathon negotiating session between the WNBA and its players union didn’t end with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-541999","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\/541999","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=541999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}