Burk Takes Latest Swing for the WNBA

An activist needs something to stay ... well, active.

The post-Masters solution for Martha Burk appeared in the form of the WNBA players’ association. With the fate of the women’s pro basketball league seeming to hang in the balance, Burk, and a trio of women’s rights leaders weighed in Wednesday with their support on a conference call with the national media two days before a league-imposed deadline to cancel the season if no new collective bargaining agreement can be reached. The previous agreement expired in September.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume this morning but no formal proposals have been exchanged since last week, when NBA Commissioner David Stern announced the Friday deadline.

“Just last summer, David Stern made this statement here in [Washington] D.C. during the All-Star game that this league is an investment and we need to treat it like an investment and respect it as an investment,” said Burk, chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations.

“Now when they’re saying, ‘Take it or leave it, take it no matter how bad it is,’ he seems to have gone back on that view. It’s wrong. These women are worth investing in and they need to stand by their word on that too.”

Kim Gandy, the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), echoed that sentiment.

“We know most employers will pay what they can get by with paying,” she said. “But that doesn’t make it right. Treating these players fairly is not only good business but it will be good for business.

“Perhaps these owners aren’t accustomed to dealing with women as customers as their fans but I can tell them that women do recognize and reward good corporate citizenship, and the reverse. The members are going to be watching.”

Actually, the league and the union do not appear to be that far apart on economic issues. The WNBA has offered a modest gain for the veteran minimum ($41,200) and a $5,000 pay-cut for the rookie minimum, dropping to $25,000. The players’ association has countered with minimums of $48,000 for veterans and $33,000 for rookies.

There is, however, a wider gulf on issues of free agency and length of the labor agreement. The WNBA wants a five-year deal, and the players are looking for a three-year agreement.

League officials declined to comment on the negotiations Wednesday, but Pam Wheeler, the union’s director of operations, characterized the differences as surmountable.

“Again, we’re not that far apart,” she said. “Coming to a deal seems to be within arm’s reach at this point.”

Previously, there had been hints that the players would move on economic issues if there were some accommodation on free agency. Wednesday, the union came out and said just that.

The divide is widest in the area of free agency. The league is offering players restricted free agency in the seventh season and unrestricted in the 10th. The union is asking for restricted free agency in the fourth season and unrestricted in the fifth.

Wheeler said that players typically join the league at 22 and was dismissive of unrestricted free agency at 32.

“The players would probably be contemplating free agency and retirement in the same year,” she said.

The women’s rights activists, among them the top officials from the New York and Los Angeles chapters of NOW, took issue with the idea that because the league was struggling, the players had no alternative but to accept the WNBA’s deal.

“I think this league is successful, and this league has the potential to be wildly successful,” Burk said. “So to say after this short a period of time that it’s not successful is just disingenuous, if not dishonest. I’m sure the NBA in this short period was not wildly successful.”

The league, heading into its seventh season, folded two franchises and moved two others after last season. WNBA officials said the average attendance last season was 9,228, a gain of 150, and that four teams averaged more than 10,000 spectators, among them the two-time defending champion Sparks.

At the high end, the Washington Mystics drew an average of 16,202. And at the low end, the Detroit Shock drew 5,886. The league has estimated that it will lose $12 million this year, the figure Stern offered last week when the NBA Board of Governors voted to subsidize the WNBA this season.

“If the league wants to invest in the advertising dollars and exposure, it’s going to come a lot faster for their definition of success,” Burk said, pointing out the struggles of start-ups in any business.

” ... So it’s all in how you define it. I have an idea if this was a new start-up men’s league, we wouldn’t be talking about them making a profit [at this point].”