The WNBA and its players union met for marathon labour negotiations in Manhattan, as a league-imposed deadline came and went.
The sides gathered at a midtown Manhattan hotel in the early evening on Tuesday for a meeting that went well past midnight into Wednesday. Last week in Miami, two of the WNBA’s biggest stars said the players and the league should meet for a marathon labour negotiation.
Deadline Passes as Talks Continue
The league had said that its deadline for starting the season on time was March 10. The negotiations began shortly after 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday and were still going as of 2:00 a.m. Wednesday.
The league communicated the deadline in recent weeks. Leagues have a history of imposing aggressive deadlines on unions only to retract them when negotiations come down to brass tacks.
Key Figures Present at Negotiations
The main figures on both sides were present at the luxury hotel on Tuesday night. With reporters from Front Office Sports and other outlets staked outside of The Langham hotel, just blocks south of the NBA league office, few details trickled out of the lengthy session.
- Breanna Stewart
- Alysha Clark
- Nneka Ogwumike
- Bri Turner
These players represented the players union as they have throughout talks, and were joined by lawyers and administrators from both sides, along with billionaire Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai.
The Divide Over Revenue Sharing
The divide between the players and owners has remained the same for over a year: how to share the enormous amount of new money flooding into the WNBA. The league eventually conceded to players on sharing a percentage of revenue, but the sides remained far apart in recent weeks on how to calculate that revenue, and what percentage of it would go to players.
This is a developing story and will be updated.