WNBA commish: CBA deal will get done, going to be historic

NEW YORK — WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said progress is being made toward getting a new collective bargaining agreement done.

The two sides met for another marathon negotiating session that started Sunday afternoon and ended around 3 a.m. Monday morning.

“We’re working as hard as we can to get it done as quickly as possible,” Engelbert said. “It’s complex. There’s a lot. There’s a lot of system elements. There’s a lot of structure elements. … This is a big, big league and we want to do everything we can for the players. So, we’re going to keep making progress.”

The two sides will get together again later Monday for a seventh consecutive day of talks. It has been a long week of discussions with the WNBA and union meeting face-to-face for more than 72 hours since the first in-person bargaining session Tuesday.

“We are going to keep going. We’re going to get this deal done,” Engelbert said. “And, you know, it’s going to be historic.”

Union executive council members Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier and Alysha Clark were the first to leave at 2 a.m. Nneka Ogwumike and union leadership left an hour later after a 14-hour day.

“The fact that they just don’t want to stop, both sides, it’s not just the league side, it’s even the union,” said Connecticut Sun president Jen Rizzotti. “They want to get it done. I think it’s admirable to know that they’re paying attention to the fact that this is crucial and time is of the essence and we need to have a season.”

The key sticking points have been revenue sharing and housing.

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

League proposals have involved 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 learning about it has really shown 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,” Ogwumike said.

Before the start of negotiations Tuesday night, the union had 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.

The 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. But the clock is ticking. Engelbert said she didn’t know if training camp would be moved from April 19 if a deal isn’t done very soon.

“I wish I knew the answer to that. I do not know the answer to that,” Engelbert said. “But you see us here at three in the morning, four in the morning, at five in the morning. So that gives an indication that both sides are motivated at that time.”

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

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.