Caitlin Clark took part in her first day of USA Basketball training camp on Friday. It’s unclear when she’ll be taking part in her next WNBA action.
The Indiana Fever star addressed the current collective bargaining agreement standoff between the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association while speaking with reporters via Shelby Swanson of the The News and Observer, calling for compromise to ensure the league keeps playing basketball:
“This is the biggest moment the WNBA has ever seen and it’s not something that can be messed up. We’re going to fight for everything that we deserve, but at the same time, we need to play basketball.”
That’s what our fans crave and that’s what all of you crave as well. You want the product on the floor. That’s how you make the money, that’s how you’re marketed, that’s what the fans want to show up for. It’s business and it’s a negotiation, and there has to be compromise on both sides. We’re starting to get down to the wire of it and it’s become really important.
The WNBA’s current CBA would have already expired by now had the two sides not agreed to two extensions so far. The current agreement runs through Jan. 9, with plenty to figure out.
There’s a lot at stake for Caitlin Clark in the CBA negotiations. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
(Jacob Kupferman via Getty Images)
The league’s revenues are set to explode with its new round of media rights deals, set to pay out an average of $200 million per year beginning in 2026. The players are looking for a hard split of that revenue and anything else that comes from the league’s basketball operations, much like what the NBA has.
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That would almost certainly give them more than the league’s last offer, with a maximum base salary of $1 million and the ability for some revenue sharing money to reach the players. There are several moving parts to this, which Clark is trying to keep tabs on:
“Obviously I want to help anyway I can and I’ve tried to educate myself the best I can … I think there are different things that we can find ways to say ‘No, we certainly deserve that, and we’re not going to compromise on that,’ and then other things that we can probably compromise on.”
In two seasons, Clark has already become the WNBA’s most famous player and has a level of impact rare for a single player in a CBA negotiation. To date, her WNBA income has been minuscule compared to revenue from sponsorships and other opportunities, but this upcoming CBA will decide how stars like her get paid and a number of other structural features of a league in flux.
In the meantime, Clark said she is feeling 100% after missing much of last season with a groin injury.
