Yahoo Sports Daily host Caroline Fenton reacts to NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s comments about the WNBA CBA negotiations and explains why they weren’t as positive as they appeared. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
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Video Transcript
Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, spoke with the media ahead of the new NBA on NBC media rights deal, and in that conversation with the media, he also talked about the WNBA and the CBA that is looming over that league, and Adam Silver said he expects big raises for the WNBA.
And the new CBA that they are currently negotiating, and that they deserve those raises.
I agree, Adam, I’m with you.
They absolutely do deserve it.
Uh, they absolutely do deserve those raises.
That sounds really great and wonderful, doesn’t it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Until you read the fine print and really listen to what Adam Silver is saying, because while he says that they do deserve those raises, Adam Silver also said, quote, share isn’t the right way to look at it because there’s so much more revenue in the NBA.
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I think you should look at it in absolute numbers in terms of what they’re making, and they’re going to get a big increase.
In this cycle of collective bargaining, and they deserve it.
The important thing there is Adam Silver is pushing back against the WNBPA’s wishes of revenue share, which is how every other professional league in sports operates, including the NBA, and Adam Silver knows that very well, but a supermax contract in the NBA is a certain percentage of what the NBA TV contracts are.
That is how every league operates right now, the W NBA operates in absolute numbers, and an absolute number is a supermax, an absolute number is a veteran minimum, so on and so forth.
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What the WNBPA is pushing for is revenue share, because in 2026 that $2.2 billion television contract will come into effect.
The league has never been richer than it is right now.
The valuations of individual franchises have absolutely skyrocketed.
Just look at the Golden State Valkyries, for example.
They paid a $50 million expansion fee, and the team right now is valued at $500 million just one year after they paid that expansion fee, a 10x increase in just one year, and all the players are asking for is for their fair share cut of that pie, not an absolute number, allow the players’ salaries to grow along with the league.
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And the WNBA CBA is up on Halloween, October 31st, so that deadline is looming.
If we don’t get to an agreement or at least an extension, we could be potentially looking at a work stoppage in the WNBA.
