Revenue sharing and housing remain key hurdles in WNBA CBA talks: Union president

NEW YORK — Players’ union president Nneka Ogwumike said that revenue sharing and team-funded housing were two major items that still needed to be figured out to get a new collective bargaining agreement deal done with the WNBA.

The two sides are meeting for a fifth straight day Saturday in hopes of getting a CBA finished in a timely fashion to avoid any potential delays to the upcoming WNBA season.

Those two key points would be discussed as opposed to the more ancillary issues that were talked about the past two days.

“It’s very important for us to nail those two things down which is I think the biggest thing on the agenda today,” Ogwumike said in-between bargaining sessions that began at 1 p.m. “So we want to make sure that we can get that.”

Revenue sharing will be the biggest hurdle to get over. While league proposals have always been using net revenue — revenue after expenses — and union ones have talked about gross revenue — revenue before expenses.

When negotiations first started more than a year ago, the union was asking for 40% of gross revenue and had come down to 26% before the marathon in-person bargaining session Tuesday. The league had been offering more than 70% net revenue for the players.

“We’ve talked a lot about revenue share, which that’s obviously going to be, I don’t even really like calling it the elephant in the room. Like it’s there, you know, like we’re going to talk about it,” Ogwumike said. “But housing is big, you know, and housing is really big. And I think that perhaps people understanding this negotiation or like learning about it has really shown like how meaningful something like a housing benefit is, especially for the women in the W.”

Teams have paid for player housing in the WNBA since the beginning and the league wanted to amend that in the new CBA.

“We’re trying to enter into this transitional space where we are now making enough money toward to be able to take care of that, but we’re not quite at the point where we can eliminate it outright,” Oguwmike said.

Prior to the start of negotiations Tuesday night, the union has been asking for teams to continue paying for housing for players in the first few years of the new agreement, but in the last two years of the CBA the franchises would no longer have to pay for housing for players that are making near the maximum salary a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. That person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

In the same time period, the league proposed that they would continue paying all players housing for the upcoming season and then change to only paying for rookies housing as well as players making the minimum salary, the person said.

The league also would pay for housing of the two developmental players being added to teams for the entire length of the CBA.

If these two major items can get figured out, the season most likely would be able to start on time on May 8. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Friday night that they need to get a deal done by Monday to potentially avoid disruptions to the upcoming season.

“Can things be 24 to 48 hours later than maybe a date that we put on a piece of paper just to get everybody understanding there is a basketball calendar here? Can things be 24 to 48 hours (later)? Sure,” Engelbert said. “But not much more before you start to look at, you know, can we open training camp up, you know, that kind of stuff.”

The league’s first two preseason games are on April 25 with Caitlin Clark and Indiana visiting New York and Seattle playing Golden State.

“We have a fairly short preseason,” Engelbert said. “We have preseason games scheduled on April 25. That’s what I first worry about. Those are some great games.”

Before the preseason games even happen, there’s a lot to do with an expansion draft for Portland and Toronto as well as free agency for 80% of the league. The college draft also needs to take place.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball