WNBA CBA talks show execs still don't take women seriously. Do they like losing?

WNBA reaches new contract only after owners realized players knew their worth and weren't going to accept less.

There’s always a winner and loser in contract negotiations. And until sports executives, more often than not men, start taking the women across the table from them seriously, they’re always going to be the loser.

The WNBA and its players finally came to an agreement on a new contract on Wednesday, March 18, after almost 18 months of talks. Scratch that. A month of real talks, because it didn’t dawn on the W and its NBA overlords until the last few weeks the players not only knew their worth, they weren’t going to take a deal that reflected anything less.

The league is lucky a deal got hammered out in time to preserve the entirety of the regular season. But this last-minute drama was needless, the result of the W, and the NBA, not recognizing that the game has changed.

Just as U.S. Soccer found out four years ago, women are over being treated like charity projects. They know the economics as well as anyone the suits bring to the table — hell, probably better — and aren’t going to be fooled by chump change offers.

They see the skyrocketing ratings. They see teams outgrowing the W’s traditional, midsize arenas. They see the sponsors tripping over themselves to get in on what, especially when compared with men’s sports, is a growth industry. They see people who are savvy enough to realize there is a boatload of money to be made not batting an eye at $250 million expansion fees, a fivefold increase from two years earlier.