The WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) are closing in on a November 30 ratification deadline for a new league CBA, and it’s possible there may not be an agreement in place by that date.
So, you may be wondering: What’s the holdup? Here’s the latest update on negotiations.
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Per Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press, the league recently shared a proposal that would include revenue sharing, which, along with a base salary, would give players the chance to earn more than $1.1 million.
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This would also bump up the current league minimum salary to more than $220,000 and the average to more than $460,000. (This season, the minimum was around 66,000, and the supermax salary was just north of $249,000.)
Here’s where things get interesting.
According to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, the WNBPA reportedly doesn’t believe the league’s current proposal has a system in place where the salary cap and player salaries grow with the league’s business, a major point of emphasis for the athletes. Players aren’t interested in a fixed salary system and reportedly want one that is tied more directly to revenue, similar to their counterparts in the NBA, where the cap is determined by basketball-related income.
So, what does this mean for the WNBA? The challenging aspect of the current negotiations is that nothing can truly move forward without the CBA in place. That means the league’s calendar is impacted, drafts can’t happen, new teams cannot begin their tenures and so much more.
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In other words, the fate of the league rests on the CBA getting done, and without it, the consequences become much more dire.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The WNBA’s latest CBA offer left players reportedly unimpressed
