We're not talking millions of dollars and we likely never will be.

	The Monarchs are missing Yolanda Griffith's 16.2 ppg and 11.2 rpg averages from a year ago.

But with a reported 50 players refusing to sign their WNBA contracts until the day before training camp opened last week, the issue of salaries in the WNBA is obviously a front-burner matter, no matter how many zeroes are on the checks.

Approximately 100 players had to sign new deals with the league this season, some of them league veterans who signed three-year contracts way back in 1997, others ABL transplants who had signed one-year deals for rookie salaries last season, as mandated by the collective-bargaining agreement.

It was not an easy or pleasant process for many. The league was offering modest increases in most cases, an average of five percent to 10 percent. Some marquee players such as league MVP Yolanda Griffith and Utah All-Star Natalie Williams were able to negotiate bigger raises, but not without some suspense and a pair of players -- Orlando's Andrea Congreaves and Utah's Cindy Brown -- who decided not to return.

"We were very concerned last week," said Pam Wheeler, head of the WNBA Players Association. "We were concerned about the league's willingness to move on some of its offers and they did."

While one can make the argument that the ABL contributed to its own downfall by essentially paying its rank-and-file players too much money, the WNBA seems to be flailing at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Eleven star players have six-figure salary/marketing agreements with the league. Everyone else is just making a living, even some players who fit into that star category.

Jennifer Azzi -- traded before the draft from Detroit to Utah, made somewhere in the $44,000 range (compared to better than $150,000 in the ABL). She announced her retirement last winter before she, her agent and the league were willing to work out an arrangement that didn't seem so, well, rank-and-file for a player of Azzi's caliber and marketability.

Azzi ultimately agreed to a reported salary of $62,800 -- still much less than her Stanford peers are probably making in their Silicon Valley jobs -- and a move to Utah, which is closer to her Bay Area home.

Sacramento's Griffith, the 1999 MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, reached a deal with the league for a reported $62,500 the day before training camp opened. But it was late enough in the negotiation game for Griffith's agent to say that the star player was prepared to sit out and play overseas.

Phoenix's Brandy Reed, the league's seventh-leading scorer last season, was offered a $2,500 raise over her 1999 salary of $32,500, according to the Arizona Republic. Reed and her agent first balked at the offer, but she ultimately accepted it after getting a personal telephone plea from Mercury coach Cheryl Miller -- despite the fact the figure is $11,000 less than the salary of the draft pick that Phoenix traded to Minnesota to get Reed in offseason.

Utah's Williams, regarded as one of the best power forwards in the world, ultimately signed for a reported $62,000.

While some players have said they are prepared to return overseas to continue their careers, there are really few options. Of the 100 players who needed negotiate new deals this season, only a handful chose not to re-sign.

"I think the players made themselves perfectly clear that they wouldn't play (if they didn't get a better offer), and they were serious about it," Wheeler said. "I think, individually, the players don't have as much bargaining power that we all wish they had, but I think they realize their leverage is in their collective efforts and some of them had said that to me."

The league says that its payroll has gone up 34 percent this season from $8 million in 1999 to better than $11 million in 2000. Of course, that includes the addition of four teams and 44 players to the mix, which mitigates the effect of the increase.

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