The WNBA is approaching a significant moment in league history.
After two years of incredible growth, spurred in large part thanks to the star power of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and a new generation of household names, the league is in a better and healthier position than ever before. Attendance is up, ratings are up, new teams are being added via expansion, and the WNBA is in a real boom period.
However, the specter of an extended work stoppage because of serious disagreements over revenue splits threatens to upend much of the progress the WNBA has made in recent years. And given what has happened publicly between Napheesa Collier and Cathy Engelbert, and just how far apart the two sides seem, and optimism is not running high.
ESPN’s Ryan Ruocco, who has been the voice of the WNBA Finals for the network, plainly laid out the stakes for the league and its players.
“It would be the greatest own goal in the history of sports,” Ruocco told Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal about a prolonged impasse. “A work stoppage would be detrimental to everything they’ve been growing. And I do think that regardless of whatever posturing is happening publicly, regardless of whatever negotiating is happening, I do think you have really smart people on both sides who both recognize that this is a moment where momentum needs to continue, not be stopped.”
Ruocco’s broadcast partner as ESPN’s lead WNBA announce team sounded a bit more optimistic on the labor negotiations, saying, “I’m really confident that both sides are going to find common ground, because there’s so much at stake now, where there hasn’t been as much at stake in past years just because the level of interest was not where it is now.”
There is simply too much at stake for the WNBA to suffer from a work stoppage. Not only is fan sentiment largely on the side of the players earning much more competitive salaries, but they also have Unrivaled and the new Project B as alternatives in case a stoppage has a severe impact on the league.