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Wesley Knight 0:00
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Graydon Prescott 0:17
Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of sports prep live, sports prep live, where we unbox the bike and talk excellence in athletics,

Graydon Prescott 0:35
what's going on, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of sports prep live. I'm your host, Graydon Prescott, and today, today we get to talk about the thing that we did not really get to talk about last week, which is the WNBA, CBA negotiation. So we're going to dive right into that here in a moment. Got KB with me, as usual. KB, welcome back. So we'll start with the CBA, and then we got to get to talking a little bit about a name that was mentioned last week. And if you are a rebels sports fan, you probably know who it is, but we'll get there a little down the road. But right now, CBA negotiations between the WNBA and the Women's National Basketball players association. The deadline is March 10, eight days from today, correct? And recent developments, tensions are rising, and it's crunch time. So the here are the proposed offers and counter offers, sure. So the position the league is taking right now is that the players will receive 70% of net revenue net and a proposed salary cap of $5.65 million for each team. And the Players Association is proposing 26% of the gross revenue on average over the life of the deal right for the players correct their previous ask 1.5% higher than that at 27 and a half seven and a half percent, now down to 26 and their proposed salary cap under their plan, nine and a half million dollars. And as opposed to the, as opposed to the lead 5.65

K.B. 2:16
yes and that that is for the payroll for per team,

Graydon Prescott 2:20
yes, and just to be clear, that's safe, that's that's almost 60% higher than the the WNBA is proposed salary cap. It's 59.5% difference, right? That the players are asking for.

K.B. 2:34
And so, at first glance, that sounds like, wow, they're going to give them a 60% increase over what they are currently earning, if, if they do, if they do or right, that's what

Graydon Prescott 2:47
they're proposing. And that's only the beginning. Well, there's, there's a lot more to this deal. Those are the most

K.B. 2:53
for those who are uninitiated in business acumen, getting 70% you know, the league is offering 70% of net revenue. And the players are asking for 26% or 26 and a half or 26% 26%

Graydon Prescott 3:09
but that's gross not net of

K.B. 3:10
gross revenue. So for those again, who are uninitiated with respect to the business, vernacular, net revenue would be the revenue that you generate minus expenses, right? So let's say, for the sake of argument, that the league generated $100 million between all the teams. What the league would like to do is say, Well, before we start dividing this money up with the players, let us take out 80, $85 million as expenses, and the league owners recouping some of the investments that they've made over the last 30 years, 30 plus years. And so what is left over

Graydon Prescott 3:51
30 years on the nose? Okay, 30 years.

K.B. 3:53
So what is left over from that 100 million is $15 million to play with, right? That? That's the net revenue from that 100 million dollar gross pot. Now what the players are saying is we don't want 70% of net revenue. We want 26% of gross revenue. So the entire pot, again, is $100 million we want 26 million of the other 20 or 74 million. You figure it out, you have your expenses. Cap your expenses. You have the disbursements you need to pay out to individual team owners. You pay out the disbursements as you see fit. But we have worked hard enough over the last 30 years for no money, commercial airlines, hotels. Facilities that were, you know, nondescript, to say the least, they've they've gone through it, they face some challenges, and so they want to partake in what has happened over the last couple of years, which is the explosion of growth in the W. Be a largely, but not exclusively, due to the incoming aforementioned Caitlin Clark, yeah, the Juggernaut, everything has gone up. Rising Tide should lift all boats. And so that's the the argument of the Players Association, in

Graydon Prescott 5:16
the players Yeah, now their their their position right now, one with leverage is if they don't get the deal that they want. The idea was a strike, correct? And initially that was supported by it was unanimous, yeah, practically unanimous. It was 98 plus percent, right? Supported that idea. That was in December. We are in when it was when it was easy? Yeah, very much. So now we are about two weeks or two weeks, two months from the start of the season, correct? But in that time, there must be the WNBA draft, yep, there must be the Expansion Draft for the teams in Portland, yes, and Toronto, there has to be all a free agency, because WNBA doesn't do it like the NBA does, where free agency opens a couple weeks after the season ends, the WNBA waits a few months, which I that's their way of doing it. I would open it as quickly as possible, sure, but that's not really what we're talking about right now, but that has to go down too, so they're kind of cramming a lot of really big events into this period, which is why this March 10 deadline is such a huge deal. It's Tuesday of next week, but the support for the strike is no longer as it's not unanimous correct as it once was great. There are some people

K.B. 6:45
in the league, and that stands to reason, that it is actually normal that that would happen. And I think you're about to get into why there has been this bifurcation, and that we've lost some percentage points off of that 98% it's still high. It's sealed, incredibly high. But there is bifurcation, and that should be expected once you get closer to the deadline. But I'll let you go ahead and get into

Graydon Prescott 7:07
kind of why, right? So some of these players, or their agents who are who are communicating for the players, are not sold on the idea of a strike, and especially for the players who are not in the top, let's say 20% sure in not just earnings in WNBA salary, but we're talking endorsements, sponsorship, sponsorship deals, absolutely, commercials, all of that. The players that aren't in that top 20% they are probably looking at this, or they are looking at this as kind of a Whoa, like a strike is serious,

K.B. 7:44
but it's a lifestyle hit, right? It's a hit to my standard of living.

