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After more than a year of tense negotiations, the WNBA and its players union verbally agreed yesterday to a new collective bargaining agreement that’s expected to achieve much of what the shirts shown above called for—including boosting some salaries beyond $1 million for the first time ever.
Details still need to be finalized and formally approved, but sources told ESPN that:
Average salaries will quintuple to ~$600,000 (from $120,000), while minimum pay will surpass $300,000 (from ~$66,000).Salary caps (each team’s maximum cumulative pay) will start at $7 million, up from $1.5 million. Supermax salaries (extension contracts for elite players) will start at $1.4 million, up from ~$250,000.Players will share in nearly 20% of league revenue on average, up from 9.3% (a 50/50 split is customary in men’s sports, for context).
Under the new deal, WNBA players won’t feel “a sense of lack,” union president Nneka Ogwumike told reporters around 3am, following 100+ hours of negotiations over the previous eight days. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert called it “a fair win-win for all.”
Crunch time: More than 80% of WNBA players are currently free agents, meaning teams only have weeks to negotiate new contracts before the season starts on May 8.—ML
