Latest news with #TerriJackson
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
What are WNBA players seeking in the next collective bargaining agreement?
For 18 months leading up to last October's opt-out deadline for the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement, executive director of the players association Terri Jackson heard a consistent drumbeat about what the league's players wanted to prioritize. Fair wages, consistent codified minimum work standards and expanded retirement benefits were among players' demands. In an era of explosive growth for the WNBA, players' desire for meaningful changes increased, too. So it came as no surprise that just days after the 2024 WNBA season ended, players opted out of the current CBA three years before its expiration. Advertisement The current CBA, agreed to in January 2020, created significant shifts in the WNBA. Maximum player salary jumped from $117,500 to more than $200,000. Groundbreaking maternity benefits were enacted, and granular aspects of the player experience were adjusted: For the first time, players would be entitled to individual hotel rooms instead of shared rooms. 'I think what we did last time was right for the time,' Jackson said. 'This has to be different. … This has got to be seen as a moment, as a CBA that is building on the winds of last time and still pushing this league — not just the players but the players and the teams and the league — forward.' The two sides have been negotiating for months. Jackson said league executives and WNBPA leaders talk 'often.' WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike (a Seattle Storm forward) and Jackson said they want the new agreement to be 'transformational.' 'I think the players are in solidarity of what we want and making sure that we're continuing to fight and advocate for our rights and making sure this league is continuing to get better,' said Breanna Stewart, a vice president on the WNBPA's executive committee and New York Liberty forward. The 2025 WNBA season has just begun, but questions about the future of the league are swirling. Here are answers to important questions about where the negotiations stand: Players are coming to the negotiating table with several priorities, including increased salaries, a softened salary cap and more access to family planning services. Retirement benefits that provide long-term security for players and their families are also among key priorities, and standardizing team work environments, including facility and travel accommodations as well as support staff minimums, are on the list too. Jackson said the WNBPA has asked to have a seat at the table for future media rights negotiations, too. Jackson had previously said players should be informed how the deal was valued at $200 million. As is the case across other professional sports leagues, media rights are a significant revenue driver for the WNBA. Advertisement 'We asked to be a part of media rights negotiations (that resulted in last year's agreement),' Jackson said. 'And we are hopeful to be a part of them this next go-round. The commissioner seemed inclined to do that.' Player leadership has been consulting an advisory committee, which is composed of experts in sports and media rights, labor negotiations and economics. Player leadership interviewed and selected the group to inform it on as much as possible across topics. 'The resources are different and make us even stronger this time around,' Jackson said. Engelbert has not publicly commented on what team ownership seeks at the bargaining table. At April's draft, she said she wants 'a fair deal for all, but it has to be within the confines of a sustainable economic model that goes on for 10 years.' Englebert has said she wants to work within the growth framework that allows the league to invest in players. She said introducing full charter travel last season cost more than $20 million. 'That has to be recognized as part of the economic model that we've built,' she said. 'We've had a few years of great growth, hyper-growth, I would call it. But we need to continue to make sure that we can fund the things that the players are asking for, that we want for them, too.' 'We continue to meet regularly and engage in productive discussions with the WNBPA as we work collaboratively toward a new agreement,' a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement to The Athletic. In the last agreement, owners successfully pushed for league prioritization in a clause that forces most players competing internationally to return for the start of WNBA training camp or face suspension. Prioritization would seemingly remain important as owners are likely to try to keep this clause in the CBA as it helps bolster the WNBA talent pool at the start of the season. Advertisement Salaries are expected to significantly increase in the upcoming agreement. This year's top four draft picks will make around $79,000. The minimum player salary for a player with three-plus years of service is also around $79,000, with this season's maximum salary around $250,000. In addition to salary increases, protections on players' contracts could be negotiated. The first three seasons of WNBA rookie contracts are unprotected — meaning players are not guaranteed any of their salaries. This creates greater uncertainty for younger players relative to the NBA, where first-round rookie contracts are guaranteed for the first two seasons. Stewart also said she'd like to see developmental roster spots added for practice players who are not on teams' active rosters in the new agreement. If enacted, that would presumably require another salary framework. Stewart said the sides are still in 'preliminary rounds.' Ogwumike seems content with the process so far. 