How was WNBA’s new proposal received by the players? (1:23)Alexa Philippou explains why WNBA players are saying the league’s latest CBA proposal falls short. (1:23)
Thanksgiving week is typically a time for rest and reflection. But in midtown New York in the coming days, the WNBA and WNBA Players’ Association (WNBPA) will be hard at work at the bargaining table as they continue to work toward a new collective bargaining agreement with a deadline looming.
The current CBA is set to expire Sunday after both sides agreed to a 30-day extension in late October. The negotiations can continue into December, and a deadline could be extended again, but time is ticking as the end of the calendar year approaches, with a two-team expansion draft and packed free agency period still needing to take place this offseason.
News broke last week that the WNBA had proposed a deal including a revenue sharing component that, in combination with a base salary, would allow players to earn a maximum salary of more than $1.1 million, on average more than $460,000 and a minimum of more than $220,000.
But the WNBPA did not see that proposal as something that moved negotiations forward, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
ESPN canvassed players across the league for their thoughts on the league’s proposal and a common theme emerged: that there was work to still be done in securing the revenue share system the players have been advocating for. So much so that one player called the league’s proposal a “slap in the face,” and another described it as “frustrating.”
In 2025, the league’s minimum salary was $66,079 and its supermax was $249,244, so the proposal did include significant salary increases. But sources told ESPN that the union does not see the league’s proposal as including a system in which the salary cap and player salaries sufficiently grow with the business, a longstanding demand of the players since they opted out of the current CBA in October 2024.
In the current CBA, the salary cap increased annually by a fixed rate (3%), coming in at $1,507,100 in 2025, and a separate revenue sharing provision called for direct payments to players if the league hit certain revenue targets. Largely due to the COVID-19-impacted seasons of 2020 and 2021, that component was not triggered over the course of the agreement.
Instead of a fixed salary cap, the players instead want a salary system based more directly on revenue, such as in the NBA, in which the salary cap is determined by basketball-related income (BRI).
The league previously said in a statement it has proposed “significant guaranteed salary cap increases and substantial uncapped revenue sharing that enables player salaries to grow as the league’s business grows.” The union responded in a statement that said the proposal “put lipstick on a pig and retread a system that isn’t tied to any part of the business and intentionally undervalues the players.”
What is the latest on where negotiations stand? What happens if there isn’t a deal reached by Sunday?
The league and union have sent updated proposals back and forth since last week. Even with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, they are planning to meet throughout the week and into the weekend ahead of Sunday’s deadline.
The league and WNBPA could agree to another extension at the deadline; even if that doesn’t happen, a work stoppage would not automatically follow. They could continue bargaining under a phase called “status quo,” in which the working conditions of the current CBA would remain in place. But a lack of an extension could open the door for a strike (initiated by players) or lockout (initiated by owners).
As the CBA deadline continues to be pushed back, so does the expansion draft for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, who will both be playing their inaugural seasons in 2026.
The expansion draft would be among the first order of business once a new CBA is put in place, and a league source told ESPN both teams are trying to prepare for it. But they are “working with more questions than answers.”
Last year, the Golden State Valkyries were told the format of their expansion draft one month before the Dec. 6 draft night. Golden State was informed of the list of protected players from the other preexisting teams 11 days before the draft. As it stands, Portland and Toronto have “nothing.”
A coin flip will eventually be held with the winner picking whether they select No. 6 in the college draft and No. 2 in the expansion draft, or No. 7 in the college draft and No. 1 in the expansion draft — but a date has not yet been set for when that will take place.
The uncertainty has hindered the Fire’s and Tempo’s ability to strategize as much as they’d like at this point in the offseason, the source said.
Though nothing is set in stone, they anticipate the WNBA to model this expansion draft similarly, if not the same as, the 2000 expansion draft, the last time there was a multiteam expansion.
In that year’s draft, preexisting teams were allowed to protect five players on their current roster. The league source told ESPN that is probably what will happen again for the Fire and Tempo. Last year, teams were allowed to protect six players from the Valkyries.
WNBA free agency typically starts Jan. 11, with contracts able to be signed starting Feb. 1, and the season annually tipping off in May. But as negotiations linger, the source said that they are preparing for an expedited calendar. And in one extreme scenario, the source said they are even prepping for the expansion draft, free agency and college draft to all be held between March and the beginning of April.
Will WNBA and WNBPA reach a new CBA agreement within 30-day extension window?
The conversation over salary structure and revenue share has long been the centerpiece of this CBA negotiation. While meaningful salary increases are expected for the players as they capitalize off an infusion of capital and investment in the sport, both sides haven’t seen eye to eye on what those systems should look like.
Those were among several priorities the players emphasized when they opted out of the current CBA in October 2024. The biggest issues also include establishing minimum professional standards in facilities and codifying the league’s charter travel program that was introduced at the beginning of the 2024 season.
The league has said it wants to substantially increase player salaries and other cost commitments, while also incentivizing owners to continue to invest in operating the business. The WNBA’s tremendous growth in recent years provides an opportunity for the business to go from operating at losses to building sustained profitability.
Expanding retirement and pregnancy/family planning benefits have also been at the forefront for players. After 40-plus players met with the league ahead of All-Star Weekend in late July, Breanna Stewart, a vice president with the WNBPA, said those topics were the only two bullet points both sides had agreed on at that time.
Prioritization, a set of rules that requires WNBA players competing in other leagues to show up in time for WNBA training camp or else be suspended for the season, became a controversial topic after it was introduced in the last CBA. But it’s unlikely owners would want to loosen those rules, especially amid expected WNBA salary increases. A source told ESPN that the topic has not largely figured into negotiations so far and that it’s not considered a major point of contention.
Players have also expressed a desire to weaken or abolish entirely the “core” system, akin to the NFL’s franchise tag, which was already largely reduced in the past CBA. But the league is unlikely to want to give that up entirely as it provides teams the opportunity to develop and retain drafted talent, which can create a leveling competitive effect.
The league’s hard cap and 12-player roster limits (many franchises carry only 11 players) have often frustrated team personnel. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has previously said that the league prefers expansion as a way to grow its size rather than adding roster spots, while the league prefers not to soften the cap, a source said, as it believes some teams significantly outspending others would create an unlevel field of competition.
WNBA players have competed in other leagues — historically, internationally — since the league’s inception. But the domestic landscape changed dramatically this past 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 incomes without going overseas during the WNBA offseason, and league personnel have said Unrivaled isn’t meant to be a competitor to the WNBA. Still, some players have indicated they hope Unrivaled, with its high salaries and impressive player amenities, can apply pressure to the WNBA during this current round of CBA negotiations.
Unrivaled offered players equity last year and moving forward aims to provide an average salary of $200,000, what the league claims is the highest average salary in women’s professional team sports.
Over the past few weeks, a new league called Project B has announced its intention to debut in November 2026 and run through April 2027, with WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike, Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones and Jewell Loyd among its first public signees. The league’s model features 66 players playing on an international circuit across Europe and Asia, similar to a Formula 1 format.
In addition to having player equity, their salaries are reported to reach seven figures, above what’s offered by both the WNBA and Unrivaled (the latter’s schedule directly conflicts with Project B’s schedule). Like Unrivaled, Project B says it’s not a competitor league to the WNBA.
While prioritization rules ensure WNBA players arrive on time to training camp, the league has no plans of asking for exclusivity — that its players only play in the WNBA and nowhere else in the offseason — during this round of negotiations, a source said.