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Alexa Filippo
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday that WNBA players will get a “big increase” in pay in their new collective bargaining agreement, but he pointed to “absolute numbers” as a way to measure that increase as opposed to a share of revenue.
“I think that’s not the right way to look at the stock because there’s a lot of revenue in the NBA,” Silver said on the “Today Show.” “I think you have to look at the absolute numbers in terms of what they’re making. They’re going to get a big raise in this round of collective bargaining and they deserve it.”
The WNBPA abandoned the existing collective bargaining agreement a year ago this week and has been negotiating a new agreement since then, as the current deal is set to expire in less than two weeks on Oct. 31.
On an Instagram Story, the WNBPA reposted a clip of Silver’s comments, in which he repeatedly repeats, “I think sharing is not the right way to look at this” and the caption, “Don’t want to share?” While tagging Silver.
Players have said that a major obstacle to negotiations is that each side believes player salaries should be determined in different ways amid a tremendous era of league growth.
Players are pushing for a system in which the percentage of revenue going toward salaries increases with business – similar to the NBA, where the salary cap is set by basketball-related income (BRI), with players taking home about half of that figure set by their CBA.
Players say that, by contrast, the league’s proposals include a salary cap that increases at a fixed rate over time, as is the case in the current CBA, where the cap increases by 3% annually.
phoenix mercury‘S Satou Sabli Said during the WNBA Finals that a recent proposal by the league makes players feel as if “we’re not a part of the growth of the league.”
“If we continue with this CBA, percentage wise we will go down [compensation]” Sabli said.
The league’s salary cap in 2025 was $1,507,100, with a maximum of $249,244 and a minimum of $66,079.
The WNBA has experienced record growth over the past two years, with attendance, viewership, merchandise sales, investments and franchise valuations increasing and a new $2.2 billion media deal in the works.
When asked during the Finals about what the players and owners were not eye-to-eye on in CBA negotiations, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert spoke on the importance of “balancing” player salary increases with “the long-term viability of the league.”
“That’s what we’re going to have to do by going back and forth and deciding where the right balance is,” Engelbart said. “I think we all agree that we’re trying to return every possible dollar to the players, but we also want to encourage investment from the owners. We want the owners to have a viable business. Obviously, we’re looking at expanding to 18 teams by the end of the decade. So it’s important that the incoming owners have a viable economic model for the future.”
If the two sides do not reach an agreement by Halloween, they could agree to an extension that would allow them to continue bargaining, as they did for the last CBA that was ultimately signed in January 2020.
A new CBA must be put in place before a two-team expansion draft can be held for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, and must also occur before a free agency period where most of the league’s veteran players are unrestricted free agents.
