WNBA: Can the league show “creativity” in CBA talks?

Soon after 93 percent of WNBA players voted to authorize WNBPA executive leadership to call a strike “when necessary” during on-going collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations with the WNBA, the WNBA leaked their latest proposal.

The league again upped their salary offerings to the players. Maximum salaries would begin above $1.3 million and approach $2 million by the end of the deal. The average player salary has been increased to an estimated $770,00 over the term of the agreement, while minimum salaries would start at higher than $250,000 in the first year of a new deal.

The league also claimed that they had presented an uncapped revenue sharing model, albeit without disclosing any details.

The WNBA, once again, appears to be attempting to entice players with bigger, up-front annual salaries. It’s a strategy that has yet to work, and seems unlikely to ever work. A fair revenue sharing model remains the priority of the players, something that the league continues to resist.

As WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN, the league’s revenue sharing model is “not adequate.”

Ogwumike called on the league to be more creative, with Ogwumike suggesting to ESPN that “the level of creativity and innovation from our side to try and meet them closer to their side of the table” has not been reciprocated by the league. She further shared that she feels like negotiations remain “a bit in their infancy” because nothing “has substantially changed in our conversations.”

Ogwumike’s claim seems to be substantiated by the league’s repeated, and unsuccessful, move of trying to persuade players by simply raising salaries. They keep dangling a shinier and shinier carrot that players clearly see as fool’s gold.

Ogwumike additionally indicated to ESPN that she believes there can be more “collaboration and cohesiveness across the table.”

More often than not we’re the ones that are willing to compromise and they still aren’t budging. So if they are not going to budge, we’re going to get to this point where we’re going to be at a standoff. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.

When then asked about recent comments from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about joining the negotiations, Stewart said that players would be “more than happy” for Silver, as well as deputy NBA Commissioner Mark Tatum, to become more involved.

At press conference before the NBA Cup championship game, Silver had said, “We’re available to do whatever is necessary to help get a deal done,” while also emphasizing, “I remain optimistic we’ll get something done.”

For all their critiques, Ogwumike and Stewart likewise expressed a (slight) measure of optimism. Ogwumike said to ESPN:

I’m hopeful. I want to play, and I know that I’m going to get a good deal done on behalf of these players, along with the amazing leadership of this executive committee. So I’m looking forward to seeing how conversations can be more collaborative.

We know as players how important it is to play and to be on the court. But at the same time, if we’re not going to be valued the way that we know we should be, in the way that every kind of number situation tells us, then we’re just not going to do something that doesn’t make sense.