'As a union and as union staff, we're on schedule with where we want to be,' Ogwumike said. Jackson said players have submitted multiple proposals to the league. Engelbert said at the 2025 WNBA Draft that they received partial proposals. Jackson said that she would like to see significant progress made on the deal by the mid-July All-Star break, and a deal finalized, or close to being completed, by the conclusion of the 2025 season in mid-October. 'We're hopeful that the league and the teams are as committed to those due dates for this group project as we are,' she said. The new 3×3 winter professional women's basketball league that debuted last winter does not have a CBA. However, it's hard to overlook the impact the winter league could have on the ongoing talks. Unrivaled is a reminder of what players could be worth in a non-CBA environment. It paid its 30-plus players an average salary of more than $220,000 for a 10-week season and signed a six-figure TV deal ahead of its debut. The league, which provided players with equity, also put a premium on amenities. Advertisement Unrivaled created a private professional training facility in a matter of months and ensured its facility offered numerous childcare options. The league made $27 million in revenue this year, a source with knowledge of its financials said. That's double what league officials had projected last summer, and Unrivaled nearly broke even. 'A league at this level happening in the WNBA offseason built by players, just hitting high marks, and they almost broke even, I am paying attention,' Jackson said. 'I think it adds more detail and more information and context to the business of women's basketball.' While Ogwumike, Jackson and the rest of the WNBPA hope an agreement is in place by Oct. 31, which is the final day of the current agreement, players association leadership has also not ruled out the possibility of a work stoppage. 'The job is to get a CBA done and to get it done on time,' Jackson said. 'We're not interested in doing anything but getting a deal done. The players opted out early, announced early and hit the ground running. And that's what we're doing. We still have time on our side and we're gonna manage that.' As negotiations progress, there's a question about how long any new agreement will be in place. The current agreement included an option for either party to terminate the deal by Nov. 1, 2024, if it didn't want to see the document through until the end of the 2027 season. That seven-year span is consistent with past CBAs the two sides have agreed to. However, Ogwumike acknowledged that an agreement's longevity could change. 'We've only known it to have the statute that it has now,' she said. 'As we've currently known it to be, whenever we do come to an agreement, it probably feels like it's too long. The changes that we're seeking. The changes that the players want, I'm not sure if we would want to lock ourselves into anything that we're not necessarily able to attain for too long.'
New York Post
01-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
WNBA players' union director doesn't rule out work stoppage: ‘As long as it takes'
Women's National Basketball Players Association executive director Terri Jackson said Thursday the union is committed to negotiating 'for as long as it takes' on a new collective bargaining agreement and didn't rule out a potential work stoppage. 'There's no better moment than right now for women's sports and particularly for women's basketball and particularly for us,' Jackson said. 'So are we seizing on every level? Absolutely.' Jackson spoke with reporters, including The Post, for roughly 15 minutes after being featured on a panel about motherhood in sports at the ESPNW Summit, in what was her first detailed update on the ongoing CBA negotiations. The current CBA expires at the end of the 2025 season. Advertisement Increased player salaries, implementing a softened salary cap, expanded rosters, better access to family planning services and players having a seat at the table for media rights negotiations are some of the hot-button issues at the forefront of negotiations. 3 Caitlin Clark dribbles the ball during an Indiana Fever game in 2024. AP The WNBPA has submitted multiple proposals to the league as of Thursday, Jackson said. The goal is to have made 'significant progress' in hammering out the new deal by WNBA All-Star, which is scheduled for July 18-19, and to have a deal finalized by the time the current deal expires at the end of this season. Advertisement 'We've been aggressive in terms of our discussions, our proposals – plural – and our meeting schedule,' Jackson said. 'It's a group project. We've doing our part of it, and we're just hopeful that the league sees the opportunity to have those kinds of milestones really in place, like work towards significant progress. It's not just a catch phrase – significant progress by the halfway points and work toward completion by Oct. 31.' CBA negotiations will continue to be a major storyline for the upcoming WNBA season, which opens May 17. A work stoppage is not out of the question if they can't reach a deal. The WNBA didn't immediately return The Post's request for comment. WNBA players opted out of the current CBA last October, giving the league and WNBPA more than a year to hash out a new deal. Advertisement The current CBA, which was agreed to in 2020, was lauded as historic. It drastically increased players' salaries and improved other benefits. But the new contract is expected to upstage the previous deal in a lot of ways. 3 WNBA union director Terri Jackson is pictured in 2022. AFP via Getty Images Jackson said the WNBPA is also hoping to restructure the current hard salary cap. 