Urgency in WNBA Negotiations to Avoid Preseason Disruptions
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert informed the media of the need to finalize a new collective bargaining agreement before Monday. The goal is to avoid any alteration to the preseason schedule, including training camps and preseason games.Over the past four days, the league and the union have dedicated extensive hours to negotiations, starting Tuesday, the initial date set by the WNBA to finalize terms and avoid impacts on the 2026 season. Training camp is scheduled to begin on April 19, and the first preseason games are scheduled for April 25. The executive director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, Terri Carmichael Jackson, mentioned that the league’s deadlines often seemed “quite arbitrary.” Nevertheless, both Engelbert and Jackson agreed that progress has been made this week, especially in the negotiation of secondary matters in the last two days. Talks will continue on Saturday. Jackson noted that “the movement is still the word” as the parties engage in their fourth day of intense negotiations. Engelbert indicated that both parties “still have many issues to resolve”. “I think the league, and particularly the commissioner and her team, have heard that transformative remains the goal,” Jackson told reporters. “As long as the movement keeps us moving in a positive direction, I think we’re fine.” However, the parties still need to agree on a new revenue sharing system. Jackson reiterated that a system “significantly linked to revenue” remains a priority for the players. “I think the ongoing conversations [this week] have helped us reduce both sides’ concerns and how we address them,” he said. The league and the union have proposed different systems for determining the players’ salaries. The WNBA has proposed that the players receive, on average, more than 70% of net income (income after deducting expenses), while the union’s latest known offer requested 26% of gross income (income before expenses) during the term of the agreement.“We have to get it done by Monday. I have to say, we have to get it done without disrupting some of the fact that we have to do this two-team expansion draft,” Engelbert stated. “We have to get the expansion going. We have to get free agency going. We have to have the college draft, which is now a month from today.”
Cathy Engelbert, WNBA Commissioner
Previously, the union opposed the league’s proposal to give players less than 15% of gross revenue, while the WNBA has called the union’s proposals “unrealistic” and has stated that they would result in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to the latest known data, the parties exchanged salary caps for the first year of $6.2 million (excluding revenue sharing payments) from the league and about $9.5 million from the players. “Now we have to keep dancing and see where we get,” Jackson said. WNBPA Vice President Napheesa Collier joined the negotiations in person on Friday night, but executive committee teammates Brianna Turner and Alysha Clark, who were present earlier in the week, have already left. “It’s significant to sit at the table and listen to their concerns, for them to listen to ours or listen to why we believe something we are negotiating is where we want to be,” Engelbert said. “In some cases, they agree. In others, they don’t. We listen to the players when they talk about things, and they listen to us. So, you know, progress.” Jackson added: “The negotiations last time, that’s how we achieved it. We keep working and keep doing the work tirelessly.”
