I think it's less complicated than that. Anyone involved in ownership has one goal: make money. There's the pride of owning a team, sure, but it better either make money or be a brilliant tax write-off. As for the various people involved, if you look at the term "owners" and understand that it might be an individual or a group (like the Sun) they're basically one unit per team. The umbrella organization, the WNBA or the NBA, exists at the whim of the owners as a group. It exists to keep some sort of order so that a few renegade owners don't screw things up for the rest of the club. Overspending on players and ruining the salary structure is a big one, moving to different locations is another, and of course negotiating TV rights deals as there's strength in numbers. So in the end, it still comes back to the ownership unit of each specific club that's going up against the players. Right now, the players can play all over the world if they choose, and for more money virtually everywhere else. I'd say the owners need to come in hard with a strong opener, and reasonably quickly if they want to keep momentum going. This isn't complicated at all.