The WNBA and its players are on a collision course over revenue, and with a strike looming, the players may be the ones who stand to lose more than Cathy Engelbert. Basketball insider Ramona Shelburne feels the strike can have adverse consequences on one set more than the other.
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“There is nothing happening now, if they were to ‘strike’, well, what are you striking? They’re not missing any games. Like, the only thing a strike would do is make it so they don’t get their health benefits anymore. That doesn’t do anything right? There’s no pain point or pressure point. I guess, we’ve already missed free agency.”
“But the only thing you really start to miss is when you get closer and closer to that draft in April. So we’re still a really long way away from those pressure points, and I think the union knows that the league knows that, and everybody understands that we’re getting uncomfortable,” said Shelburne.
Shelburne’s comments clearly indicate how the pressure would fall on the players more than on Cathy Engelbert. Striking now would also defear the purpose, as the games supposedly start in May with the pre-season happening in the latter half of April. In labor negotiations, leverage is only gained when you can disrupt business. Offseason chaos doesn’t pull strings in your favor.
The first real pain point in negotiations is “free agency,” when player movement and contracts are supposed to happen, and when that is pushed back, both players and teams suffer, not the commissioner, Cathy Engelbert. With the draft happening in April, which is crucial for roster building, a delay can hamper the proceedings.
So what does it mean for the future? The league recently rejected the WNBPA’s latest proposal.
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While the league is willing to grant the housing concessions, it’s the revenue sharing that is still proving to be problematic to resolve. The WNBA is still not convinced that the amount being asked for by the union is feasible by any means and labeled the demands as “unrealistic.”
“The Players Association’s latest proposal remains unrealistic and would cause hundreds of millions of dollars of losses to our teams. We still need to complete two drafts and free agency before the start of training camp, and we are running out of time. We believe the WNBA’s proposal would result in a huge win for current players and generations to come,” a WNBA spokesperson spilled the beans to ESPN’s Alexa Phillippou.
This also comes at a time when the union had decided to lower its revenue-sharing ask. From a 30%, the players have gone down to 27.5%, but even that doesn’t cut it for Cathy Engelbert and the league.
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Apr 14, 2025; New York, New York, USA; WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert talks to the media before the 2025 WNBA Draft at The Shed at Hudson Yards. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
The WNBA is ready to give away 70% of the net revenue (which comes after expenses are deducted) and a $5.65 million salary cap. As such, the newest counter-proposal doesn’t really bring about any change to the revenue figures for the players.
And so no decision has been reached as of yet. Despite multiple rounds of talks, proposals have neither been accepted nor validated, which keeps everything at a standstill. So what do the players do in this scenario?
Do they count their losses and get back into the swing of things without hampering other financial gains? Or do they stand together, going toe-to-toe till their demands are fully met? Well, we are bound to find out how things play out in a couple of weeks.