Graydon Prescott 7:48
Uh huh, the players that aren't playing in unrivaled like you're not getting paid during your strike, right? You're not making money from endorsements. You're trying to make a name for yourself. You're trying to have lasting power in the WNBA, a strike could really be detrimental, sure, sure. Now players like Asia Wilson or Caitlin or Nafisa or angel Reese or Brianna Stewart or Paige Becker to Sabrina, UNESCO, Jackie young list goes on, those players with staying power and with situational power are fine. Yes, they're not going to buckle, but it's those players who do not have that level of power or financial stability, correct, that may not support the strike. And if it's not unanimous, it becomes a lot less power. Yes, immediate, correct, correct.

K.B. 8:36
And because the league can play on that, that old, you know, divide and conquer, that strategy, right?

Graydon Prescott 8:41
Which is why this is such a big deal for the Players Association to get a deal done, because then you're in a situation where, if the players aren't unified, they got big problems the WNBA for them, it's such a huge deal to get this deal done because they kind of have an itinerary, and you still need your players to be happy. That's number one priority as a league, as a sports league, who wants your players to be content right now? They're not. So they need to get a deal done. In the next eight days. They need to get this deal done now. How do you think this

K.B. 9:16
deal should be done? Look, I am a free market guy to the core, but I am also a realist and absent, excluding Mark Davis, who I think is an absolutely phenomenal owner of a WNBA franchise, a little bit, a little bit of work to be not the NFL, but a little bit of work to be done on the NFL side.

Graydon Prescott 9:39
But he, but he's a phenomenal job. But, yeah,

K.B. 9:43
it's even, even as an NFL owner, he is a great manager of his franchise. Is functional, correct? Franchise, correct? They just don't have the talent. But we're not talking about the NF, yeah, this

Graydon Prescott 9:54
is about the aces, who are the greatest team,

K.B. 9:57
the WNBA, that WNBA team. Is creme de la creme soup to nuts. I mean, just again, just a paragon of what you would want an WNBA owner to be like. Having said that, I come down on the side of these women who have built this league up over the course of 30 years. Yeah. And as I mentioned previously, and they have done this through having to take commercial flights. They've done this in having to stay at substandard hotels because the team may not have had the resources to put them in the four seasons or what have you right? They have done this through mediocre salaries because the media deals weren't there, so the sponsorship deals weren't there, the endorsement deals weren't there. They've really carried this lead, and they carried it to the point that it was ready to absorb the juggernaut that came in, and Caitlin Clark really kind of changed the economic model for what the WNBA is going to be going forward, the media deals got bigger. She came into the league with endorsement deals. Heck, she had endorsement deals in college. So the money is there and the eyeballs are now there. And so I am with the professional women in this league that says we deserve 26% of revenue. I don't know if that's going to be the number, but I do believe they deserve a part of gross revenue, because if they take less than that, that deal is going to be locked in for a while, and they set a precedent. And as we were talking in our our show prep past becomes prolog. What we have done, we're going to continue to do something similar to that. So I fall down on the side of the Players Association, on the side of the players, and I am, I stand 100% with their call for a share of gross revenue. I don't know what that number will be, but that's the smart business move. And I don't know that they're going to

Graydon Prescott 11:51
come off of that. Yeah. Now the opposite side of things, sure, which is not necessarily the stance that I take, but it

K.B. 11:59
is a credible position, yes, from an ownership standpoint and a league standpoint, right?

Graydon Prescott 12:03
Yeah. And from a financial stability standpoint, the WNBA has lost in their 29 years of existence, I north of a billion dollars. Okay, that's around $50 million per year. Okay, that they've been losing at least for the past few years. And now Caitlin and the exponential growth of the league over the past, we'll call it three years, right? Has changed a lot, but I don't know if the WNBA is in a position to almost double what they are paying the players, double the salary cap, or come close to doubling the salary cap. 26% of the gross revenue is from a business perspective. It's quite it's quite a bit. It is, do the players deserve it? Yes, absolutely. They have put in the work. They have put in the time. It's not just like their WNBA careers are all of the time that they've put into the WNBA, right, right? This is something that they've been working on since childhood, correct? Yes, so from that perspective, yes, 26% is more more than deserved, and I firmly believe that it is more than deserved. However, okay, is the league in a position to maintain their own financial stability, or its own financial stability, right, while still paying 26% of the revenue to the players?

