WNBA And WNBPA 12-hour Marathon CBA Negotiation Meeting Ends With No Deal Reached
ONE HOUR. TWO HOURS. Three. Over nine hours after the meeting began; a resolution had still not come to fruition. In fact, the WNBA and WNBPA 12-hour marathon CBA negotiation ended after 5 a.m. with no deal reached. Negotiations appeared to have broken up for the night as multiple players were seen leaving the building shortly before 3am ET. Every player declined to comment on the situation.
Players in attendance for the long-awaited meeting included Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike, Bri Turner and Alysha Clark. WNBA leadership was represented by Cathy Engelbert and Bethany Donaphin. Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai was also in attendance along with union and league staff.
Nonetheless, after much deliberation and not striking an agreement, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert took a brief moment in order to speak with reporters waiting outside the meeting area. If there was a major issue or problem, she didn’t give anything away by her presence or demeanor. Her tone was very balanced as she assessed where things stand.
Engelbert mentioned to the media, “It’s complex. But we’re working towards a win, win deal like we’ve been saying, transformational deal for these players that balances all the things we’ve been trying to balance with continued investment by our owners, etc. So, we’re working hard towards that, and we still have work to do.”
WNBA And WNBPA 12-hour Marathon CBA Negotiation Meeting Ends With No Deal Reached
Annie Costabile of FOS shared her notes after debriefing the WNBPA’s executive director. Costabile reveals,
“At roughly 5:20 AM commissioner Cathy Engelbert and WNBA staff left the Langham, marking the end of this marathon negotiation session.
WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson just spoke to media re: the last 10+ hours of negotiations.
When asked how she would describe negotiations she said ‘I would describe the last 10, 11 hours as a lot of conversation going in the right direction.’
Asked if there was any indication a deal would be reached in the coming days, she said ‘you know, the only thing I’m going to say on that is conversations are continuing as they need to be.’”
The positive is that both sides are finally sitting down and having discussions. Something that should have happened a long time ago. To not get a deal done — to stop the historic momentum of the first two years of the Caitlin Clark era — would be absolute insanity.
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