WNBA: CBA negotiations on the brink, strike on the horizon?

WNBA CBA Negotiations: A Deal in Sight?

The league meetings in New York last week, where owners, presidents, general managers, and coaches from WNBA teams gathered, raised a crucial question: When will the league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) reach an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement? Could a work stoppage be foreseen? New details were revealed on Tuesday night. The league’s latest proposal, initially reported by The Associated Press and confirmed, includes revenue sharing with a maximum salary of over $1.1 million starting in 2026, with a league minimum of over $220,000 and an average of over $460,000. It is not yet clear what the players’ position is on this proposal and whether this brings the positions closer before the new deadline of November 30. The union did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday evening. Job uncertainty could generate significant consequences. The longer it takes without an agreement, the greater the repercussions will be. And without an agreement in sight, the damages begin to accumulate.

“The basketball calendar is already at a point where it will be affected. It’s already there,” said a source. “And when it comes to things like renovations and partnership opportunities, being here with uncertain labor negotiations is already having an impact on the basketball calendar and the business.”

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Priorities at the negotiating table

The discussion about the salary structure and revenue sharing has been the focus of this CBA negotiation. While significant salary increases are expected for the players as they capitalize on an injection of capital and investment in the sport, both sides have not agreed on how those systems should look.

These were some of the priority issues that the players emphasized when they chose not to renew the current CBA in October 2024. The most important issues also include establishing minimum professional standards in the facilities and codifying the league’s charter travel program that was introduced at the beginning of the 2024 season.

The league has expressed its desire to substantially increase the salaries of the players and other cost commitments, while incentivizing owners to continue investing in the operation of the business. The tremendous growth of the WNBA in recent years provides the opportunity for the business to move from operating at a loss to generating sustained profitability. The expansion of retirement and family planning/pregnancy benefits has also been at the forefront for players. After more than 40 players met with the league before the All-Star weekend at the end of July, Breanna Stewart, vice president of the WNBPA, said those topics were the only two points on which both sides had agreed at that time. Prioritization, a set of rules requiring WNBA players competing in other leagues to report on time for WNBA training camp or else be suspended for the season, became a contentious issue after it was introduced in the last CBA. But owners are unlikely to want to relax those rules, especially amid expected WNBA salary increases. One source reported that the issue has not been a major topic in negotiations so far and is not considered a major point of conflict. The players have also expressed their desire to weaken or completely abolish the “core” system, similar to the NFL’s franchise tag, which was already greatly reduced in the last CBA. But the league is unlikely to want to give that up entirely, as it gives teams the opportunity to develop and retain drafted talent, which can create a leveling competitive effect. Team staff have often been frustrated by the league’s roster limits and those of 12 players (many franchises only have 11 players). WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has previously said that the league prefers expansion as a way to increase its size rather than adding roster spots, while the league prefers not to soften the salary cap, a source said, as it believes that some teams would spend significantly more than others, which would create an uneven playing field. Another issue to be resolved is the number of games and scheduling in the future; there was a maximum of 44 games allowed under the current CBA, and although the league may not always be able to maintain the exact same footprint due to international competitions, Engelbert has said that the league would like to try to stick to May to October, with some overlap in November as needed in a year like 2026, when the WNBA will take a break for the FIBA World Cup.

The Impact of Alternative Leagues

WNBA players have competed in other leagues, historically, at the international level, since the league’s inception. But the domestic landscape changed dramatically last year when Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 league founded by Stewart and Napheesa Collier, launched its inaugural season, which ran from January to March. Unrivaled has characterized itself as an alternative for players who want to supplement their income without going abroad during the WNBA’s off-season, and league staff have said that Unrivaled does not intend to be a competitor to the WNBA. Even so, some players have indicated that they hope Unrivaled, with its high salaries and impressive player amenities, can put pressure on the WNBA during this current round of CBA negotiations. Unrivaled offered the players shares last year and, in the future, aims to provide an average salary of $200,000, which the league claims is the highest average salary in women’s professional team sports. In recent weeks, a new league called Project B has announced its intention to debut in November 2026 and operate until April 2027, with WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike, Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones, and Jewell Loyd among its first public signatories. The league’s model features 66 players playing on an international circuit in Europe and Asia, similar to a Formula 1 format. In addition to having player shares, it is reported that their salaries reach seven figures, above what both the WNBA and Unrivaled offer (whose schedule directly conflicts with Project B’s schedule). Like Unrivaled, Project B says it is not a competing league to the WNBA. While prioritization rules ensure WNBA players arrive at training camp on time, the league has no plans to seek exclusivity, that its players only play in the WNBA and nowhere else in the offseason, during this round of negotiations, a source said.

WNBA Draft Eligibility

The start of the college season has evoked a familiar question for basketball fans: Should the WNBA change its draft eligibility rules? Unlike the “one-and-done” rule in the NBA, players must be 22 years old in the calendar year of the WNBA draft to be eligible (unless they have graduated earlier). International players must be 20 years old during the draft calendar year to be eligible.

A source reported that draft eligibility has not been a significant topic of discussion in the negotiations so far.

News about the expansion draft?

