Why the WNBA Could Be Headed for a Lockout

Athlon Sports

WNBA stars protest low pay amid record growth—could a league lockout be on the way?

Transcript

00:00Could the WNBA be headed to a lockout?

00:03Over the weekend during the warm-ups of the All-Star Game,

00:05over 40 WNBA players wore pay-us-what-you-ow-us t-shirts,

00:10putting pressure on the WNBA to come to the table with better terms

00:15for their collective bargaining agreement that is set to expire at the end of October.

00:19Essentially, the league has grown by multitudes in many different metrics over the past few years,

00:26due to players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese coming into the league

00:30and skyrocketing engagement from fans.

00:33Attendance is up 13% year-over-year, and ticket sales have grown 26%.

00:39The average attendance for a game grew to 11,000 this year, which is up from 5,600 in 2022.

00:46Even All-Star voting soared, with 1.29 million votes in this year, compared to 96,000 in 2023.

00:55But a big topic has been these expansion fees.

00:58Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia are all set to join the WNBA between 2028 and 2030,

01:04and each of those expansion fees has been $250 million.

01:08Remember in 2023, the Golden State Valkyries were acquired for $50 million in expansion fees,

01:15so that's already five times the growth.

01:17Not only that, the average WNBA franchise is valued at $269 million, which is up 180% year-over-year,

01:26and the Golden State Valkyries that were bought for $50 million are now worth over $500 million.

01:32So what are the players demanding in the CBA negotiations?

01:35First, a major increase in revenue sharing.

01:38WNBA players currently receive 9.3% of the revenue, whereas in the NBA, players share 50% of basketball-related income.

01:48So the revenue sharing is a little bit complicated because the WNBA owners only own around 42% of the league,

01:56and that 42% is really where the revenue gets divvied up, where there's other investors within the league itself.

02:03To get to that 50% mark is going to be a little more difficult,

02:08but what the player association is looking for is a flexible revenue sharing model

02:13that increases the percentage over time as the business grows,

02:17and not a fixed percentage moving forward like they have been in the past.

02:22It's important to remember that the WNBA league minimum is around $66,000,

02:27with the maximum being around $249,000,

02:30whereas in the NBA, the league minimum is $1.27 million.

02:35Other priorities for the players association is better travel logistics and expanded rosters.

02:42The league is also interested in coming to the table and figuring this out

02:45because no one wants a lockout,

02:47and especially with other competitive leagues popping up overseas

02:51or even domestically with things like Unrivaled,

02:54there could be other places that WNBA players could go if it does come to a lockout.

02:59Here's what Nafisa Collier had to say about the protest after the game.

03:04You have the players of what is what is building this brand and this league.

03:09We feel like we are only a piece of that pie that we helped to create.

03:13Well, there appeared to be a little bit of division after the game

03:16as to who came up with the protest.

03:18The t-shirt, just United Front, was determined this morning

03:24that we had a meeting for.

03:26And, you know, not to, not to tattletale,

03:29but zero members of Team Clark were very present for that.

03:34The players showed a United Front,

03:36and the fans were completely behind them during the game.

03:39Thank you to the whole game.

03:40Thank you to the whole game.

03:41Oh, that's right now.

03:43So, what happens now?

03:45So, the negotiations are going to continue until October 31st,

03:48when that new deadline is going to be reached for the new CBA.

03:53And if the negotiations are stalled, then we could see a lockout.

03:57If you remember 2011, the NBA had an extended lockout

04:00that saw a season start much later,

04:03and there's only around 66 games, which were much more tightly packed.

04:07And you saw players like LeBron and DeMar DeRozan playing in the Drew League

04:12during that time where they were locked out.

04:14So, we could see a similar thing happen with the WNBA.

04:17Let us know what you think about this in the comments below.

04:19Like the video and subscribe for more WNBA content.

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