The WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association are extremely unlikely to reach a new collective bargaining agreement by Friday’s deadline, according to the players’ union legal counsel.
“We have worked hard to be able to say on Friday, we did it. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen,” Erin D. Drake, senior advisor and legal counsel for the WNBPA, told The Athletic in Tuesday’s episode of the “No Offseason” podcast. “In a dance, it takes two to tango. And it has been difficult to find a beat, to find a rhythm and to find the same sense of urgency (from the league), just to be frank, to get this done.”
The two sides will continue to meet this week, but they remain widely divided on the wedge issue of revenue sharing and how that framework would impact player salaries. In a statement Tuesday, a WNBA spokesperson said the league submitted a proposal to the players on Oct. 1. The proposal, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiation, included a maximum salary of $850,000.
The league spokesperson said the players’ union responded to the WNBA proposal on Oct. 27.
“We have been negotiating with the Players Association in good faith and with urgency for several months with the goal of finalizing a new collective bargaining agreement as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Athletic. “Throughout this process, we have been clear that our top priority is reaching a new collective bargaining agreement that addresses players’ ask for significant increases in pay, benefits and enhancements to their experience, while ensuring the long-term growth and success of the league and its teams.
“We urge the Players Association to spend less time disseminating public misinformation and more time joining us in constructive engagement across the table.”
The WNBPA has remained steadfast in its demands to rework the WNBA’s current system. It has proposed a salary framework tied to the WNBA business, in which player salaries are linked to a percentage of the revenue generated by the league. The WNBA, meanwhile, has proposed a revenue-sharing system similar in structure to what is currently in their CBA, in which there is a fixed salary cap and additional revenue sharing, but only if league revenue exceeds certain targets.
Both proposals would result in significant salary increases, but players are focused on changing the underlying system behind any jumps.
“The players are so stalwart in their commitment to having a transformational CBA, and it’s our job to get it done,” Drake said.
“Labor peace is where we want to be, but we’re not going to get there by being taken advantage of. The players aren’t going to get there by hearing, ‘maybe next time, again,’” she added. “The time is now, and we’re willing to do what needs to be done to get there and move back into the zone where we can really put on an amazing product and have people feel that their value is being reflected in the way that they are paid and the money that they’re getting.”
As they work through negotiation in private, the two sides have also traded public barbs.
Last week, WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson rebuked NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s framing of players’ financial demands. (WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert reports to Silver.) Jackson said that the league “responded with bad math” and that “the league’s response has been to run out the clock, put lipstick on a pig and retread a system that isn’t tied to any part of the business and intentionally undervalues the players.”
The league, via spokesperson, disputed that characterization last week.
The statement from the league, in part, said: “The Players Association has yet to offer a viable economic proposal and has repeatedly refused to engage in any meaningful way on many of our proposal terms. We stand ready to continue negotiating in good faith and hope they will do the same so that we can finalize a mutually beneficial new CBA as quickly as possible.”
The WNBPA and WNBA could agree to an extension, which would postpone the deadline. (Engelbert has acknowledged that possibility multiple times.) Additionally, they could let the agreement expire and enter into a status quo period. It is also possible that if the agreement expires and no extension is reached, either side could announce intentions to enter a work stoppage, with the owners possibly locking out the players or the players going on strike.
“We’re still going to be negotiating until we get this negotiation done,” Drake said. “We just don’t know how long that is going to take, unfortunately.
“I pray, I believe in miracles. I’m not hopeful that (agreeing to a deal by Friday) is going to come to fruition.”
— The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant contributed to this report.