'There might be one exception and that's certainly not enough,' Jackson said. Advertisement WNBA player benefits include family planning services, which offers a stipend and other resources for veterans with at least eight years of service. Jackson said the players union is hoping to make benefits like that more accessible. Jackson also said it's important for chartered flights to be codified. 'Certainly we can't come this far from last season and this season then start going backwards that won't be accessible,' Jackson said. 'I don't think anybody on the league or the team side wants that.' For example, under the current CBA, if a player gets pregnant while under contract, she would be paid her full salary while on maternity leave. However, her salary would also count toward a team's salary cap in her absence, which complicates matters. 'There are softer exceptions to what we have now that I think play to the league and the team side of the house as much as they do to advantage and benefit the players,' Jackson said. 'We negotiated things that made sense [in 2020] and that we thought were great but as we saw them implemented and we saw them play out, we realized both sides of the table realize there's some give there… There's some cleanup there. We're not going to have it quite that soft, but it certainly has to be softer than where it is.' 3 Sabrina Ionescu celebrates after the New York Liberty won the 2024 WNBA title. Michelle Farsi for the NY Post Jackson said 'there's probably even more' alignment between owners and players in this round of negotiations than in 2020. Still, Jackson believes players have plenty of power in this round of conversations. Advertisement Unrivaled's success, paired with several potential 2025 WNBA draft lottery picks (including former Notre Dame star Olivia Miles and LSU forward Flau'jae Johnson) staying in college for another season, bodes well for the players union. 'There are so many players that got my attention. I believe they got the league and the team's attention, too, who decided to take that fifth year and stay in college and did not come here, did not take that opportunity to enter the WNBA draft,' Jackson said. 'That strengthens the union side and the player side of things because that means that pipeline is even that much stronger.'
New York Times
17-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
WNBPA announces 2025 All-Star skills challenge, 3-point shootout earnings to increase
The prize pool for winning an event during the 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis continues to increase. On Thursday, the WNBPA announced a renewal of its partnership with Aflac to award the winners of the league's 3-point contest and skills challenge a combined total of $115,000. The payouts will be equivalent to what NBA players receive, per that league's collective bargaining agreement, for winning the 3-point shootout ($60,000) and the skills challenge ($55,000). Advertisement The current WNBA CBA allocates just $2,575 to the winners of each event. On the eve of last year's All-Star weekend in Phoenix, the WNBPA and Aflac announced they were providing $110,000 in supplemental prize money for the first time. Winners previously only received what was allocated in the league's CBA. Atlanta Dream All-Star guard Allisha Gray won both events in 2024 and took home more than 62 percent of her season-long salary ($185,000 according to Her Hoop Stats) on one night as a result of doing so. 'This is the new standard. This is the new expectation,' WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson told The Athletic last summer upon the initial partnership being enacted. More money this year could draw bigger names to participate in both events. Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark previously declined the opportunity to participate in this past February's NBA All-Star weekend 3-point contest, with her representatives saying in a statement that she wanted her first 3-point contest to be in Indianapolis this summer. Talks around the first year of the partnership came together in around a week. It was so last-minute that participants in last year's events didn't know there would be an increased purse when they accepted the invites to participate. Jackson said that the fact that the agreement was brokered in short order also serves as a reminder to brands that there are multiple ways to support athletes. 'There's no longer this need or belief that you only partner with the league or the teams,' she said. A WNBA spokesperson previously said in a statement: 'We are always looking for ways for the players to earn more, including from corporate partners. Previously, the WNBA proactively went beyond CBA obligations to double the postseason prize money and instituting a full charter program.' Advertisement In addition to the increased prize pool this year, Aflac and the WNBPA will create a branded WNBPA All-Star Lounge, where players will be presented with their winnings. Aflac will be an official supplemental partner of the WNBPA. 'We're excited about what's ahead as we grow this together. It's not just about the rewards; it's about building a future where our value is undeniable,' WNBPA president and Seattle Storm All-Star forward Nneka Ogwumike said. The WNBA and WNBPA are in the middle of negotiations on a new CBA. The WNBPA has stated that it wants an equity-based model that evolves with the league's business success in its next agreement. The 2025 skills challenge and 3-point shootout will occur on July 18, with the All-Star Game set for the next day. (Photo courtesy of the WNBPA)
