The standoff in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) talks between players and the WNBA persists as a thorny issue, even as the season continues. During the All-Star weekend in July, the “Pay Us What You Owe Us” T-shirts the players wore caught the attention of national media. Many, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wanted the league to give in to the players’ demands for pay parity.League insider Myles Ehrlich tossed in his thoughts about the issue on Wednesday on the Brian Lehrer Show.“There is a lot of investment from the NBA side and it's good on the part of these are people that know how to run sports franchises and basketball franchises when it comes to investment in facilities or investments in overseas scouting, things like that."At the other end, it also means that they can manipulate and hide losses wherever they want to, and that's something that we see in every sport.”The NBA, which reportedly owns 42% of the WNBA, has been subsidizing the women’s basketball league for years. Multiple reports claim that the WNBA has lost millions since 1996. Caitlin Clark's arrival in 2024 gave the league a boost, but $40 million still went down the drain. Because of this, Ehrlich sees a potential pushback from the NBA about pay parity.In the NBA, players and owners share roughly 50% of the revenue. In the WNBA, it is around 9.3%, a key reason the women opted out of the CBA in 2024 to negotiate a new deal.WNBA insider emphasizes wide gulf between players’ salaries and franchise valuations as reason for pay parityMyles Ehrlich prefaced his comments by saying that he is not an expert in the economics of the league he is covering. Still, he claimed pay parity should be addressed because there is a gulf in the players’ salaries and the valuation of franchises.Ehrlich, who covers the New York Liberty, noted that Joe Tsai bought the Liberty in 2019 for roughly $14 million. In 2025, the franchise is valued at $450 million, according to “The Athletic."This year, the Golden State Valkyries, estimated to be worth $500 million, joined the league. Sportico released a report before the All-Star weekend that team valuations across the league increased by 180%. Ehrlich noted that players are earning between $70,000 to $244,000 despite the spike in team valuations, tickets and attendance.In the next five years, three more expansion teams, which reportedly paid $250 million each, will become part of the league. According to the analyst, the narrative that the WNBA continues to lose can no longer be justified.