The WNBA and its players’ union had another marathon negotiating session that lasted into the early morning hours Monday as they try to reach a deal on new collective bargaining agreement.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had said Friday night that the two sides need to get a deal done by Monday to potentially avoid disruptions to the upcoming season.
“Can things be 24 to 48 hours later than maybe a date that we put on a piece of paper just to get everybody understanding there is a basketball calendar here? Can things be 24 to 48 hours (later)? Sure,” Engelbert said. “But not much more before you start to look at, you know, can we open training camp up, you know, that kind of stuff.”
The two sides will get together again later Monday for a seventh consecutive day of talks. It’s been a long week of discussions with the WNBA and union making face-to-face for more than 72 hours since the first in-person bargaining session Tuesday.
Sunday’s session started around noon EDT and union executive council members Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier and Alysha Clark were the first to leave at 2 a.m. Nneka Ogwumike and union leadership were still in the building as well as Engelbert and her negotiating team that included Connecticut Sun president Jen Rizzotti.
The key sticking points have been revenue sharing and housing.
“It’s very important for us to nail those two things down, which is I think the biggest thing on the agenda today,” Ogwumike, the union’s president, said Saturday between bargaining sessions. “So we want to make sure that we can get that.”
League proposals have involved net revenue — revenue after expenses — and union ones have talked about gross revenue — revenue before expenses.
When negotiations first started more than a year ago, the union was asking for 40% of gross revenue and had come down to 26% before the marathon in-person bargaining session Tuesday. The league had been offering more than 70% net revenue for the players.
“We’ve talked a lot about revenue share, which that’s obviously going to be, I don’t even really like calling it the elephant in the room. Like it’s there, you know, like we’re going to talk about it,” Ogwumike said. “But housing is big, you know, and housing is really big. And I think that perhaps people understanding this negotiation or learning about it has really shown how meaningful something like a housing benefit is, especially for the women in the W.”
Teams have paid for player housing in the WNBA since the beginning and the league wanted to amend that in the new CBA.
“We’re trying to enter into this transitional space where we are now making enough money toward to be able to take care of that, but we’re not quite at the point where we can eliminate it outright,” Ogwumike said.
Prior to the start of negotiations Tuesday night, the union had been asking for teams to continue paying for housing for players in the first few years of the new agreement, but in the last two years of the CBA the franchises would no longer have to pay for housing for players that are making near the maximum salary, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.
In the same time period, the league proposed that they would continue paying all players housing for the upcoming season and then change to only paying for rookies housing as well as players making the minimum salary, the person said.
The league also would pay for housing of the two developmental players being added to teams for the entire length of the CBA.
If these two major items can get figured out, the season most likely would be able to start on time on May 8. But the clock is ticking.
The league’s first two preseason games are on April 25 with Caitlin Clark and Indiana visiting New York and Seattle playing Golden State.
“We have a fairly short preseason,” Engelbert said. “We have preseason games scheduled on April 25. That’s what I first worry about. Those are some great games.”
Before the preseason games even happen, there’s a lot to do with an expansion draft for Portland and Toronto as well as free agency for 80% of the league. The college draft also needs to take place.
