Shortly after 93 percent of WNBA players voted to authorize WNBPA executive leadership to call a strike “when necessary” during ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations with the WNBA, the WNBA disclosed its latest proposal.
The league has once again increased its salary offers for players. Maximum salaries would start above $1.3 million and approach $2 million by the end of the deal. The average player salary was increased to approximately $770,000 over the life of the deal, while the minimum salary would start at more than $250,000 in the first year of a new deal.
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The league also claimed to have presented an uncapped revenue sharing model, but did not disclose any details.
The WNBA, once again, appears to be trying to lure players with higher starting annual salaries. It’s a strategy that hasn’t worked yet and seems unlikely to ever work. A fair revenue sharing model remains the players’ priority, something the league continues to resist.
As WNBPA President, Nneka Ogwumike told ESPNthe league’s revenue sharing model is “not adequate.”
Ogwumike called on the league to be more creative, with Ogwumike suggesting to ESPN that “The level of creativity and innovation on our part in trying to get them closer to their side of the table” was not returned by the league. She further shared that she felt like the negotiations were “a little bit in their infancy” because nothing “has materially changed in our conversations.”
Ogwumike’s claim appears to be supported by the league’s repeated and failed attempts to win over players by simply raising salaries. They continue to dangle an increasingly shiny carrot that players clearly view as fool’s gold.
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Ogwumike too reported to ESPN that she thinks there can be more “collaboration and cohesion around the table.”
Her comments echoed those expressed by Breanna Stewart, vice president of the WNBPA who said at peerless media day:
More often than not, we are the ones who are willing to compromise and they still don’t budge. So if they don’t want to move, we’re going to get to this point where we’re going to hit a stalemate. That’s kind of where we are right now.
Asked about NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s recent comments regarding his embrace of negotiations, Stewart said players would be “more than happy” for Silver, as well as NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, to become more involved.
At the press conference before the NBA Cup championship game, Silver said“We are available to do whatever is necessary to help reach an agreement,” while emphasizing: “I remain optimistic that we will achieve something.”
For all their criticism, Ogwumike and Stewart also expressed a (slight) measure of optimism. Ogwumike told ESPN:
I am hopeful. I want to play and I know I’m going to do a lot on behalf of these players, thanks to the incredible leadership of this executive committee. So I’m excited to see how conversations can be more collaborative.
Stewart declared:
As players we know how important it is to play and be on the pitch. But at the same time, if we don’t want to be valued the way we know we should be, as all digital situations tell us, then we’re just not going to do something that doesn’t make sense.
