play1:11How close are WNBA, players’ union after latest bargaining session?Alexa Philippou joins “SportsCenter” to detail the marathon, 12-hour bargaining session between the WNBA and its players’ union.
play1:11How close are WNBA, players’ union after latest bargaining session?Alexa Philippou joins “SportsCenter” to detail the marathon, 12-hour bargaining session between the WNBA and its players’ union.
Stephen A.’s message to the WNBA: ‘Get a deal done!’ (2:07)Stephen A. Smith sides with the players as the WNBA and its players’ union remain at odds over a new CBA. (2:07)
How close are WNBA, players’ union after latest bargaining session?Alexa Philippou joins “SportsCenter” to detail the marathon, 12-hour bargaining session between the WNBA and its players’ union.
Alexa Philippou joins “SportsCenter” to detail the marathon, 12-hour bargaining session between the WNBA and its players’ union.
How close are WNBA, players’ union after latest bargaining session?Alexa Philippou joins “SportsCenter” to detail the marathon, 12-hour bargaining session between the WNBA and its players’ union.
Alexa Philippou joins “SportsCenter” to detail the marathon, 12-hour bargaining session between the WNBA and its players’ union.
Alexa PhilippouMar 14, 2026, 05:15 PM ETCloseCovers women’s college basketball and the WNBA Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati EnquirerFollow on XMultiple Authors
NEW YORK — The WNBA and Women’s National Basketball Players Association on Saturday were entering Day 5 of a marathon stretch of collective bargaining negotiations, meeting for double-digit hours each of the past four days in hopes of finalizing a transformational deal.
The two sides began this intense run of talks on Tuesday, the initial target date the WNBA gave the union for the completion of a term sheet to avoid scheduling impacts on the 2026 season.
Both sides have indicated progress has been made this week, with more to be sorted out over the weekend.
“There’s still work to do,” WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike told reporters Saturday, “but ultimately we want to get this done.”
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters Friday that there is urgency to get a new agreement completed by Monday to avoid disruptions to the preseason calendar, including training camp and preseason games.
ESPN has been on site in midtown Manhattan reporting on how the negotiations have progressed. Training camp is scheduled to begin April 19, and the first preseason games are slated for April 25, with the season openers tipping May 8.
“We have to get it done by Monday,” she continued. “I should say, we have to get it done without disrupting some part of the fact that we’ve got to run this two-team expansion [draft]. We’ve got to get expansion going. We’ve got to get free agency going. We’ve got to get the college draft, which is now a month from today.”
WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson, who spoke Friday before Engelbert’s comments, said she thought the league’s deadlines have often felt “quite arbitrary.”
“I think the league, and particularly the commissioner and her team, have heard that transformational remains the goal,” Jackson told reporters Friday. “As long as movement keeps us going in a forward direction, then I think we’re good.”
Both sides have worked through dozens of more ancillary issues over the past few days. Ogwumike said that the biggest things on the agenda Saturday are to nail down revenue share and housing.
Ogwumike and WNBPA vice president Breanna Stewart have been present for bargaining the entire week. Treasurer Brianna Turner and vice president Alysha Clark were on site until Friday, while vice president Napheesa Collier joined the fray Friday evening.
Jackson reiterated Friday that a system “tied to revenue in a meaningful way” remains a priority for the players.
Throughout negotiations, the league and union have been offering different systems to determine player salaries. The WNBA has proposed that players receive, on average, over 70% of net revenue (revenue after deducting expenses), while the union’s last known offer asked for 26% of gross revenue (revenue before expenses) over the lifetime of the agreement.
The league’s latest known proposal featured a salary cap that would at $6.2 million (up from $1.5 million in 2025) and would continue to grow over the life of the deal. The average player compensation would be projected to reach $570,000 in Year 1 and $850,000 in Year 6, while the maximum compensation would come in at over $1.3 million in Year 1 and nearly $2 million in Year 6.
“I think the continued conversations [this week] have helped us chip away at what the concerns are for both sides and how we meet them, how we address them,” Jackson said on the revenue share discussion.
