Despite an all-night negotiating session, Tuesday’s self-imposed deadline for starting the WNBA season on time came and went without a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement.
The marathon 12-hour confab at the Langham Hotel in Midtown included Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike, Bri Turner, and Alysha Clark from the union as well as WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, head of league operations Bethany Donaphin and Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai on the league side, according to reporters on the sidewalk scene.
Given the wiggle room in the countdown to the scheduled May 8 season opener — allowing time for legal vetting of the CBA, a two-team expansion draft, a college draft, a super-sized free agency and training camps — there remains hope of pulling off an on-time start.
“We’ve got to get it done soon,” Engelbert said after she emerged in the early-morning hours, per multiple reports.
Asked about the timeline, WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said: “The only thing I’m going to say on that is the conversations are continuing.”
Though they departed without a deal, there was a sense from both sides of progress.
“I would describe the last 10 or 11 hours as a lot of conversation going in the right direction,” Jackson told reporters.
Engelbert’s assessment: “It’s complex. We’re working towards a win-win deal like we’ve been saying, a transformational deal for these players that balances all the things we’ve been trying to balance with continued investment by our owners, et cetera. So we’re working hard towards that, and we still have work to do.”