K.B. 13:33
I do believe so, because I have yet to come across a media deal and a subsequent media deal where the nominal value of that media deal went backwards. I've never seen in professional sports. Let's say a media deal comes in at $300 million a year for distribution rights, and all of you know that a network might pay. And that deal is good for three, four or five years, whatever the term happens to be, and that three or four or five years goes by, and the next time they're about to re up, it, that number doesn't go backwards. There is not a league or a professional sport that I can think of that that number goes backwards. So it is going to continue to grow again past this prolog. And I think what the the Players Association and the women are recognizing is the likelihood of this going backwards is extremely remote. These eyeballs are there now. There has been some consistency, consistency to these eyeballs over the last few years. There's there's more dynamic talent coming into the league. Caitlin is just getting started. She's only a couple of years in. She's strong, she's healthy. Paige is here. Hannah Hidalgo is going to be coming in. Juju Watkins is going to be coming in. Like the this is only getting better, right? And so from that standpoint, what they've had to endure, yes, the league did put in the owners of the league put in a lot of money, but you do that in any venture, any. Venture that becomes worth its while. May be a 10 year turnaround time, whether you're talking about finance, whether you're talking about technology, manufacturing, any time you start a substantive enterprise, you reap what you sow, right? But you do have to sow first, right? And I think that's what they've been doing over the last, you know, number of years, whether it's three decades or whatever, it's not that they've made no money. It's just that they technically, they weren't profitable, but there were a lot of tax advantages and all that stuff, right? They weren't becoming poorer over this term. And so from that, from that standpoint, I think that the women do deserve again. I don't know if that number has to be 26% so I will concede that, but I think they are being very smart in demanding some gross revenue, because that is a number that continues to grow as the pie continues to grow. I and look, I used to be in entertainment, and I dealt a lot with the movie business and the music business. And you can, you can make numbers say anything, and it's notorious. It was notorious in the music industry, where you get in advance of maybe a million dollars, and you think that, oh, wow, I've got a million dollars to do my video shoot and to get my album out, and by the time it comes out and you're selling, the music, label ends up telling you we advanced you a million. But because of all of these other things that we did for you, the marketing a and our work, you owe us actually 3 million. And you're like, what like, how do I owe you 3 million if you only advance me a million dollars? And so you're in the hole already. And a lot of artists, older artists, never got out of that hole. And it took these newer artists, you know, Taylor, Jay Z Kanye, it's across any more. Morgan Wallen, like it across any musical genre. They recognize the value that they had sitting at that table. And I think that's what these young women are doing. They're not, not all young, but these professional athletes are doing is they're recognizing the value that they bring to the table. And I think it's high time that they did that.

Graydon Prescott 17:10
I completely agree. Now here's the other caveat, sure, and I mentioned earlier, the WNBA for a single season, has never turned a profit, right? They are in a situation that is very similar to the situation that the NBA was in in the mid to late 80s. The NBA, and most people don't know this, the NBA, did not turn a profit until like 1987 1988 when Michael Jordan came around and was Michael Jordan,

K.B. 17:41
right now, we should tell the audience, no, but not turning a profit doesn't mean there weren't massive revenues coming in.

Graydon Prescott 17:47
No, no, no, absolutely. I'm just saying they technically they lost money. Yeah, the NBA lost money until that point. The WNBA is losing money today, and at that point in time, the NBA players had a non guaranteed smaller portion of the revenue. Again, that was in the 80s. The WNBA now, I think, has their great shifter of a player in Caitlin, and for the NBA, it was Michael Jordan, game changer, yeah, and I eventually, in the next few years, the WNBA will begin to turn a profit, just like the NBA did when Michael Jordan was three, four

K.B. 18:23
years, I think it'll be less than a few years.

Graydon Prescott 18:25
Yeah, yes. And that's when, immediately after the players started to get more leverage, make more money, get a higher percentage of the revenue. And then the Players Association came along, and now the NBA players make between 49 and 51% of the revenue that goes to the NBA. Right? I think the WNBA players are two years too early in their do they deserve it? Absolutely. I think they're two years too early. Because if they were making this argument, say, two years from now, Caitlin's four years into the League, the WNBA is turning a profit. Now. There's nothing that the WNBA can do. You're not losing money anymore, and they're never going to lose money again, right? They will be in a position where there's almost nothing that the WNBA can do, and they will have to fold to the players. Right now, they have a little bit of hope for at least getting the deal that they want. Sure, but do I agree with the players? Absolutely. I stand with the players on this. I think that the 26% is fair, and I think it's not enough. I think eventually they're going to need to be making 3545 50% of the revenue. And I think that's just not sustainable, right?