How close are WNBA, players’ union after latest bargaining session?
The WNBA and union met at 5 p.m. ET at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan to continue negotiations. League personnel and WNBPA staff attended the meeting.
Four WNBPA executive committee members — president Nneka Ogwumike, vice presidents Alysha Clark and Breanna Stewart and treasurer Brianna Turner — attended the meeting as well. They left at 3 a.m. as the meeting continued.
WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson told reporters the bargaining session featured “a lot of conversation going in the right direction,” while WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert added “we’re working hard … and still have work to do.”
Engelbert briefly spoke with reporters but did not take questions, saying both sides are working hard on securing a win-win deal.
She called the talks “complex” and “complicated” and the pursuit of a transformational deal “really important to the future not just of the league, but of women’s sports.”
Asked whether there were indications a deal could be reached in the coming days Jackson responded that “conversations are continuing, and they need to be.”
The two sides swapped proposals over the weekend, with the WNBA submitting a counterproposal Saturday evening, a day after the WNBPA submitted one of its own. That would mean the ball is in the union’s court for the next response.
There’s some interest in holding an in-person meeting, potentially including players, on Tuesday or as close to the deadline as possible. The possible benefits of such were brought up by players at USA Basketball camp over the weekend.
“I don’t understand why we don’t just get in a room and iron it out and shake hands,” Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark told reporters in Miami. “That’s how business is. You look each other in the eye, you shake hands, you respect both sides. For me, that’s what I would love to see.”
“I think that would be great for us all to sit in a room until we really get it done,” Stewart said. “If that means sitting in there for hours and hours at a time, let’s do it. That’s for the better of the player. While a situation like that has never happened before, there’s a first time for everything.”
Notably, there haven’t been any leaks on the contents of the proposals exchanged over the weekend — perhaps a sign both sides recognize the high-stakes nature as the league’s deadline approaches.
But in their previous proposals, the league and the WNBPA were still far apart on revenue sharing, with the WNBA proposing players receive on average over 70% of net revenue (revenue after deducting expenses). Their proposal includes a $5.75 million salary cap in 2026 (up from $1.5 million in 2026) that in subsequent years would grow in line with revenue growth.
The league’s proposals featured maximum salaries, including revenue sharing payouts, amounting to nearly $1.3 million in 2026 and projected to approach $2 million in 2031. The supermax in 2025 came in at $249,000. The average player salary, including revenue sharing, was projected to reach $540,000 in 2026 and $780,000 by 2031, up from $120,000 in 2025.
The union has bristled at the league’s proposal for amounting to less than 15% of gross revenue, while the league has called the union’s proposals “unrealistic” and claimed they would result in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
Other issues the parties are still negotiating include housing, the future of the core designation and retired player benefits.
Sources initially described March 10 as more of a “target date” than a hard-and-fast deadline like three dates where the previous CBA was up for expiration. That said, the league is still pushing for this deal to get done sooner rather than later to avoid any schedule impacts and revenue losses.
Even when a term sheet is completed, it could take several weeks for a deal to be ratified. Then an expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire must be conducted as well as free agency for 100-plus players — all with the 2026 WNBA draft set for April 13.
And even if a deal were to be agreed upon on Tuesday, the league could still be looking at the expansion draft and free agency beginning in April. Training camp is slated to start April 19.
A strike has been on the table since December, when the WNBPA player body authorized the seven-player executive committee to authorize a strike “when necessary.” But the popularity of a strike among the players at this moment remains unknown. First vice president Kelsey Plum said as recently as last week that “a strike would be the worst thing for both sides.”
For one, not a work stoppage — at least, not yet. Under the status quo, the working conditions of the current CBA would be maintained, and the league and union can continue negotiating. But because the CBA expired without a replacement, and the agreement prohibits either side from engaging in a work stoppage, status quo opens the door for a strike initiated by the players or a lockout instituted by the owners.
Sources told ESPN that the league has not been contemplating a lockout, but a strike has been considered for players. In mid-December, they voted to give the union’s seven-player executive committee the right to call a strike “when necessary.”