With the deadline for a new collective bargaining agreement looming and a deal not close to being reached, the WNBA proposed to players a 30-day extension to continue negotiations for a new deal, sources confirmed to The Post Tuesday night.
It’s unclear, though, whether the WNBA players association will agree to the extension.
As of now, the CBA is set to expire Friday and players have been bracing for a potential work stoppage as several big issues, including revenue sharing, remain unsettled.
The last time a new CBA was brokered in 2019, the two sides agreed to a 60-day extension and finalized an agreement in January 2020.
As of Tuesday night, a union source told The Post and other outlets that “the players may be willing to consider an extension under the right circumstances,” which they say “do not yet exist.”
The Post’s question on what exactly the “right circumstances” would be was left unanswered as of this story’s publication.
The unresolved CBA matter was in the news earlier Tuesday, when WNBPA senior advisor and legal counsel Erin D. Drake said on The Athletic’s “No Offseason” podcast that an agreement wouldn’t be reached by the Friday deadline.
“We have worked hard to be able to say on Friday, we did it. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen,” Drake said on the podcast. “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 said in a statement that it’s been negotiating in “good faith and with urgency for several months.”
The league said its most recent proposal was submitted Oct. 1, and the WNBPA hadn’t responded to it until Monday.
“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,” a WNBA spokesperson said. “We urge the players association to spend less time disseminating public misinformation and more time joining us in constructive engagement across the table.”
The simmering clash between players and WNBA leadership, led by commissioner Cathy Engelbert, has boiled over into public view over the past few months and was stoked yet again last week following Adam Silver’s comments on NBC’s “Today” show.
Silver said WNBA players would see a “big increase” in salaries under the new CBA, but said it would be looking at the “absolute numbers” to measure that growth as opposed to share of revenue.
One of the most contentious topics in the labor talks has centered on player salaries and creating a robust revenue-sharing model where those salaries reflect the business’ growth.
A day after Silver’s comments went viral, Jackson issued a statement, saying, in part, “You know they know it’s bad when the best they say they can do is more of the same: a fixed salary system and a separate revenue-sharing plan that only includes a piece of a piece of the pie, and pays themselves [the league] back first. … We’ve come to the table prepared to do business. They’ve responded with bad math and are hoping everyone doesn’t understand what ‘uncapped’ actually means.”
The WNBA countered, saying the players union has “yet to offer a viable economic proposal and has repeatedly refused to engage in any meaningful way on many of our proposal terms.”