K.B. 19:41
I think that's what the league is saying to them. Saying to them. But I think the NBA, the Players Association, is coming back and saying there is no date on the calendar called eventually, yeah, and that, therein lies the rub that that if you tell us that sometime in the future, we are going to concede that you deserve what you are. Asking for in fact, you deserve it now, but we will be able to give it to you sometime in the future, right? So speaking to that, what may help rectify this situation, and what may end up happening is they concede. They meaning the player Association. All right, we're going to concede on the number, and we may even concede on the fact that it is, it ends up being net revenue as opposed to gross revenue. But at that concession will have a cost, and that cost will be the term, right? So got three years, you got Yes,

Graydon Prescott 20:31
or maybe less Yeah, you got two years

K.B. 20:32
yes somewhere, because there's going to be massive growth in just two years

Graydon Prescott 20:37
where they are now. And honestly, I think for both parties, that may be the only way to get we've solved it right here on Sports prep live. That may be the only way to get this deal. The players give a little, the WNBA gives a little, and in two years or three years, anywhere between two and four years, and four is a lot. Two, I think, is ideal, yes. So let's call it two in two years, we come back and we're going to revisit this, because there's going to be more, there's going to be a lot of changes coming in, and there's going to be a lot of players coming in, and more bar raisers in terms of the WNBA and the attention that it's getting. I mean, Juju Watkins

K.B. 21:15
is a global sensation. Let me ask you something that throws a monkey wrench into this. Okay, what if the WNBA, whether they do it as a league ask or an individual ask from the teams to their star players, what if the league asks their top players not to play in unrivaled Do you still concede that 26% gross revenue number? Because I would

Graydon Prescott 21:38
not, if you're the players or if you're the

K.B. 21:40
league, if you're the players

Graydon Prescott 21:42
and the league asks that they don't play an unrivaled correct, no, no, no chance, absolutely

K.B. 21:49
okay, because that's their leverage. Yeah, in fact, if there is a strike, this is one thing that the NBA did not have. One of the greatest bargains in the history of sport is a guy by the name of Michael Jordan. He just did not make that much money and on the floor, right? Yeah, his salary, except for that last year where he got $33 million for one year. But that's because I don't think he ever earned more than $3 million

Graydon Prescott 22:14
and just, I mean, the base salary. We recognize that Michael Jordan is a multi billion, yeah, we're not talking about endorsements, just his salary dwarfed what anybody in the history of basketball made per year.

K.B. 22:29
Correct, correct. But what Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause were paying Michael Jordan was a pittance, even compared to people that were nowhere near his talent level and his production so but they didn't have a league where they could go in and generate more revenue and bring the fans in and bring sponsors in. And they didn't have that well the WNBA, or the women that play in the WNBA, they have that in the arrival league. And maybe that's what Nafisa and Brianna were thinking is, you know, this is going to become not only leverage, but a pressure point. So if the league says, All right, we will give you 26% of gross revenue. We want you to eliminate unrivaled or participation in unrivaled for these players. Do you take that deal? Or if they, if the league, if the women, will not concede that, does the league come back and say, All right, if you won't make that concession, we can't meet that 26% gross revenue. Do you think that would be a fair ask, a fair exchange?

Graydon Prescott 23:28
I do. And here's why. I think, if the players

K.B. 23:33
let me add one more thing, because in the W because in the NBA, players could not, yeah, you get there, yeah, they couldn't even do it over the summer, right? You know Michael Jordan game clause, right? Michael Jordan famously got a love of the game clause, yeah, so that he could play basketball.

Graydon Prescott 23:48
So here's where I'm at with this. Yeah, I think if the league asks the players to not participate in unrivaled then the 26% isn't enough for the players, right? But from the league's point of view, if they, if the players do participate in unrivaled, then the 26% for them might be too much. So what has to happen would be the players still get unrivaled like, I think that's worth more than the 26% from a future it may end up being, yes, yeah. So if I'm the players, I look at it as if I can have one or the other. I'm keeping unrivaled. I will take the smaller deal, and you get two years of this deal. It may, it

K.B. 24:31
may end up being something like that, yeah. And

Graydon Prescott 24:32
then we come back in two years. Unrivaled is growing bigger than ever, and now we're looking at the league like, what's up? Because I gave you two years, buy it.

