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WNBA Players Include a Salary Cap in Latest Offer, People Say
By Scott Soshnick

New York, March 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Women's National Basketball Association players union would agree to a salary cap in its next contract in return for higher salaries and free agency, people familiar with the negotiations said.

The union delivered its latest offer to the league Thursday, the people said, declining to discuss specifics of the proposal. The league's previous offer included a limit on team payrolls, though the WNBA and union remain far apart on the level of a threshold, the people said.

Getting a spending limit would be a victory for the league, which has lost money since its inception in 1997. The WNBA and union are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement to replace the one that expired in September. The regular season is scheduled to begin in May.

Bob Lanza, former senior counsel at the players association, said the union had to help contain costs.

``It's the right thing to do at this point,'' said Lanza, a sports labor lawyer with the firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. ``Now is the time for the union to help grow the sport.''

WNBA spokeswoman Traci Cook and union spokesman Dan Wasserman declined to comment.

As a tradeoff for accepting a spending limit, Lanza said the union should push for a shorter-term agreement. That way, if the league makes money, the players can negotiate a more favorable contract.

Under terms of the union's most recent proposal, the players' benefits and salaries would be tied to revenue growth, the people said.

WNBA players made an average of about $46,000 last season. The players want better pay, more control over their marketing rights and free agency.

Financial problems forced the WNBA teams in Portland, Oregon, and Miami to fold during the offseason. The Orlando Miracle, meantime, was sold to the Mohegan Indian tribe in Connecticut.

The league during the offseason also approved non-NBA ownership of WNBA teams, and allowed teams in markets without NBA clubs.

Dunkin' Dan · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 5:56 am Post subject:

Aren't the individual teams paying the players from now on? Or hasn't that been worked out yet?
Just curious as to why it's a victory for the WNBA if a salary cap is agreed upon, given that it would probably be set higher than any of the teams are currently paying out anyway.

mb · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 1:48 pm Post subject:

Perhaps it is a victory for the league because, even though the individual teams pay the salaries, the cap would help the economic viability of said teams; thereby helping insure the success of the league overall.