For the WNBA, Adam Silver wants big pay raises, but…

While it is The NBA season continuesthe WNBA is on hiatus, so negotiations on a new collective agreement can resume after unsuccessful discussions during the campaign.

The problem is that relations between the two camps are particularly cold after release Napheesa Collier who claimed to be owned by the VNBA “worst leaders on the planet”. The pernicious atmosphere that forced Adam Silver to speak and the big boss of the NBA used the opening of the NBA season to discuss the demands of the players.

“I don’t think sharing is the right way to look at things because there’s a lot more revenue in the NBA.” explains Adam Silver. “We have to look at what the WNBA is winning as a whole. The players are going to get a big raise in the next collective bargaining agreement and they deserve it.”

A two-pronged response that clearly didn’t sit well with the players’ union, who responded Instagram story : “You don’t want to share?” » we can read, mentioning Adam Silver.

The sharing of future revenues is at the heart of the problem

Because behind the salary increase, the players are primarily hoping to increase their share of the league’s income. For now, they only get 9.3%, while this rate is 50% for NBA players.

But on the side of the VNBA, and therefore Adam Silver, we do not want to increase this rate and prefer to negotiate a fixed salary increase, which would be activated according to the total income of the women’s league. As a reminder, currently at $249,244, the maximum salary could reach $850,000, a three-fold increase, while the veteran’s minimum salary, currently $78,831, would increase to $300,000.

Undeniable progress, but the players see further. From 2026 new TV contract will take effect, worth two billion dollars over eleven years. And with the arrival of new franchises (whose entry fees are in the hundreds of millions of dollars), strong revenue growth for the league is expected.

Faced with these odds, players feel it’s legitimate to get a bigger piece of the pie. But in the absence of significant progress, the threat of a “lockout” looms … and could become imminent.