WNBA stars' All-Star Game message on pay increase draws social media reaction

WNBA stars participating in Saturday night s All-Star Meeting wore a message on their T-shirts during warm-ups directed at league officers amid tense collective bargaining agreement CBA talks Each WNBA All-Star including Indiana Fever sharpshooter Caitlin Clark who was sidelined for the tournament wore the shirt The clothing also featured the Women s National Basketball Players Association WNBPA logo underneath the message CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COMThe shirts read Pay Us What You Owe Us However the message didn t appear to resonate across social media WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike praised the players for using their platform I m just so inspired by the amount of players that demonstrated up the engagement that was there she noted That s really what it s all about Because the more that happens the more that we re going to be able to get things done I think this day we re going to be able to use this conversation to start rolling the ball on things Players have argued that business has been booming for the league and they deserve an increase in salaries because of it The WNBA was a part of a new billion rights deal that will start next season and with the league planning to expand to teams by the new franchises are paying a million expansion fee WNBA STARS SEND MESSAGE TO LEAGUE BEFORE ALL-STAR EVENT AMID CONTENTIOUS CBA NEGOTIATIONSThe New York Post revealed last year that the league was projected to lose million during the season The new media rights deal is expected to bring at least a million increase from what the league was making on its current rights deal which the statement disclosed was about million in Even through the contention WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert declared Saturday night that she was optimistic a deal would get done I'm still really optimistic that we ll get something done that would be transformational she mentioned And that next year at All-Star we ll be talking about how great everything is Obviously there s a lot of hard work to be done on both sides to get there The current CBA is set to expire on Oct The Associated Press contributed to this description Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter