{"id":103630,"date":"2025-07-30T13:10:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T17:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=103630"},"modified":"2025-07-30T16:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:54:07","slug":"opinion-ryan-clutterbuck-michael-van-bussel-and-michele-donnelly-discuss-the-wnbas-collective-agreement-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/07\/opinion-ryan-clutterbuck-michael-van-bussel-and-michele-donnelly-discuss-the-wnbas-collective-agreement-negotiations\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Ryan Clutterbuck, Michael Van Bussel and Michele Donnelly discuss the WNBA’s collective agreement negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

This piece written by Ryan Clutterbuck, Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Brock University; Michael Van Bussel, Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Brock University; and Michele Donnelly, Associate Professor of Sport Management at Brock University, originally appeared in The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

WNBA all-star players, led by Indiana Fever\u2019s Caitlin Clark and the Minnesota Lynx\u2019s Naphessa Collier,\u00a0recently made headlines\u00a0by wearing \u201cPay Us What You Owe Us\u201d T-shirts during the pregame warm-up.<\/p>\n

The T-shirts, which are\u00a0now available for purchase, were a demonstration of players\u2019 frustrations with the WNBA owners and the ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiation. The collective agreement sets out the terms and conditions of employment (like salaries and benefits) between the league and its players, and is set to expire Oct. 31, 2025.<\/p>\n

Reportedly, players are asking for increased revenue sharing\u00a0(the current agreement stipulates WNBA players receive only nine per cent of league revenue, relative to their NBA peers who receive 50 per cent), increased compensation (the average WNBA salary is US$147,745) and other benefits.<\/p>\n

Central to these demands is the perception that, despite a surge in popularity, media attention and viewership,\u00a0WNBA players are still being underpaid and are undervalued.<\/p>\n

Negotiations for a new collective agreement are ongoing. But as the T-shirts and\u00a0subsequent public statements from the players and the WNBA\u00a0show, there is increasing frustration with how the process is unfolding.<\/p>\n

What is \u2018owed\u2019 to WNBA players?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debate over what is \u201cowed\u201d to WNBA players has intensified recently. ESPN commentator Pat McAfee, for example, has suggested the league should simply increase players\u2019 salaries by US$30,000 per player,\u00a0saying that contracts like Clark\u2019s are \u201can embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But others argue this discussion should go beyond players\u2019 salaries. Syracuse University sport management professor\u00a0Lindsey Darvin writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question isn\u2019t whether the WNBA can afford to pay players what they\u2019re worth; it\u2019s whether the league can afford not to make the investments necessary to realize its full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Darvin, because the WNBA is an economically inefficient \u2014 and arguably exploitative \u2014 business, its focus should be on increasing revenue, and not simply on reducing its labour costs. For example, with the goal to satisfy increasing market demands for the WNBA, strategies to increase revenue could include expanding the league to new markets, scheduling more games at the 3 p.m. Eastern time slot and increasing the number of regular season games from 44 to 60 or more.<\/p>\n

In sport management classrooms and negotiation workshops at Brock University, we call this\u00a0\u201cexpanding the pie\u201d\u00a0\u2014 working collaboratively, as opposed to combatively, to grow the game and the business so that both players and owners benefit over the long term. But this is easier said than done.<\/p>\n

Information shapes negotiation outcomes<\/strong><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s still early in the negotiation process, there are lessons that can be learned from this round of collective bargaining. One of those lessons has to do with making and receiving first offers. In particular, two psychological concepts are at play: information asymmetry and the anchoring effect.<\/p>\n

Information asymmetry\u00a0occurs when one party holds more relevant knowledge than the other. For example, in a typical job negotiation, the employer knows the number of applicants for the position, how much the company is willing to pay and what compensation trends look like across the sector. The candidate, by contrast, lacks most if not all of this information and thus enters the negotiation at a distinct disadvantage.<\/p>\n

The question is: who should make the first salary offer? The general rule is that\u00a0when you lack critical information, it\u2019s better to let the other side make the first move.<\/p>\n

In the case of the WNBA\u2019s negotiations, the information asymmetry problem is not so obvious. The owners likely have a certain perspective on what is acceptable in terms of sharing league revenue and improving working conditions. But the players possess their own kind of leverage, regarding their willingness to protest or walk out entirely.<\/p>\n

The league made its initial proposal to the players\u00a0in early July, but it was not well received.<\/p>\n

The \u2018anchoring effect\u2019 can skew negotiations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another problem influencing negotiations is\u00a0the \u201canchoring effect.\u201d This occurs when an initial offer influences subsequent offers and counteroffers, and ultimately has an impact on the final outcome.<\/p>\n

Garage-sale aficionados may recognize this tendency, as buyers often negotiate with the seller\u2019s sticker price in mind, haggling to earn a 25 or 50 per cent discount on an item without considering whether the item is actually worth the cost. Here, the sticker acts as the anchor.<\/p>\n

While sticker prices and first offers are not inherently malicious, some sale prices and first offers are intended to manipulate buyers and negotiators representing the other side. Savvy negotiators deploy strategic anchors, but even they can sometimes miss.<\/p>\n

In maritime terms,\u00a0anchor scour\u00a0occurs when a ship\u2019s anchor fails to catch hold and instead drags across the seabed, destroying ecosystems caught in its path.<\/p>\n

In negotiations, a similar process can unfold. When initial moves and first offers fail to catch hold because they are perceived to be unfair by the other side, it can damage relationships and can make subsequent negotiations even more difficult.<\/p>\n

Now, the WNBA may face the consequences of a poorly received anchor. According to WNBA player representative, Satou Sabally, the WNBA\u2019s initial offer was a\u00a0\u201cslap in the face\u201d.<\/p>\n

New York Liberty\u2019s Breanna Stewart called the players\u2019 meeting with the league on July 17 to discuss a new collective bargaining agreement a \u201cwasted opportunity\u201d while Chicago Sky player Angel Reese\u00a0called the negotiations \u201cdisrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to right the ship<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s still early days, we expect negotiations to heat up in the coming weeks as the Halloween deadline to reach a deal approaches.<\/p>\n

There is still time to right the ship, so to speak, but to do so, WNBA players and owners must internalize the\u00a0potentially disastrous impacts\u00a0that can come from negotiating over an imagined \u201cfixed pie\u201d instead of expanding it, and dropping anchors that fail to address the other sides\u2019 key interests.<\/p>\n

WNBA players and WNBA team owners now have, in front of them, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform professional women\u2019s sport in North America, through creatively and collaboratively expanding the pie and paying the players what they\u2019re owed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Clutterbuck, Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Brock University; Michael Van Bussel, Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Brock University; and Michele Donnelly, Associate Professor of Sport Management at Brock University, recently published a piece in The Conversation about ongoing collective agreement negotiations between WNBA players and the league. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103630"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103642,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103630\/revisions\/103642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}