January 21, 2024 @ 6:00 PM
Previous expert WNBA professional athlete Sue Bird expects a sweeping cumulative negotiating contract (CBA) for females’s basketball gamers when they next off discuss their agreement in the WNBA.
The retired and winningest American basketball star took a seat with the group behind “Sue Bird: In the Clutch” for a meeting at TheWrap’s Sundance Picture and Meeting Workshop provided by NFP on Saturday.
“Our last CBA, was signed in right before the pandemic, so maybe technically 2019, but early 2020. I always joked it was the CBA before the CBA. This was the CBA that we needed to get done to start over, to set a foundation because the next one was going to be the one that was going to blow everything open,” Bird informed TheWrap. “I think we achieved a lot in that CBA and, rightfully so, people applauded it. Whether it was — we talk about this in the doc — the maternity leave and things around family planning, so much more was in that that was beneficial to the players.”
Directed by Sarah Dowland, and created by Emily Chapman and Jay Ellis under his manufacturing banner Black Bar Mitzvah, the docudrama catches the last 2 periods Bird played prior to relinquishing basketball, along with just how her tale connections right into the defend equity that females’s sports remain to wage.
“This next CBA, the players right now are uniquely positioned to go after everything. We now have data around viewership. We now have the media rights deal com[ing] up soon,” Bird stated. “You could see in 2020 we had a bubble season similar to the NBA and we knew the viewership numbers, but sometimes it takes a year or two for people to see that it wasn’t just a one-off. So, now, there’s actual data. There’s tangible things that we can take into the CBA [that’s] negotiated with the players. They’re in a great spot, but it’s only gonna get better.”
An opt-out day techniques for gamers where they can renegotiate if they pull out of the existing agreement. Or else, they need to remain for one more number of years up until the following possibility occurs.
“What we did in the last one, one of the most pivotal moments of the last CBA, is we put in a trigger to have a 50/50 rev[enue] share. It had to get to a certain amount of money and then that kicks in and now we split, and that’s where the media deal really comes into play,” Bird stated. “So, in two years, when that gets renegotiated — and I’m sure if the NWSL, if women’s college basketball is an indicator — it’s going to be 60 plus million per year. When that comes, it kicks in that rev share [and] salaries go up. So that’s what I mean by the CBA setting up this next one.”
The docudrama mentions that some WNBA gamers just make $90,000 a year. The minimum is around $80,000, however the highest possible is a quarter of a million bucks. Bird emphasized that in females’s sports the minimal wage is typically raised initially contrasted to guys’s basketball where the highest possible bargains, like LeBron’s, are quickly talked about. The basketball star shared that she and her other half Megan Rapinoe, retired USWNT football gamer, gathered up regarding their particular CBAs and switched concepts to require to their sports.
“It’s part of changing that narrative is when this money does go up, naturally and deservedly so, we’re going to be sitting here having a different conversation about how they’re making millions of dollars, which is wonderful. I can’t wait,” Bird stated. “Changing the narratives around how people speak about women’s basketball, that’s really important. I would love for the WNBA to be so successful that players don’t have to go overseas anymore. And, by the way, that doesn’t mean that they’ll stop going. It’s actually a wonderful experience and you learn a lot. So, the option is always there, but I don’t want it to have to be what you have to do anymore. That would be a true marker of success.”
“Sue Bird: In the Clutch” is a sales title at Sundance.
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