WNBA's CBA negotiations: Everything to know with deadline looming

The 2025 play is successful the books. A caller champion has been crowned. But arsenic the offseason starts, the absorption shifts squarely backmost connected corporate bargaining negotiations.

The existent corporate bargaining statement expires connected Oct. 31. Both commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) person said their extremity is simply a "transformational" CBA, but the 2 sides reportedly stay acold isolated successful negotiations connected the biggest issues.

What are those priorities? What happens if a caller CBA isn't reached by the deadline? How realistic is simply a lockout? Here's a tally done everything to know.

What are the players' biggest priorities?

Increased subordinate salaries is simply a cardinal issue, but the astir important is gross sharing: however it's determined and whether the percent volition beryllium allowed to turn during the people of the CBA alternatively of a fixed fig for the duration of the deal.

"The players are inactive adamant that we get a percent of gross that grows with the business, which possibly includes squad revenue, and that's conscionable a portion of the conversation," WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN successful aboriginal August.

Phoenix Mercury guardant Satou Sabally said a caller connection from the WNBA makes the players consciousness arsenic if "we're not portion of the maturation of the league."

"If we continued with this CBA, we would, percentage-wise, spell down connected our [compensation]," Sabally said past week during the WNBA Finals.

In the NBA, fans are utilized to wage caps for teams being acceptable based connected a percent of what the CBA describes arsenic "basketball-related income," oregon BRI. By contrast, the WNBA's existent CBA defined the headdress for each play up of clip with humble 3% yearly raises. A mechanics successful the CBA that would summation the headdress based connected gross was efficaciously invalidated by the timing of the deal.

Because the existent CBA began successful 2020 anterior to the COVID-19 pandemic, gross targets were acceptable based connected the erstwhile run (2019) and made cumulative implicit the beingness of the deal. The league made nary wealth disconnected summons income during the abbreviated 2020 season, played successful a bubble connected the IMG Academy field successful Bradenton, Florida, and attendance was besides constricted successful 2021 by section restrictions. That made it unrealistic for the targets to beryllium met contempt the league's accrued attendance implicit the past 2 seasons.

In August, Ogwumike said an connection from the WNBA dramatically accrued the wage headdress and maximum basal salaries -- the supermax is $249,244 -- but followed the aforesaid exemplary arsenic the existent CBA.

"It's fundamentally the aforesaid strategy that we beryllium successful close now," Ogwumike said. "They're proposing a strategy that includes gross that would turn with the business. When you attack it from the position of their effect to our proposal, yes, wealth is more, but yet if you look astatine the maturation of the business, the wealth comparative to the percent of everything is virtually staying the same."

A study Friday from Front Office Sports cited sources estimating a supermax wage astir $850,000, with the seasoned minimum astir $300,000.

The players spot the astonishing leap successful franchise valuations successful the past mates of years and question if they are getting their due stock of that growth. The Las Vegas Aces, for example, were purchased for $2 cardinal successful 2021 but are present valued astatine $310 million, and the New York Liberty were purchased for betwixt $10 cardinal and $14 cardinal aft being for merchantability for much than a twelvemonth and present person an estimated valuation of astir $450 million.

On its face, that's a tenable happening to ask. But what astir the NBA's claims for years of subsidizing WNBA losses? Will the NBA accidental the caller wealth is successful portion backfilling past deficits? Could it beryllium that?

One of the astir hard parts of pursuing the WNBA's labour negotiations each these years has been getting steadfast numbers from the league's broadside of things. The players person said they don't ever consciousness similar they get that. By the aforesaid token, the s...