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June 25 – As the WNBA celebrates report attendance, rising TV rankings, and the addition of the Golden State Valkyries, its gamers are demanding a bigger share of the league’s rising income, citing disparities in pay and broadcast earnings in comparison with their NBA counterparts.
The league’s current $2.2 billion media rights deal, spanning 11 years, pales compared to the NBA’s $76 billion bundle, which prompted the Women’s National Basketball Players Association to decide out of its Collective Bargaining Agreement two years forward of schedule.
“Men’s sports have a revenue-based salary system – we deserve the same,” the WNBPA stated through social media on Monday. “We’re fighting for a fair share of the revenue we generate. Fair is fair.”
Under the present framework, WNBA gamers obtain between 20-25% of basketball-related earnings, far under the NBA’s approximate 50%. Salaries vary from $66,000 to $250,000 yearly, dwarfed by the NBA’s common participant earnings of $10 million.
“We have women out here who know the business,” Nneka Ogwumike, president of the WNBPA, informed reporters at a press convention after her Seattle Storm beat the New York Liberty 89–79 on Sunday.
“We understand where our league has been and where it’s going. We want to represent ourselves and our value in the same way that we do on the court.”
The disconnect between broadcast income and participant compensation lies on the coronary heart of the dispute, in line with Jane McManus, a New York University professor and ladies’s sports activities author.
As negotiations turn out to be a zero-sum recreation, the NBA’s 42% possession stake – as soon as a lifeline – now faces scrutiny as probably constraining the ladies’s recreation from realising its full financial potential.
“Negotiations of media rights are incredibly important. That’s why I think the WNBA players pulled out of the CBA early, because they felt they had not been maximising revenue,” McManus informed Reuters.
“Without the NBA’s investment there wouldn’t be a league today, but theoretically, the WNBA is strong enough now to negotiate independently,” she added.
The WNBA and the WNBPA didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
HIGH-VALUE NEGOTIATIONS UNDERWAY
Some gamers have been exploring various pathways to elevated pay. Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier launched Unrivaled, an low season 3-on-3 league providing salaries averaging $222,000 – exceeding what many WNBA gamers earn.
Chicago Sky ahead Angel Reese has hinted at extra dramatic measures. “I’m hearing that if the league doesn’t give us what we want, we’re sitting out,” she stated on her podcast in March.
With the present settlement expiring after the 2025 season, the spectre of a 2026 lockout looms if neither aspect compromises – probably echoing the NBA’s bruising five-month standoff in 2011.
A brand new CBA represents extra than simply discussions about income, in line with girls’s sport researcher Risa Isard.
“Talks have been held about a more comprehensive pension package, solidifying the charter flight agreements and increasing support for the ones with children,” Isard informed Reuters. “I hope that this CBA will lay the foundation for the next chapter.”
Despite the tensions, president Ogwumike expressed cautious optimism in regards to the negotiations.
“Everybody wants to go to the same place. Everyone just has a different idea of how we get there. But it definitely starts with valuing the players in a way that makes sense for what we’re doing out here, and also makes sense for the people that follow us and the fans supporting us,” she stated.
With the league’s current development, the Storm ahead underscored the necessity for compensation to mirror the WNBA’s upward trajectory. “We’ve seen a lot of growth recently, so we have to see that reflected in how we’re compensated,” she stated.
This article was generated from an automatic information company feed with out modifications to textual content.
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