“The reason why we’re in the current economic scenario that we’re in — with player compensation likely significantly less than their fair market value given the product and the value of the product on the court — is because, in the last five years, we’ve seen exponential growth in the value of the WNBA,” said Ingraham, managing director at Secretariat Economists, a global expert services and litigation consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.

“There’s been exponentially more interest. There’s been more fans, there’s been more revenues, and because of that growth and because that growth occurred largely under one CBA that didn’t necessarily anticipate the growth, you now have the economic scenario that we’re in.”

But explaining how to get closer to a more fair average salary is simple math for Ingram.

Based on the media rights deal, Ingraham said, the average WNBA salary should be between $861,000 and $994,000.

When the NBA landed its 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal in 2024, it also jointly negotiated a $2.2 billion deal for the WNBA. While the NBA’s media rights deal is 34.5 times higher than the WNBA’s, total player salaries (approximately $5.355 billion in the NBA, compared with $18.72 million in the WNBA) are 286 times higher.

There are undeniable benefits to the WNBA’s relationship with the NBA — whether it’s through the NBA’s powerful marketing arm, its established infrastructure, or even the chartered flights arrangement that began last year — but negotiating media rights deals jointly has also come with the consequence of undervalued salaries.

“They did go through the work to split the deal financially between its valuation for the WNBA versus the valuation for the NBA,” Ingraham said. “And I think that distinction allows one to perform analysis of valuation of at least the media rights, and then translate that into what that might mean for the league.”

Looking at team valuations, he said an average salary of $754,000 would be fair market value. Over the past half-decade, WNBA team values have soared. The combined value of the 12 teams last year was $3.6 billion, according to Forbes. Meanwhile, the 30 NBA franchises were valued by Forbes at $160.7 billion — nearly 50 times higher.

“People who control the purse strings to a lot of money recognize that there is value,” Ingraham said. “I think most people looking at the scenario would take it to mean that the [WNBA] is a proven entity. It’s successful. It has a lot of value and it’s not going anywhere.”

At the heart of the current CBA negotiations is revenue share. While NBA players and owners typically split basketball-related income 50-50, WNBA players end up with around 10 percent of league revenue. While NBA commissioner Adam Silver pointed out in 2018 that the WNBA had lost money every year since its inception in 1997, Ingraham said the league would’ve turned a profit in 2025 had it not been for “anticipatory expense increases.” If you consider that season a “break-even” year, then a true 50-50 revenue split would have added $100 million toward player salaries, Ingraham said — bringing the average salary to $761,000.

“If you see the increase in the in-league revenues, and if you’re engaging in expansion, and if you’ve negotiated new media rights deals, you can actually take on those new expenses now, in anticipation of new money coming in,” he said. “So, it’s not necessarily something that means the league is doing poorly. It isn’t. It’s actually doing very, very well as exhibited by the new media deal, and is exhibited by the fact that expansion franchises are valued at $250 million.”

In Ingraham’s eyes, there was no way for the previous CBA to account for the league’s trajectory over its lifespan. The task in these negotiations is crafting an agreement that will look ahead.

“What that means now is that, in the negotiation that’s occurring now, a correction likely needs to be made,” he said. “And then going forward, one of the things that [we] will be looking for is how subsequent CBAs try to anticipate the future growth in league revenues under future CBAs.”

Sense of urgency

When the Connecticut Sun announced in July plans to explore selling the team, longtime Brookline resident and science fiction writer Michael Burstein felt a sense of urgency.

He had become a WNBA fan and Sun season ticket-holder because his daughter Sheva was a fan. But a potential sale not only opened the door optimistically for a relocation to Boston, but it created a worst-case scenario that the Sun could leave New England entirely.

“It would be nice for the Sun to stay in Connecticut,” Burstein said. “But the thing I feel would be awful was if the Sun were moved out to Houston or somewhere out of New England, because right now the Sun is the only WNBA team for all of New England.”

With that in mind, the elected Brookline town meeting member and library trustee will introduce a resolution in support of the Boston City Council’s resolution to bring WNBA basketball to Boston.

Burstein said, “New England should have a WNBA team, full stop.”

The Sun had multiple suitors, including former Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca, who made a $325 million bid to bring the team to Boston, but progress stalled without league approval. The Sun will play the 2026 season in Connecticut.

“The question is what’s going to happen after that,” Burstein said.

Brookline’s town meeting occurs once a year — with a special meeting in the fall — but with cities lining up, Burstein said it was important to officially express Boston’s desire for a women’s basketball team.

“If the Sun had not made any announcements, if they were going to stay put, I’m pretty sure eventually through the process at some point the WNBA would expand into Boston,” he said. “But by announcing that they’re going to sell the team, possibly move the team away from New England, that makes it immediately more incumbent upon us to really push for the idea that a WNBA team should be in Boston. And that if the Sun is going to leave Connecticut, this is where they should go.”

Still talking

After agreeing to a 30-day negotiation extension last month, the league and the players’ union are treating Nov. 30 like a hard deadline, according to a source. Public comments have quieted, but the sides have continued to meet. Meanwhile, coaches gathered last week in New York for closed-door competition meetings.

Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com.