'Groundbreaking' agreement will improve pay and quality of life for WNBA players
In what the WNBA is calling a "groundbreaking" announcement, the professional women's basketball league and its players' union have agreed to terms of a new eight-year Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The new agreement, pending formal approval, will provide increased pay for players, better travel accommodations, paid maternity leave and numerous additional benefits that will improve quality of life and work.
The average cash compensation for players will be $130,000, with top players able to earn more than $500,000 annually, more than triple the maximum earnings possible last season.
“What we have here is a multidimensional pay structure as well as benefit structure,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told the New York Times. “We’ve really gone all out here. We’re making a big bet on this league, a big bet on women, and that in professional sports, that the WNBA can lead the way.”
Finer points of the CBA:
- Maximum player salary increases from $117,500 to $215,000.
- Marketing deals up to $250,000 and bonus incentives could push earnings to over $500,000.
- Maternity leave paid with full salary.
- Dedicated space in arenas for nursing mothers.
- $5,000 child care stipend.
- Reimbursement up to $60,000 for adoption, surrogacy, egg freezing and fertility treatment.
- All players receive premium economy class seats on flights for regular-season travel.
- Each players gets an individual hotel room on road trips.
- Offseason job opportunities to help players prepare for life after basketball.
- Enhanced mental health benefits and resources.
Perhaps most importantly, the agreement would allow for a 50-50 revenue share between the league and players starting in 2021 if the league reaches revenue growth targets from broadcast agreements, marketing partnerships and licensing deals.
According to the New York Times, NBA players receive about a 50-50 revenue split with the NBA, while the WNBA only shares approximately 20-30 percent of revenue with players.
The improved travel accommodations come following years of debacles that have left teams sleeping in terminals and enduring travel nightmares. Last season, the Indiana Fever played in Seattle on a Sunday and had to travel through a connecting flight to Atlanta to get back to Indiana to face the Minnesota Lynx that Tuesday.
But a flight crew was late for one flight, causing a big delay that led to them missing their connecting flight out of Atlanta. They were forced to take a bus – an 8-hour ride – to Indianapolis. The bus ride featured two delays, one for a mechanical issue and another for a bus driver switch after the original driver reached an hours limit.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.