play2:12Phillipou: New WNBA CBA a ‘transformational deal’Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
play2:12Phillipou: New WNBA CBA a ‘transformational deal’Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
play2:12Phillipou: New WNBA CBA a ‘transformational deal’Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
Shams details WNBA collective bargaining agreement (2:05)Shams Charania details what is included in the groundbreaking WNBA collective bargaining agreement. (2:05)
Phillipou: New WNBA CBA a ‘transformational deal’Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
Phillipou: New WNBA CBA a ‘transformational deal’Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
Phillipou: New WNBA CBA a ‘transformational deal’Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
Alexa Philippou says the verbal agreement on a new CBA between the WNBA and players’ union will change the landscape of the league.
Alexa PhilippouMar 18, 2026, 11:01 AM 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
“We have aligned on key elements of a new collective bargaining agreement together,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters in New York around 3 a.m. ET Wednesday.
The WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association had met for eight consecutive days in midtown Manhattan, spending over 100 hours in the bargaining sessions. The two sides agreed in principle to a new CBA Wednesday morning, with the deal coming 51 days before the league’s 30th season is scheduled to open and 17 months after the players opted out of their previous agreement.
10:45 a.m. ET: Under the new CBA, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania, the salary cap will start at $7 million (up from $1.5 million in 2025) with the supermax starting at $1.4 million (was $249,244 in 2025). The average salary will be around $600,000 ($120,000 in 2025), with the minimum salary surpassing $300,000 ($66,079 in 2025), sources said.
3:15 a.m. ET: Details of the agreement have yet to be shared. The agreement is pending ratification by the players as well as the WNBA and the NBA board of governors.
Both sides agreed early on that they were looking for a “transformational” deal. The new CBA is expected to offer the league’s first $1 million salaries and, also for the first time in league history, tie the salary system to revenue growth. The agreement is anticipated to reflect the league’s skyrocketing growth and popularity, with viewership, attendance and investment reaching historic levels over the past few years.
Training camp is slated to commence April 19, followed by preseason games beginning April 25 and the regular season starting May 8.
“The progress made in these discussions marks a transformative step forward for players and the league,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters shortly before 3 a.m. ET, “and it’s underscoring a shared commitment to the continued growth of the game.
“It’s [been] a process, but we’re very proud to be leading in women’s sports, and these players are amazing, and we’re going to have an amazing 30th season tipping off in May.”
Terri Carmichael Jackson, the WNBPA executive director, said, “I think this can be summed up in two words: player empowerment … players coming to the table and standing on business and being reminded of the collective voice and of what it means to be in a union and the power of this union. They never forgot it, and they have taken it, like they always do, to the next level.”
“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.
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.