K.B. 24:42
Yeah, you say to the WNBA, buy

Graydon Prescott 24:44
unrivaled, and it's going to be more than 26% and if it's not, we're gonna have a problem.

K.B. 24:51
All right, call us mark. Dave is some advice. We figured it out. Figured it out right here on Sports. Reply, all right,

Graydon Prescott 24:57
we don't have much time left because we. Do what we do? Hot Topic, yes, but let's talk a little bit about UNLV. Yes. I'll just jump right into it. Biggest Game of the Year is always the rivalry game we played against Reno last week, right? We won that game in overtime, men's basketball. We're talking 83 Yes, this is men's basketball. That's gonna be the topic for the next four minutes, yeah, and Dre Gibbs law horn, he's He's pretty good at basketball, yeah, we'll just understand that. Understand last week we were talking about him, and I had mentioned he had a sequence of games where he had like, 2829 30, right, right. Yeah, at 42 to that insane, insane.

Graydon Prescott 25:40
And his team had 85 which means he had half the points in a two point win in overtime. And UNLV was very close to losing that game. They're sitting at, I think, 1415, and 14 or 16 and 14 now, which is not ideal. And what's even less ideal is this dude is playing such good basketball now, it's great for him, and it's great for if he weren't there, we might be like five and 25 if he weren't there, right? The problem is, yes, dude, if we don't get some more

K.B. 26:14
talent, yes, no, yes, yes, every time he goes north of 35

Graydon Prescott 26:21
and it may be lower than No. And every time he goes north of 26

K.B. 26:25
Okay, fair enough, every time he goes north of the aforementioned 26 he is putting UNLV men's basketball, and not on purpose, in a more precarious position, right? Because the way that he is bawling out. It is not only being noticed by us and other programs. You know, I'm surprised ESPN hasn't done in a segment on on Andre I mean, it is Dre day every time he steps on the floor. And if we're seeing it, you know, conference rivals are seeing it. Oh yeah, conference competitors, other programs across across the country, are seeing it, and we are in a What have you done for me lately? Era, Oh, yeah. Of at, you know, college athletics in terms of the individual athlete, so he's going to have options come the end of this season. Yeah. And I hope that we have got our n i L truck full to the brim, because I would imagine Dre is going to have a lot of suitors, yeah,

Graydon Prescott 27:24
and not to mention, we lost a game to Grand Canyon by 13 in which they went two for 10 on layups in the first half and shot 50% on free throws as a team, right? Not good at all. Dre had 30 in the 13 point loss. Wow, that was last Wednesday, and then Saturday, against Reno, he had 42 points

K.B. 27:45
and 14 or 22 shooting.

Graydon Prescott 27:47
Mr. Gibbs law threes didn't miss a free throw, perfect at the stripe. That's right, man. That's just, that's absurd. 2628 2920 430-631-2130, 42 Those are his last

K.B. 28:01
10 games in the normal numbers that you would expect to see. You know, Jacob Barnaby, 15 points, Tyron Jones, 12 points. Howie Fleming Jr, 12 rebounds, seven assists, which is not bad, but 42 points.

Graydon Prescott 28:15
He had half the point. Yes, literally half the points. Like 49.8%

K.B. 28:20
of the point. And I think a lot of people might be thinking, Oh, wow, I would love to be in that position. But that's, that's, that's a lot to bear. And I'm fearful, you know, hopefully, look, any coach, almost every night, I would imagine Coach Pastner is in his ear after every game,

Graydon Prescott 28:36
before every game. I mean, he's, he's like, he's got to be treating this dude like Steve Kerr treats Steph Curry at this time, because, if it were not for Dre Gibbs

K.B. 28:47
law horn, I don't know who they have coming in, but if he leaves, it's gonna be a problem.

Graydon Prescott 28:51
Yeah, it's gonna be good. It's not good. He's a baller. He's gotta stick around.

K.B. 28:55
Is a baller. We gotta try to get him on the

Graydon Prescott 28:56
program, see if we can get oh, yeah, yeah. I'm reaching out for sure. Well, thank you everybody for tuning into this episode of sports prep live. It's been a banger. Had a lot to talk about today. Shout out to Dre Gibbs law horn, big man on campus around here, dude's doing his thing, and if you turn on your TV, he's probably gonna have 35 points the next time you an LV game. So we'll catch you on next week right back here on Sports prep live. I'm Graydon Prescott. Have a good week, everybody. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of sports prep live. I'm Graydon Prescott, and don't forget to catch all of our episodes on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, and be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter at sports prep live. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai