Report: WNBPA, WNBA propose extensions for CBA negotiations
The WNBA may yet avoid a lockout for another few weeks.
With the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement set to expire at 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday night, the players’ association proposed a six-week extension to the league in order to avoid a lockout and continue to negotiate a new agreement, ESPN’s Alexa Philippou reported Sunday.
In response, the league proposed a 21-day extension and the two sides are discussing the length of the extension.
Should an extension be agreed upon, it will mark the second extension in the ongoing CBA negotiations after a 30-day push-back was agreed to on Oct. 31.
“We expect substantive movement from the league within this window,” the players’ association said in their statement to ESPN.
According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, the players’ union initially discussed proposing only a 24-hour extension, but opted for a longer deadline.
Though the two sides remained locked in negotiations over the past 30 days, no deal was agreed upon.
Steps have been taken. A report from the Associated Press in mid-November said that the WNBA proposed a revenue-sharing system with a maximum salary of more than $1.1 million available for more than one player per team, with the figure growing each year. Additionally, the league minimum would be more than $220,000 with an average of more than $460,000.
Those numbers would start in the first year of the deal for more than 180 players and increase over the length of the CBA.
However, ESPN later reported that a player called the proposed deal from the league a “slap in the face.“
In 2019, when the last CBA deal had expired, the sides agreed to a 60-day extension and eventually ratified the current CBA in January 2020.
The players exercised their right to opt out of the current CBA last year with hopes of getting, among other things, increased revenue sharing, higher salaries, improved benefits and a softer salary cap.
Players have already been paid for the past season and they have health insurance through April 30, 2026. There are no major events for the league on the immediate horizon until an expansion draft for new teams, Portland and Toronto. The expansion draft for Golden State took place last December.
— With files from the Associated Press
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