Its January 11
- Thread starter NCHawker
- Start date
No new agreement between the league and the player's union to restructure the player salaries has been reached. They had a deadline to reach an accord, but then extended it. That date has passed without any visible progress. Until there's an agreement, the WNBA season cannot start. As such, since the season might be delayed, no schedules can be established.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
The fact that they think they have a leg to stand on to restructure a deal is unbelievable. What company that loses money is going to cave into the people they lose money to and subsidize them more. These women act like they a key cog in holding the NBA up. They are literally a pain in the ass to the NBA but demanding they get similar pay. So laughable.
Fryowa
Administrator
I would write the following on the back of a gas station postcard and drop it in the regular mail:
To whom it may concern:
Re: Current WNBA CBA Negotiations
Please accept the below correspondence as our final offer. Should this offer be rejected, we (WNBA) will consider this matter closed and all current contracts and agreements satisfied upon the expiration dates of their respective terms.
The WNBA hereby offers to teams included in the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) one--and only one--of the following two options:
1) A 10% share of the total season-ending operating revenue to be divided equally amongst all teams included in the proposed CBA.
2) A 95% share of the total season-ending league net profit to be divided equally amongst all teams included in the proposed CBA.
Should you find this unsatisfactory, we respectfully encourage you to get completely bent, and forward any notice of suit to WNBA league offices located at the address listed below. Attached you will find an invoice for $0.78 which will serve as reimbursement of mailing expenses. As a gesture of cordiality we have decided to absorb the purchase price of this postcard.
Yours in Christ,
The National Basketball Association, dba "WNBA"
There is a lot going on with the analysis of WNBA profitability and the "fair" amount players should be paid.
WNBA teams operate in a deficit and are subsidized by the NBA. But, the NBA does this for a reason...it grows their audience and brings in downstream revenue, just not in an easily quantifiable way.
WNBA viewership has nearly tripled over the past 2 years. Franchise valuations have gone through the roof (Golden State Valkyries sold for $500 million). They have signed lucrative broadcasting deals. They have young stars (Clark, Bueckers, Reese) with more on the way (Watkins, Hidalgo, Fudd). Clark has an endorsement portfolio into the 8-figure range, and I would guess Bueckers and Watkins could approach that.
The WNBA is on a steep upward trajectory, and it could absolutely become a money-maker. Much depends upon Clark...if she is consistently healthy and competing for championships, the audience will stay strong. The worst thing they could do at this point is experience a work-stoppage; for players, that would be the quintessential example of murdering the golden goose. We are talking an order of magnitude worse than the 1994 MLB strike, because in this case the WNBA would be killing its profitability before it even emerged.
I think they are smart enough to realize this. There are better, realistic revenue sharing models than what they have: https://sports-entertainment.brooklaw.edu/sports/rethinking-revenue-sharing-in-the-wnba/
Hopefully they figure out the CBA thing. Then, work on the officiating and the marketing.
WNBA teams operate in a deficit and are subsidized by the NBA. But, the NBA does this for a reason...it grows their audience and brings in downstream revenue, just not in an easily quantifiable way.
WNBA viewership has nearly tripled over the past 2 years. Franchise valuations have gone through the roof (Golden State Valkyries sold for $500 million). They have signed lucrative broadcasting deals. They have young stars (Clark, Bueckers, Reese) with more on the way (Watkins, Hidalgo, Fudd). Clark has an endorsement portfolio into the 8-figure range, and I would guess Bueckers and Watkins could approach that.
The WNBA is on a steep upward trajectory, and it could absolutely become a money-maker. Much depends upon Clark...if she is consistently healthy and competing for championships, the audience will stay strong. The worst thing they could do at this point is experience a work-stoppage; for players, that would be the quintessential example of murdering the golden goose. We are talking an order of magnitude worse than the 1994 MLB strike, because in this case the WNBA would be killing its profitability before it even emerged.
I think they are smart enough to realize this. There are better, realistic revenue sharing models than what they have: https://sports-entertainment.brooklaw.edu/sports/rethinking-revenue-sharing-in-the-wnba/
Hopefully they figure out the CBA thing. Then, work on the officiating and the marketing.
Fryowa
Administrator
That may be, but they're still a loooong ways from turning a profit and an even longer ways from being able to support the salaries the players are asking for. The only reason they get paid what they do now is because the NBA is afraid of the DEI, SJW mob that would come after them if they closed the doors.
That team being sold for $500 million is nothing more than some rich folks playing roulette.
And as soon as she's gone it'll tank again. It's a house of cards propped up by something that will only last a few years. We've already seen what happens to attendance and viewership when she's hurt, it'll be even worse when she's gone. People are watching the WNBA for the story, not the product and that's a recipe for failure.
Basketball as a sport is watched by people who want to see a high-quality product. Now your idea and mine of what constitutes a high-quality product are different, no doubt, but at the end of the day watching basketball teams play professionally that would get absolutely dismantled by every average 2A HS boys team in the country is not a recipe for success. There are plenty of viral videos of WNBA players getting lit up by team managers, high school kids, etc. Are there legit super fans who love to watch it? Of course. Are there very many of them? Resounding no.
It's like why women's soccer doesn't get even a tiny fraction of the viewership of men's soccer. The US women's national team got totally disintegrated by a 14u boys amateur squad.
I think the last few years have demonstrated that businessmen/corporations don't really care about DEI or social justice...they only care about the bottom line. Would these so-called SJWs affect their bottom line? If so, they will kow tow to them. Will Trump's threats of using the federal government to harm their business affect their bottom line? If so, they will kow tow to Trump.
But I really don't think they are subsidizing this league to appease the SJWs, because frankly I don't think a few loud people on twitter are going to impact their bottom line. They are subsidizing the WNBA because they think it is smart, long-term business. Maybe because of a long-range revenue payoff. Maybe because of marketing to a broader base. Maybe because the boost in image for seeming to care about social issues had a payoff. But nobody was forcing them to do this, they ultimately have felt this was in their best interest for one reason or another.
Fryowa
Administrator
Just like anything else in the social media era, all it ever takes is a tiny little kindling of a few twigs to start an out of control forest fire. If the NBA came out and said we're shutting the doors, the backlash would be absolutely monumental. Look at what one single ad did to Bud Light a couple years ago and all of a sudden everyone and their brother got political and started boycotting, going berserk on social media, and their bottom line took a huge hit. It's be the same thing here only worse and the NBA knows it.
trj
Well-Known Member
I don’t know what the magic number is… in terms of revenue split. 80/20? 70/30? 60/40? IMO, they do need to play this year. “Out of sight, out of mind” is something they can’t afford, despite the recent increase in popularity. The WNBAPA representative(no clue what her name is) is up against it in negotiations, because she has nooo leverage. I understand rejecting the “be happy what we pay you” thought process, but she is going to need to find some middle ground somewhere.
