Monday’s pivotal meeting between WNBA players and owners at league offices in New York City lasted roughly three hours before attendees slowly started trickling out.
It was the first time players met in person with the league and members of ownership since the fall and roughly six weeks since the union’s last proposal was sent. The WNBA did not counter the players’ proposal at Monday’s meeting. Instead, it was communicated to the union on Monday that the league would begin working on an official response to their proposal.
“They volunteered that they did not have a proposal prepared at the top of the meeting,” Nneka Ogwumike told Front Office Sports. “That kind of set the tone for the conversation because we were hoping to hear otherwise.”
Ogwumike said the three-hour meeting was instead spent with both sides explaining the thinking behind their most recent proposals. One of the main priorities, according to one source familiar with negotiations, was to allow players and owners to connect and ask questions of each other.
The league’s last proposal, submitted in early December, includes a max salary of $1.3 million and an average salary of more than $530,000. Those figures include projected earnings from the league’s proposed revenue sharing model which includes team and league revenue but has a percentage subtracted. The union responded with a proposal seeking a salary cap of roughly $10.5 million and a revenue share model that gives players a percentage of total revenues before any additional deductions for expenses.
Housing, retirement benefits, and professional standards—including facilities and team staffing requirements—are three of the union’s highest priorities in addition to revenue sharing.
Ogwumike was joined at the league office by three other players: vice president Alysha Clark, treasurer Brianna Turner, and Stefanie Dolson, who is a player rep for the Washington Mystics. Joining the meeting via zoom were vice presidents Kelsey Plum, Napheesa Collier, and Breanna Stewart as well as secretary Elizabeth Williams, who dialed in from overseas while playing in Turkey. Plum and Collier were originally scheduled to attend the meeting in person, but were unable to due to travel issues flying from Miami, where they are playing in Unrivaled.
In total, the union had roughly 40 players join the meeting via zoom including those from the executive committee who were unable to attend in person.
On the league side was commissioner Cathy Engelbert and members of the labor relations committee, and other team owners. The committee is made up of seven team owners and executives: Suzanne Abair (Atlanta Dream co-owner and CEO), Nadia Rawlinson, (Chicago Sky co-owner and operating chairperson), Jennifer Rizzotti (Connecticut Sun president), Kelly Krauskopf (Indiana Fever president of basketball and business operations), Greg Bibb (Dallas Wings managing partner and CEO), Mat Ishbia (Mercury owner), and Ginny Gilder (Seattle Storm co-owner).
Gilder and Rizzotti were there in person. Ishbia joined via Zoom. New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai and Storm co-owner Sue Bird also attended the meeting in person.
Earlier in the day it was reported by ESPN that “strong debate” was occurring among members of the WNBPA’s seven-team executive committee. According to this report, one group believes now is the time to stand firm in a pursuit of a revamped revenue model. The other group meanwhile is “less inclined to pursue a strike.”
Ogwumike and Clark denied any division between the union’s executive committee.
“I don’t think there’s been fracturing,” Alysha Clark told FOS. “As the EC, the point of our job is to have these tough conversations behind closed doors with one another. To be able to hash through it all, because it’s a lot. It’s complicated. There are so many things that are on the table in this proposal and us having discussions doesn’t equate to fracturing.”
The union held a prep call on Monday morning at WNBPA headquarters ahead of the meeting with the league that included over 40 players. Politician Stacey Abrams and AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler were on the call and ended it with a message of support for the WNBPA.
Ogwumike and Clark expressed feeling a lack of urgency from the league’s side coming out of Monday’s meeting after the WNBA failed to offer a counterproposal. They added that time could have been better spent considering players have not had an in-person meeting with the league since close to the WNBA Finals.
However, their stance on a strike has not changed—yet.
“There are so many more conversations that have to happen before a strike can even be called,” Clark said. “After the meeting today, it’s still on the table. Until we get a response from the league about proposals, there’s nothing that we’ve been able to negotiate and go back and forth with to even warrant ‘Ok, what does a strike look like?’
“It’s on the table, as it has been since the strike authorization vote happened.”
