WNBA Union Calls on Nobel-Winning Economist in CBA Talks

Yahoo

11-07-2025

Claudia Goldin is best known for her research of gender wage gaps and labor force earnings in the U.S., for which she won the Nobel Prize in economics. The 79-year-old Harvard labor economist admits she doesn't follow basketball closely beyond what her husband Lawrence shares.
Yet Goldin is eagerly assisting the Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) as an unpaid consultant during collective bargaining negotiations.
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The Bronx, N.Y., native received a cold email from WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson and was intrigued by the collision of the league's rising business profile with its labor tensions and other growing pains.
'I help Terri think and calm her,' Goldin said in a phone interview. 'I'm not a major league [expert]. They have real people who know the ropes. I don't know the ropes, but I do know some economics.'
Goldin has been involved in multiple union meetings where she provides feedback on confidential numbers and data points highlighted in the current CBA, as well as prospective proposals for the next accord. She's being asked to interpret and analyze various salary-related figures throughout the negotiations. The WNBPA and WNBA are four months away from the Oct. 31 expiry of their current CBA.
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Phoenix Mercury star and CBA committee member Satou Sabally told reporters Tuesday that the league's recent counter proposal was a 'slap in the face.' Sabally said it's important to put 'emphasis on the players that are in our league right now.' Her comments came the same week the W announced it will expand to 18 teams by 2030.
Goldin said the expansion news gives reason to further push back against team owners, who have pointed to years of financial losses to curb the prospect of seven-figure salaries. The Washington Post previously reported the league and its teams lost more than $40 million last season. Goldin isn't buying sour economic projections, though, especially as new media deals worth $2.2 billion are set to kick in next season.
'If team owners were losing so much money, then why is someone paying $250 million for a team?' Goldin asked, referring to the current expansion fee. 'There have been equity sales that have gone for enormous amounts. If they're losing money, why is so much being paid for parts of them?'
Goldin, who recently penned an opinion piece on this subject for The New York Times, said her goal is to help create an equitable labor accord that reflects the demand for players. The NBA, which owns more than 40% of the WNBA, pays players 51% of basketball-related income, which is gross operating revenue gained by the league and its teams. Goldin says the strict definition of BRI in the NBA CBA provides a key advantage over the women counterparts, who receive 50% of incremental revenue, defined as earnings that exceed set certain growth targets.
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Having such contrasting equity structures is unjust, she said, as WNBA franchises sell for record numbers on the backs of player performance and off-court influence.
'In a company that's growing rapidly, who gets the fruits of the increased value of equity? It's never the laborers, since they're considered to be replaceable,' Goldin said. 'But this is a case in which you almost want ownership by the players. … They create the value, so they should have a large piece of the increased equity.'
Goldin says it's been a 'steep learning curve' operating in basketball union circles. She selectively finds times to chime in during meetings. Recently, get-togethers have mostly entailed union and league lawyers combing over proposal details.
In the meantime, she is absorbing more about a sport she didn't get to play at the Bronx High School of Science. Along with her husband, another Harvard economics professor, Goldin plans to attend the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis on July 19. That weekend, she will meet with more players as they push for a CBA that will usher in a new era for women's basketball.
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And Goldin can boast of at least one sports accomplishment of her own when speaking with those athletes: She said one of her proudest moments was delivering a strike when she tossed the first pitch before a Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees game last July. 'I nailed it,' she said.
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