Pay Us What You Owe Us

​“tied to revenue in a meaningful way" is the WNBA Players Union party line to say they want a cut of Gross and not Net revenue, because they don’t trust the WNBA is being honest about expenses. And the sticking point is expansion fees. The WNBAPA keeps making proposals that factor in Expansion fees as Revenue. The league’s proposals do not include expansion fees as revenue. This seems to be the whole hold up to negotiations for months. ​

​I think expansion fees are like $250 million. And the plan is 2 expansion teams this year and I think a plan for 3 more in a couple years. The whole CBA negotiations are a fight over a Billion dollars in expansion fees. The league argues that because it is owners paying expansion fees to the other owners, its a neutral transaction and it doesn’t add to the sum value of the league and so it does not count as revenue. If that is rationale has any legitimate Precedent in economics  then the players really have no leg to stand on.  I don’t know if I fully buy that, because the existing teams are getting money even though the expansion teams are not.  But even if you consider expansion fees as revenue , the players need to recognize that expansion fees are a 1 time windfall and not sustainable revenue upon which to base year over year player salaries. It would have to mean a 1 year balloon payment for players and then salaries would fall back to standard projections. It’s the percentage of year to year revenue that the CBA has to be concerned with. 


“Pay us what you owe us” is the slogan the WNBA player wore on their shirts at last season’s all star game July 19th 2025. The Announcement of 3 new expansion teams  came out on June 30th, 2025. The slogan on the shirts seems to be a direct response to the Expansion fees.  I do agree the league should share the proceeds of expansion  due to the increased popularity of the league with players, but that is kind of a operate issue from the CBA and they are putting the season at risk by refusing to recognize that. 
It seems to me maybe Expansion fees should be put into a trust to fund players pensions or something like that.  Seems like with the expansion fees out of the way they would just be haggling over the final percentages.  
But  that is not how this is going to go. From the beginning this has always been a war of respect vs authority. The players Union is fighting for respect, and the League is fighting to maintain it’s authority.  Neither feels it can give an inch. The league is growing and these are the inevitable growing pains. My understanding is that they are negotiating day and night over everything but the revenue split as that is a deadlocked issue on the expansion fees. 


It was always  kind of suspicious that in all of ESPN’s coverage of the issue , they never reported the owners rationale for why the expansion fees are not revenue.  I don’t know if that is because it’s a perfectly reasonable rationale that has been widely accepted in other leagues and therefore mentioning it makes the players Union look foolish or greedy, or if it is a flimsy rationale and they are saving face of the owners by not reporting it.  I actually think it is both and reporting it makes the entire enterprise seem petty. 


To be honest this Expansion fee issue sounds like a lawsuit is coming, and I predict a judge will ultimately decide the matter. The question is will we have to wait for that judge’s decision before we see another WNBA basketball game??
The expansion fees increasing 5x over 2 years is the kind of growth in value that should be fairly attributed to both the players and the owners. If that is the sticking point, and both sides claim to want to save the season, then I would encourage both sides to agree to put the division of expansion fees aside as a separate issue to be negotiated outside the CBA, by writing  a provision for such into the CBA they are negotiating right now. Then they can determine revenue percentages based on non-contested revenue, and play the full season like everyone wants. But I suspect that what has happened is the league has actually said privately that Expansion fees are not revenue period, and we will lock out over it, but they are  just playing chicken with he WNBAPA hoping they strike first over the issue and then the public blame for the loss of games is on the Union