ABL COO Jim Weyermann said that the league is not
"suffering a money crisis" after non-contract league
employees were asked to take a 10% reduction in salaries,
according to Gary Swan of the S.F. CHRONICLE. Instead,
Weyermann said that the league is "gathering some financial
reserves as it ventures into its critical third season."
Player salaries will not be affected, but coaches have been
"asked to voluntarily join" the 10% salary reduction plan
for more than 100 office employees of the league and the
league's ten teams. Swan: "The move, which Weyermann said
is only temporary, has not [been] met with wholehearted
support from those taking a pay cut. But some see it as a
way to try new things this season before the league faces a
possible serious problem" (Gary Swan, S.F. CHRONICLE, 8/14).
WNBA PLAYERS INDENTURED SERVANTS? In Philadelphia, Mike
Bruton writes on the unionization of WNBA players: "Nobody
is saying that the women, in only their second season,
should be pulling down the huge bucks that the men have
toiled more than half a century to command. But please,
let's not pretend that it's OK to be paying them a median
income of $25,000 a year." Bruton adds that by calling for
an impartial election by the NLRB, WNBA President Val
Ackerman "had the nerve to act as if the signed union cards
that [the NBPA] produced were meaningless. ... What a joke.
Talk about male players being greedy. What the NBA and WNBA
are doing to the women surpasses greed. It's indentured
servitude." Agent Bruce Levy, on the union cards: "Were
they forged? What does Val think?" Bruton also calls the
league's endorsement policy "ridiculous." Levy: "Since the
WNBA has every conceivable product category, it's a matter
of fact that the players are unable to get any meaningful
endorsements, except shoes. There, if you don't have a shoe
deal by a certain date, you automatically have to wear
Nikes" (Mike Bruton, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 8/14).
