The new collective bargaining agreement signed by the WNBA and its Players Association, has taken a toll on what certain teams can afford to pay its players, even those on rookie contracts. This has been met with outrage by some of the veteran players in the league, with many calling for change. Our contributor Landon Buford has the details and reaction and also asks the question -- would expansion help the situation?
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The WNBA is now in its 26th season since its inception in 1996. But something odd happened before it even began. Las Vegas elected to waive Mya Hollingshed, who was the eighth overall pick from this year's draft. The Minnesota Lynx also decided to release Crystal Dangerfield, the 2020 Rookie of the Year.
This is due in part because of the alterations in the newly agreed CBA, and now everyone in the WNBA community has been calling for changes including WNBA Breanna Stewart and Chiney Ogwumike
“In no circumstance should we have a league where top draft picks aren’t on a roster,” Ogwumike said?
In a Twitter thread earlier this month, two-time WNBA champion Breanna Stewart gave her thoughts on how the hard salary cap has contributed to teams waiving young players and 2022 draft picks this week.
“I hate seeing so many great players being cut from WNBA teams,” Stewart began. “Salaries went up, but a very restrictive hard cap has put teams in a bind. We need to soften it to allow our league to grow." Stewart continued. “The WNBA needs to adjust ASAP (before the next CBA) to allow teams more flexibility to keep rookie contract players on the roster."
2-time WNBA Champion Breanna Stewart
With twelve teams in the league, there are 144 spots, and then you must implement the salary cap, which only allows teams to carry 11—making it even harder for players to make a WNBA roster.
"I think it resonated this year because this is Year 3 with the new CBA," Stewart said. "Now as those contracts are being negotiated, being renegotiated, everybody's getting a little more expensive, I guess I would say. That creates fewer roster spots and fewer spots in the league in general."
One option to provide more opportunity for players to make a roster spot is to have team expansion, which WNBA Commission Cathy Engelbert is favor of adding two more teams in the future, but there isn’t an exact timeline for expansion.
"We're transforming the economics of the league," Engelbert said. "We want to bring new owners into the league longer term. We need to find the right time to do that. We're doing a lot of data analysis. … We'll continue to do that analysis and hopefully this summer at some point we'll be able to say more. But we want to be thoughtful about it."
"We don't want to jeopardize the momentum we have, but we understand the issue about roster sizes," Engelbert continued. "But when you're a country the size and scale of ours and you're only in 12 cities, growing the league is a way to do that as well. Then you open up roster spots. I don't think it's about rosters per team. It's about more opportunities to play for more players to play."
Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird is in favor of expanding the league but would like for them to do strategially. When asked by Just Women’s Sports earlier this year.
“I do think the league needs to expand. It doesn’t need to be too fast,” Bird said, “I think one team at a time, even though I’ve heard different interests from different cities.”
4-time WNBA Champion Sue Bird
Earlier this week, she was asked by Howard Megdal of "thenexthoops.com", which expansion cities she would love to see be added to the league.
Bird said Oakland/Bay Area is #1 and Portland is probably #2. She mentioned Toronto could push for #2 via WNBAStormChaser.
Also, earlier this week, Tampa Buccaneers’ Superbowl winning wide receiver, Mike Evans shared that he would like to see the Houston Comets come back, a he would be interested in ownership.
He’s not the only one. Over the last couple of years, numerous people such as Drake, Matt Hasselback, Donovan McNabb, Grant Hill, and Saweetie.
“I need a Toronto team,” said Drake.
Former WNBA MVP, Aja Wilson was recent featured in Saweetie’s music video "Fast [Motion].” After seeing that Khristina Williams, The Founder of Girls Talk Sports TV, asked the artists if we could see her own a WNBA team in the future.
“Expanding my business is something that ever turn a blind eye to, so I can definitely see myself doing that. However, when I do things like that, I want to make sure I’m involved, Saweetie told Williams.
“I don’t just do things for the title. If I am permitted later on in my career where I can be hands-on in the project with these women, then definitely.”
