The WNBA makes official statement about collective bargaining agreement

After media reports about an agreement last night, the WNBA has officially announced that it has come an agreement with the league's players on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

In addition to the announcement of a 12th player being added to rosters and that free agency can begin, the league highlighted the following points that include more detail on the new core player rules:

The following are additional points agreed to by the WNBA and the Players Association in their new collective bargaining agreement:

-- A new "Time Off Bonus" of up to $50,000 that players can earn for limiting their overseas play to three months or less during the offseason.
--The number of times that a player can be subject to a "core" designation has been lowered from 5 to 4, shortening the path to unrestricted free agency for star players. (Each team can designate one of its players as a core player and receive exclusive negotiating rights to that player in exchange for an offer of a one-year, fully-guaranteed maximum salary contract.)
--The term of the agreement is eight years with both the WNBA and the WNBPA having the ability to opt out after the sixth season.

Albert Lee previously looked at the pros and cons of keeping the core player designation and it's clear that at the very least the league is making an effort to enable more player movement by lowering the number of times a player can be cored.

For more details and commentary on the WNBA's CBA negotiations, check out our WNBA CBA agreement storystream.