{"id":393958,"date":"2026-01-07T22:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/393958\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T22:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:35:13","slug":"players-and-league-still-far-from-deal-days-before-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/393958\/","title":{"rendered":"Players and League Still Far From Deal Days Before Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA and the players\u2019 association are still far from an deal on a new CBA, even as the extended deadline agreed upon in recent negotiations is fast approaching.<\/p>\n

According to a report by ESPN<\/a>, talks are currently stalled largely because of\u00a0disagreements over a revenue sharing system.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s front office is reportedly against the WNBPA\u2019s proposal to give players a 30% share of gross revenue as it would apparently end up costing the league $700 million in losses over the course of the agreement, based on a previous financial audit.<\/p>\n

However, the players\u2019 union disagrees with that assessment, calling the figure \u201cabsolutely false,\u201d and has said that the move would actually leave the league in a \u201cprofitable position\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"JulCredit: Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

WNBPA\u2019s Latest Proposal Meets Resistance From League Leadership<\/p>\n

The WNBPA factored in the recently announced expansion franchises\u2019 fees of $250 million each into its projections, seeing them as real money that still adds money to owners\u2019 bottom lines.<\/p>\n

However, the WNBA determined that the move would result in no net revenue since new teams will be out the expansion fee but earn a fractional share of league revenue in the future, while preexisting teams get a portion of the fee but lose a fractional share of future league revenue.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s counter proposal then introduced a system where players would receive in excess of 50% of the revenue after subtracting expenses. It also added an uncapped revenue sharing component, a raise of maximum salaries above $1.3 million and up to nearly $2 million, while average salaries top $530,000 and grow to more than $780,000 over the life of the deal.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the WNBA suggested minimum salaries starting at more than $250,000 in the first year alone, and a salary cap that would be $5 million in the first year and expand with revenue growth in the following years.<\/p>\n

But the WNBPA referred to some of the league\u2019s suggestions as a \u201cslap in the face.\u201d Indeed, in mid-December, the players\u2019 union announced that\u00a0WNBA stars were 98% in favor of authorizing a strike\u00a0if necessary after 93% of the league voted on the issue.<\/p>\n

The two sides currently have until January 9 to reach a deal as things stand.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tSince his first foray into online journalism in 2019, Peter Okereke has written widely on Entertainment, Politics and Pop … More about Peter Okereke<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA and the players\u2019 association are still far from an deal on a new CBA, even as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,1625,434],"class_list":["post-393958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}