NEW YORK — The block on 5th Avenue between 37th and 36th streets in Midtown was buzzing when a collection of WNBA and WNBPA personnel descended around 5 p.m. for a pivotal negotiating session.
Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike, Bri Turner, and Alysha Clark were the players in attendance at the Langham Hotel, where the meeting took place. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, head of league operations Bethany Donaphin, and Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai were among those representing the league’s side.
By the time the players exited through a side entrance of the hotel just before 3 a.m., the block was a desolate reflection of the early morning hour. The WNBPA’s executive committee members left after nearly 10 hours of negotiations, ignoring media’s request for comment. League and union staff remained past 4 a.m., continuing the session.
Engelbert and other league staff left at roughly 5:20 a.m. with no deal yet in place.
“It’s complex,” Engelbert told reporters. “We’re working towards a win-win deal like we’ve been saying, a transformational deal for these players that balances all the things we’ve been trying to balance with continued investment by our owners, et cetera. So we’re working hard towards that, and we still have work to do.”
When asked for clarification on a timeline, Engelbert said, “We’ve got to get it done soon.”
WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson told reporters outside the Langham, “I would describe the last 10 or 11 hours as a lot of conversation going in the right direction.”
When asked whether there was any indication a deal would be reached in the coming days, Jackson said, “The only thing I’m going to say on that is the conversations are continuing.”
March 10 Deadline Comes and Goes
Last week in Miami, two of the WNBA’s biggest stars said the players and league should meet for a marathon labor negotiation.
The league had said its deadline for starting the season on time was March 10. But that deadline had been communicated only in recent weeks, and leagues have a history of imposing aggressive deadlines on unions only to retract them when negotiations come down to brass tacks.
The divide between the players and owners has remained the same for more than a year: how to share the enormous amount of new money flooding into the WNBA. The league eventually conceded to players on sharing a percentage of revenue, but the sides remained far apart in recent weeks on how to calculate that revenue and what percentage of it would go to players.
Before Tuesday’s meeting, proposals were exchanged by the league and the union. The details of those proposals were never leaked, a shift from earlier in the negotiations.
Multiple sources told FOS the league’s proposal submitted Saturday evening did not instill confidence in players that a deal would be reached by March 10. And ultimately, it was not.
The WNBA’s last known proposal included a salary cap of $5.75 million and a 70% share of net revenue. According to sources familiar with negotiations, this share amounted to less than 15% of gross revenue. The union’s last known proposal was seeking a 26% share of the league’s gross revenue over the life of the deal, which sources had previously said was an eight-year term with an opt-out after seven.
