The WNBA has offered players a 30-day extension to continue negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
An extension before the current CBA expires Friday would allow both sides more time to work toward a new deal, though even if one is not implemented, both parties could continue to negotiate in good faith. Both sides agreed to a 60-day extension during the last round of CBA negotiations in 2019 before the new deal was signed in January 2020.
If an extension is not reached it could open the door for a potential work stoppage, either a strike initiated by the players or a lockout initiated by the owners. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert acknowledged during the WNBA Finals that while she was hopeful both sides would meet the Oct. 31 deadline, “We have extended deadlines in the past.”
A source said the players might be willing to consider an extension “under the right circumstances” but they feel “those circumstances do not yet exist.”
WNBPA senior adviser and legal counsel Erin D. Drake said recently on The Athletic’s “No Offseason” podcast that there will not be a new agreement by Friday.
“We have worked hard to be able to say on Friday, we did it. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen,” Drake said in the podcast episode, which aired Tuesday. “In a dance, it takes two to tango. And it has been difficult to find a beat, to find a rhythm and to find the same sense of urgency [from the league], just to be frank, to get this done.”
The WNBA countered that assertion in a statement provided to ESPN, saying that the league’s most recent proposal was made on Oct. 1 and that the WNBPA just responded to it on Monday.
“We have been negotiating with the Players Association in good faith and with urgency for several months with the goal of finalizing a new collective bargaining agreement as quickly as possible,” a WNBA spokesperson said. “Throughout this process, we have been clear that our top priority is reaching a new collective bargaining agreement that addresses players’ ask for significant increases in pay, benefits and enhancements to their experience, while ensuring the long-term growth and success of the league and its teams.
“We urge the Players Association to spend less time disseminating public misinformation and more time joining us in constructive engagement across the table.”
Public spats between the WNBA and WNBPA have only escalated in recent weeks as Friday’s expiration date approaches. Last week, the sides exchanged sharp words in a flurry of statements following NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s comments on the “TODAY Show” that WNBA players will get a “big increase” in salaries while pointing to “absolute numbers” as the way to measure that growth as opposed to share of revenue. The primary sticking point in negotiations has been how to determine a model for salaries and revenue distribution.
The league has said that “the Players Association has yet to offer a viable economic proposal and has repeatedly refused to engage in any meaningful way on many of our proposal terms,” and that it has offered an uncapped revenue sharing model that is directly tied to the league’s performance.
The union has countered those claims, saying the league has “run out the clock, put lipstick on a pig and retread a system that isn’t tied to any part of the business and intentionally undervalues the players. The fact that the league now wants to call any part of its proposal ‘uncapped’ is precisely why its leadership, transparency and accountability are being challenged right now.”
