NEW YORK \u2013 The Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the league\u2019s players\u2019 union have reached a verbal agreement on a record-breaking labour deal, US media reports said on March 18, heading off the prospect of a strike.<\/p>\n
ESPN reported the league and the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) had hammered out a new collective bargaining agreement that would see huge increases in the salary cap, average wages and minimum wages.<\/p>\n
The deal follows months of wrangling between both parties which prompted the union to vote overwhelmingly in favour of a strike if necessary.<\/p>\n
Players had sought a greater share of league revenues and improved benefits, arguing the new deal needed to reflect the dramatic rise in popularity of the WNBA which has followed the emergence of stars such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.<\/p>\n
ESPN reported that under the new deal, the league\u2019s salary cap would skyrocket from US$1.5 million (S$1.9 million) in 2025 to US$7 million.<\/p>\n
The supermax limit \u2013 the maximum an elite player can be paid under salary rules \u2013 will be raised to US$1.4 million, compared to US$249,244 in 2025.<\/p>\n
Average salaries under the deal would increase by five times to US$600,000. Minimum salaries will be more than US$300,000, up from US$66,000 in 2025, ESPN reported.<\/p>\n
While the deal still needs to be formally ratified by the union and the WNBA\u2019s board of governors, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert hailed the agreement as a \u201ctransformative step forward for players and the league\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s (been) a process, but we\u2019re very proud to be leading in women\u2019s sports, and these players are amazing, and we\u2019re going to have an amazing 30th season tipping off in May,\u201d the 61-year-old was quoted as saying following talks in New York which wrapped up in the early hours of March 18.<\/p>\n
WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson said the deal represented a watershed moment, adding that it can be \u201csummed up in two words: player empowerment\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cPlayers coming to the table and standing on business and being reminded of the collective voice and of what it means to be in a union and the power of this union. They never forgot it, and they have taken it, like they always do, to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal means the 30th season of the WNBA will open on schedule on May 8.<\/p>\n
It also comes after senior players had criticised Engelbert, with Minnesota Lynx\u2019s Napheesa Collier accusing her of \u201cnegligent\u201d governance.<\/p>\n
She said Engelbert had been privately dismissive of criticism by Indiana Fever star Clark and other new players in the league, saying they should be \u201con their knees\u201d in gratitude for the commercial opportunities they had received.<\/p>\n
Engelbert denied making those comments, but acknowledged that \u201cif the players don\u2019t feel appreciated and valued… then we have to do better\u201d. AFP<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 The Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the league\u2019s players\u2019 union have reached a verbal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-544885","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\/544885","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=544885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}