‘We Have to Get a Deal By Monday’: WNBA CBA Talks Stretch Into Day 4

MANHATTAN — On the fourth consecutive day of marathon bargaining sessions, the WNBA and WNBPA are making progress, but they’re in a race against time to reach a deal. 

“I’ve never been a betting woman in my life and I’m not going to start now, but we have to get a deal by Monday,” commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters outside the meeting Friday. “I should say we have to get it done without disrupting some part of the fact that we’ve got to run this two-team expansion [draft]. We have to get expansion going. We have to get free agency going. We got to get the college draft, which is now a month from today.” 

Asked whether a deal will be reached by Monday, Engelbert said: “Cathy Engelbert’s opinion, yes.”

The WNBA’s first two preseason games are slated for April 25, when the Indiana Fever face the New York Liberty and the Seattle Storm play the Golden State Valkyries. Sources around the league believe that if a deal is not agreed to by early next week, training camp will be delayed, and preseason games would be subject to cancellation. 

“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.” 

Both sides returned to the bargaining table at 10 a.m. on Friday after a nearly 16-hour session that began mid-morning on Thursday and stretched into dawn on Friday. 

In total, the sides have spent more than 40 hours at the table since Tuesday. Engelbert emphasized that both sides are working diligently to get a deal done as soon as possible but there are a lot of items they are still working through. 

“Movement is still the word,” WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said. “As long as movement keeps us going in a forward direction then I think we’re good.”

Just before 8 p.m. Friday, WNBPA vice president Napheesa Collier arrived on site for the first time in this week’s sessions, joining fellow vice president Breanna Stewart and union president Nneka Ogwumike. Executive committee members Alysha Clark and Brianna Turner left earlier in the day Friday after participating since Tuesday.

The biggest hurdle has been revenue sharing. The WNBA has continued to offer a system based on its net revenue, while the union has sought a share of gross revenue. 

“The continued conversations have helped us kind of chip away at what the concerns are for both sides and how we meet them, how we address them,” Jackson said on the current divide regarding the salary model.

In total, 15 proposals have been exchanged since Tuesday, a source familiar said.

The league’s latest proposal offered a share of net revenue that for the first time amounts to more than 15% of gross revenue, a source familiar with negotiations said. The union started negotiations seeking a 40% share of gross revenue and brought that ask below 26% in recent proposals. 

The latest known salary cap offering from the WNBA is $6.2 million.

The key to reaching a deal could lie in a net system that amounts to a percentage share of gross revenue both sides agree upon. 

“We both always understood each other,” Jackson said regarding the revenue sharing system. “Now we have to continue to do the dance and see where that nets out.” 

Ancillary proposal items—including player housing, the core designation, wearable technology, and player benefits—have been the focus of discussions over the 24 hours. 

Jackson acknowledged agreements have been reached on some items outside of revenue sharing, but didn’t get into specifics. 

Negotiations at this stage have included small breakout conversations and larger group discussions. Jackson noted the current round-the-clock, grind-it-out method was how the 2020 CBA got done. 

“The pace is definitely sped up a bit,” Jackson said. “The league honestly has looked to show us what urgency looks like for them. We’ve known what it looks like for us.” 

On Feb. 23, the league told players that if a deal was not agreed to by March 10, the season would face delays. That deadline has come and gone. 

Once both sides shake hands on a tentative deal, it will still be weeks before the new CBA is ratified. 

The season is scheduled to begin on May 8, training camp on April 19, and the collegiate draft on April 13. Before any of this can happen, the league needs to conduct an expansion draft for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo and free agency for more than 100 players. 

Competition meetings—which bring together general managers, coaches, and league leadership—were originally scheduled to be held in Phoenix during the NCAA Women’s Final Four. Those meetings will now be held virtually; the date is to be determined, according to multiple sources.