As we have already discussed, the celebration of the WNBA expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire is one of the first things that will be done once a new CBA comes into effect. The parameters for the expansion draft must be established in the new CBA, so no rules or guidelines have been given to the teams. But the expectation is that a coin toss will determine which of the two newcomers will choose first in the college and expansion drafts (i.e., the team that goes first in the expansion draft will choose seventh in the college draft, and whoever goes second in the expansion draft will choose sixth in the college draft; the number 6 selection is the first selection after the lottery selections). The expansion draft for the Golden State Valkyries took place on December 6th, with the 12 league teams authorized to protect six players. Golden State selected 11 players, taking one from each team, except Seattle. Since this expansion draft will have two teams building rosters, it is believed that perhaps the other teams in the league can only protect five players this time.

The players chose not to renew the CBA almost a year ago. And now, almost all of those who do not have rookie contracts will be free agents before next season.

The main point of conflict

In public comments, the players have hinted that both sides are effectively speaking different languages at the negotiating table, with the main point of conflict being how a salary system and revenue sharing should look. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on the “Today” show in October that WNBA players can expect a “significant increase” in their salaries. But players are seeking a salary system that grows with the business (as in the NBA, which uses basketball-related income to determine its salary cap) over a fixed-rate model in the current CBA, where the salary cap increases annually by 3%. The league’s salary cap was $1,507,100 in 2025, with a minimum salary of $66,079 and a supermax of $249,244. The current CBA also has a revenue-sharing provision that would result in direct payments to the players if the league reaches certain revenue targets, but it has not yet been activated. Silver said on the “Today” show that participation “is not the right way to look at it because there is much more revenue in the NBA,” suggesting that expenses could still consume a very significant portion of the revenue pie compared to other sports leagues. The WNBPA said in October that the league has “put lipstick on a pig and has once again stepped on a system that is not tied to any part of the business and intentionally undervalues the players.” The league, for its part, has insisted that it has offered a “revenue sharing model without a cap that is directly related to the league’s performance.” And it has continued to state that it wants, as WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said during the WNBA Finals, “to balance the significant increase in salaries and benefits with the long-term viability of the league” and that so far “the Players Association has not yet offered a viable economic proposal.”

What happens if there is no agreement?

Another extension is possible, although the WNBA has a lot to fit into this offseason. And even if the agreement expires, a work stoppage would not automatically occur. Technically, an extension is not necessary for both parties to continue negotiating; instead, they would enter a phase called “status quo” in which the working conditions of the current CBA would remain. The problem: If there is no extension, it would open the door to a possible labor interruption, either a strike initiated by the players or a lockout initiated by the owners. So far, that is not an overwhelming concern. Even before the extension was agreed on October 30, sources throughout the league said they did not believe a labor interruption was imminent.

Off-Season Calendar

There’s a lot to do, starting with an expansion draft for the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo. Once that concludes, free agency offers unprecedented uncertainty with almost half of the league’s players unrestricted. The situation is very different from the CBA negotiations that dragged on well into the spring of 2003. That CBA introduced free agency for the first time, and only for a limited number of players, which means the league could go from a preliminary agreement with the players on an agreement on April 18 to the start of training camp two weeks later, on May 1, with the WNBA draft and a dispersal draft in between. We saw the NBA go from a preliminary agreement to end its 2011 lockout on November 26 to training camps starting on December 9, less than two weeks later, but the league was able to hold free agency at the same time. That’s not realistic given the scope of WNBA free agency, and the new CBA could revise the salary cap in the WNBA more drastically than we’ve seen from one NBA agreement to the next. As a result, about three weeks is the fastest the WNBA could reasonably expect to go from an agreement on an agreement to the start of practices. Ideally, of course, the league wants to move towards an agreement in early January to avoid delaying the typical offseason schedule too substantially. That’s especially important for the Fire and Tempo, which could promote their inaugural season by having real players on their roster.

How Negotiations Work

When the league and the WNBPA hold negotiation sessions, there can be a variety of stakeholders in the room, and they are not always the same people at each meeting, sources familiar with the negotiations said. WNBA and NBA staff, as well as their external advisors, represent the league’s side, with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert attending all substantive negotiation meetings, according to previous negotiations in 2019 and with the actions of former league presidents. WNBPA staff and external advisors are the main participants on the union side, although WNBPA advisors and player leadership may also attend.

The CBA committee of the players is usually made up of at least 33 players: the 26 player representatives (two per team), seven members of the executive committee (Nneka Ogwumike, Kelsey Plum, Elizabeth Williams, Brianna Turner, Alysha Clark, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart) and some other players outside of those groups who have chosen to participate.

The league has its own version of that group, the labor relations committee, which has seven team owners and executives: Suzanne Abair of the Atlanta Dream, Greg Bibb of the Dallas Wings, Ginny Gilder of the Seattle Storm, Kelly Krauskopf of the Indiana Fever, Mat Ishbia of the Phoenix Mercury, Nadia Rawlinson of the Chicago Sky, and Jennifer Rizzotti of the Connecticut Sun. That committee does not participate in the negotiation sessions. The league and the WNBPA first met in December 2024 for a preliminary conversation about the new CBA and held a larger in-person meeting with representatives from the labor relations committee of more than 40 players on All-Star weekend at the end of July. Since then, the WNBPA has met with player leadership “weekly, if not a couple of times a week,” according to a source, and both sides have continued to talk regularly, although participants and scope have fluctuated.