NEW YORK (AP) — WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Friday night that progress is being made toward a new collective bargaining agreement with the players' union and there's an urgency to get a deal done by Monday to avoid disruptions to the upcoming season.
"I've never been a betting woman in my life and I'm not going to start now. But we have to get a deal done by Monday," Engelbert said during a break in in-person negotiations. "We have to get it done without disrupting some part of the fact that we've got to run this two team expansion (draft). We have to get expansion going. We got to get free agency going. We gotta get the college draft."
The union concurred that there has been movement towards a new CBA and there seems to be a sense of urgency on both sides since the start of in-person meetings.
"We have been there committed round the clock and speaking very passionately and factually," players' union executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said. "As long as movement keeps us going in a forward direction, then I think we’re good."
The two sides have spent approximately 50 hours discussing a new CBA since first getting together in person on Tuesday — the day the league had originally said there would need to be at least a handshake agreement for the season to start on time.
"It's day four and there's been movement, I think the league and particularly the commissioner and her team have heard that transformational remains the goal," Jackson said. "Salaries would be tied to revenue in a meaningful way is the players' top priority or one of their top priorities."
There's still a lot of work to get done. Revenue sharing has been the biggest difference for the two sides.
"We're trying to put a package together, salaries and benefits and all the other things the players want and deserve, and I want for them to," Engelbert said. "I said, I want all these things for the players. ... make it a package that meets our objectives of a transformational deal."
While league proposals have always been using net revenue — revenue after expenses — and union ones have talked about gross revenue — revenue before expenses — Jackson feels they have been on similar pages.
"Conversations have helped us kind of chip away at what the concerns are for both sides and how we meet them and how we address them," Jackson said.
The union started asking for 40% of gross revenue and had come down to 26% before the marathon in-person bargaining sessions. The league had been offering over 70% net revenue for the players.
"I think we both always understood each other," Jackson said. "Now we have to continue to do the dance and see where that nets out."
Jackson said the sides have been addressing some of the other issues as well over the last two days. Thursday's negotiating session lasted 16 hours, ending at 3 a.m. ET. They were back at it on Friday seven hours later and finished for the day just after midnight. The sides planned to meet again Saturday.
"I think we must have reached agreement on some things," Jackson said on other CBA items without offering specifics.
Jackson said the pace has sped up a bit over the last few days with a sense of urgency by both sides. There have been many more small group conversations over the last couple days which has helped facilitate things. Jackson said that was key to getting the previous CBA done.
Besides revenue sharing, other key items have included housing, franchise tags for players and retirement benefits for players.
Union executive committee vice president Napheesa Collier arrived Friday night to join the negotiations in person. She joined with union president Nneka Oguwmike and vice president Breanna Stewart. Other executive committee members Alysha Clark and Brianna Turner left earlier in the day.
When a deal is reached in principle, the league has said it would need a few weeks to finish off the CBA. There's a lot that needs to be done after that. In a timetable obtained by the AP that was attached to getting a deal done by last Tuesday, the expansion draft for new franchises in Portland and Toronto would be held sometime between April 1-6.
Free agent qualifying offers, including franchise player tags, would be sent out April 7-8. Teams would then have three days to negotiate with the more than 80% of players who are free agents. The signing period would take place from April 12-18.
Training camps would open the next day and the season would be able to start May 8.
