On this special basketball episode of The IX Sports Podcast, Jackie Powell joins Howard Megdal from New York, where she’s been reporting live on the WNBA and WNBPA’s negotiations over the league’s CBA. That’s allowed her, and you, the chance to hear directly from the participants on both sides of the table in real time.
According to Powell, there have been eight proposals exchanged in the last two days, with the latest offer from the WNBA including a $6.2 million salary cap in Year 1. That would include an average salary of $570,000 in Year 1, rising to $850,000 in Year 6. Both of those would include revenue share in addition to base salary. The super max would also exceed $1.3 million in the first year.
“I think the biggest takeaway is, one, that there is a sense of urgency. There is a commitment to getting this done,” Powell said. “We have moved past this idea of, ‘oh, a strike is on the table.'”
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Powell has been on-site for much of the week, also writing Basketball Insider at The IX Sports about the experience.
Throughout the episode, Powell shared interview clips from conversations with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson, and a group of players, including Nneka Ogwumike and Brianna Turner.
“What stood out to me, and I think Nneka said this, was this idea of the players actually being able to see the progress,” Powell said. “They are not on the outside anymore. When it comes to proposals going back and forth. They can actually see it and feel it because they’re in the room. It is not like there aren’t back channels.”
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Later in the show, Megdal talked about the upcoming NCAA tournament and debated what makes a postseason-worthy team, citing what he saw in Fairfield and Quinnipiac’s MAAC Tournament title.
Make sure to subscribe to The IX Sports Podcast for in-depth coverage of women’s soccer, hockey and basketball; and tune in each weekday morning for a quick overview of the biggest headlines on Women’s Sports Daily, where Powell has been providing up-to-the-minute reporting from the CBA all week as well.