# Contracts in WNBA



## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

What kind of contracts are given out in the WNBA?

Highest Paid Player
Lowest Possible Contract
Salary Cap
etc etc


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## 4ever_bball_fan (Aug 5, 2004)

WNBA contracts vary in length, but I have not heard of one beyond three years with a fourth year option (and those are rookie deals). Because of the hard cap, many teams only sign players to one year deals because they can't know if the player will be affordable the next season.

The rookie base salary for 2005 is $31,2000. The first three draft picks get a little more, but not much. The maximum salary for $89,000. The salary cap for 2005 is $673,000 and a team can only use 90% of that, so the hard cap is $605,700.

There are provisions for "personal appearances" agreements with the teams that do not affect the cap issues. I have to think these can help make up a good part of the players' salaries, but have never heard the full story on how they work.

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement is due to be up in 2006, but there is an option for it to continue into 2007 if a certain threashold of attendance is not reached.

Pretty boring stuff, but now you see why the women still have to go overseas to play in the off season. Many of the WNBA players receive more than three to four times their US salaries by playing in Russia and Europe. It will be a long time until they can only play at home. 

Another interesting point is that I remember back in the day, 1997 when the league started...the players (Cooper, et al.) were all talking about how great it was to be able to play at "home" and not have go overseas. There was no league at all for them to play in. Just eight years later, there is a first round draft pick that has never signed a contract or played one minute in the W because she can make 100X's more money in France. Still a long way to go.


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## Obi-Wan Nowitzki (Jun 2, 2003)

Actually, the hard cap is the $673,000 and they MUST spend 90% of that, so their salaries must be between $673,000 and $605,700. As you can imagine, this makes it extremely hard to sign free agents.


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## 4ever_bball_fan (Aug 5, 2004)

Thanks for the correction...for some reason I thought they built something in for the teams to keep from getting too close to going over the cap. My duh.

The biggest poop-off about the players CBA is how it has affected the 4+ year free agents. There is just no way to keep very many of them. Face it, if you are not a "star" by that point, you will have to be in the perfect situation to even continue playing. The players were so concerned about getting the minimum rookie salary thing nailed down, they didn't think forward about how the vets would be affected. The vets are being affected every year and will continue to be affected until this CBA is up in '07.

Was it a good idea of the players to unionize?


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