On today’s basketball-centered episode of The IX Sports Podcast, hosts Jackie Powell and Howard Megdal recap day 8 of the ongoing marathon WNBA CBA negotiations. Powell reflects on reporting live from New York about the negotiations, and Megdal makes his NCAA bracket picks.
First, Powell explained how negotiations began and the flurry of proposals that came out of the first few days in New York:
“Where things stand is we’re going into day eight,” Powell said. “This thing is continuing. Both sides met until after 3 a.m. last night, I can say that the players were not there until 3 a.m. they left a little bit earlier, but we’re sort of in an interesting holding pattern right now. What stood out, obviously, was the change in words. When this first started, the word that both sides were using was ‘movement.’ You know, things are moving. Proposals were were being thrown back and forth and back and forth.”
But by Sunday night, things felt different. Powell continued: “We had on pretty good sourcing that … there wasn’t going to be a deal, and most likely no one was going to be made available all of a sudden.”
That didn’t mean there wasn’t any progress, however. Powell explained how the two sides worked up from smaller, less consequential items, to the big ticket pieces that led to Sunday’s stalled negotiations: “They started with some ancillary items that were a little bit less contentious, and what they did was they built momentum and they built trust by accomplishing some of those items.”
“Terri Jackson, the executive director of the WNBPA, she sort of said there has been some agreements on some of these issues. Where as of now, I can say there, there isn’t a term sheet set, there’s still the back and forth, but Terri Jackson and outside counsel Deb Willig, they sort of said, … we’re working through the big tent pole items, which everyone knows about. So that is the revenue share percentage, that is the salary cap structure, that is housing,” she continued.
“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.
Ultimately, Powell emphasized how each point in the CBA matters to delivering the final product, and how the end is not quite in sight for either side.
“What I want everyone to understand is that this is all interconnected,” Powell said. “When it comes to, okay, what is the revenue share percentage going to look like? Well, … they need to figure out how much money or how many expenses goes into providing this part of the benefits. Okay, are the players willing to give that, maybe give this part of benefits away so that they can have a higher percentage? Those are the types of back and forths, opportunity cost considerations that are going on in these rooms.”
Tune in to hear more from Powell, and Megdal’s NCAA bracket picks from Round 1 all the way through the title game.
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 negotiations.
What you missed on Women’s Sports Daily: Monday night WNBA CBA update with Jackie Powell