Report: WNBPA, WNBA offer bids for CBA talks

The WNBA could still avoid a lockout for a few more weeks.

With the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement set to expire Sunday at 11:59 p.m. ET, the players’ association proposed a six-week extension to the league to avoid a lockout and continue negotiations on a new contract, ESPN’s Alexa Philippou reported Sunday.

In response, the league proposed a 21-day extension and the two sides are debating the length of the extension.

If an extension is agreed to, it would mark the second extension in CBA talks that began on Oct. 31 after a 30-day push-back was agreed to.

“We expect significant movement from the league within this window,” the players’ association said in a statement to ESPN.

According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, the players’ union initially discussed the proposal of just a 24-hour extension, but opted for a longer deadline.

Although the two sides have been locked in talks for the past 30 days, nothing has been agreed upon.

Steps have been taken. An Associated Press report in mid-November said the WNBA proposed a revenue-sharing system that would be available to more than one player per team with a maximum salary of more than $1.1 million, a number that would increase each year. Additionally, the league minimum will be more than $220,000, with an average of more than $460,000.

Those numbers will begin in the first year of the deal for more than 180 players and will increase over the length of the CBA.

However, ESPN later reported that one player called the proposed deal from the league a “slap in the face.”

In 2019, when the last CBA deal expired, the sides agreed to a 60-day extension and finally ratified the current CBA in January 2020.

Players exercised their right to opt out of the current CBA last year, with hopes of getting, among other things, revenue sharing, higher salaries, better benefits and a softer salary cap.

The players have already been paid for the previous season and have health insurance until April 30, 2026. There are no significant events for the league on the immediate horizon until the expansion draft for new teams, Portland and Toronto. The expansion draft for Golden State took place last December.

– With files from The Associated Press