WNBA players opt out of CBA, can start negotiating sooner

NEW YORK (AP) >> WNBA players have opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement that runs through October 2021.

The players’ union announced the decision Thursday. The current CBA is still in effect for next season, but the move allows the players’ union to start negotiating the new one now. The new agreement would go into effect for the 2020 season during an Olympic year.

“We look forward to our upcoming discussions and negotiating a new agreement with the league,” the union said in a statement.

The league has seen growth in many areas since the current CBA went into effect in 2014. Television ratings this season were the league’s best in four years. The WNBA started live streaming games on Twitter and partnered with one- day daily fantasy sites. Players appeared in a video game for the first time.

That hasn’t translated into the league and its owners making money. According to the WNBA, it’s lost a significant amount over the last 22 years, including $12 million last season.

“On average (we’ve lost) over $10 million every year we’ve operated,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver told the AP in a phone interview this week.

The top salary for a veteran WNBA player is $115,500. Travel woes and player fatigue came to the forefront last season when the schedule was crammed into 13 weeks because of the FIBA Women’s World Cup. It was three weeks shorter than the 2017 season. The Las Vegas Aces forfeited a game against Washington when the team endured 26 hours of travel and didn’t arrive in D.C. until a few hours before the scheduled tip.

Players have discussed flying on charter planes, but the league says the cost is prohibitive.

Silver said the league could be amenable to chartering at appropriate times. In 2013, the league approved New York taking a charter flight to Indiana for a game when all other flight options were exhausted. For the Aces, no charter flight was avail- able during its travel woes, according to the team. A compromise between the current state of travel and chartering f lights, such as getting TSA PreCheck, would help.

WNBAPA president Nneka Ogwumike wrote a story on the Players’ Tribune about why the players decided to opt out.

“This is not just about business. This is deeply personal. This is about the kind of world we want to live in,” Ogwumike wrote. “I am an elite athlete. I am an MVP. I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am a No. 1 draft pick. I am a WNBA player and I am the president of the WNBPA. And I want young female athletes to dream about playing in a vibrant and thriving WNBA.”