Last Thursday, one day before the October 31 deadline, the WNBA and the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) announced that they had agreed to a 30-day extension of the current collective agreementgiving both groups at least 30 more days to negotiate a new deal.
This eliminates a possible lockout for the moment – although, according to Athleticsboth sides have the option to end the extension with 48 hours’ notice – showing that both sides can at least agree on something. It also shows that there is reason to be optimistic that the “transformational” CBA players are seeking (and that WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert claimed she wants it too) is at hand.
If you have followed the union struggle of recent months, you may not share my optimism. Things got ugly. Players initially opted out of this current CBA a year ago, but turned up the heat in negotiations this summer when 40 players attended a negotiating session before the WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis and felt “disrespected” by coming together. Before the All Star game, players wore t-shirts that read “Pay us what you owe us.”
WNBA CBA negotiations: Everything you need to know after both sides agree to extension
Jack Maloney
During the playoffs, the WNBPA vice president and Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier escalation of tensions when she delivered a pre-written statement during her exit interview, declaring that the WNBA had “the worst leadership in the world.” A few weeks ago, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (who oversees WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert) said in an interview on the Today Show that while yes, WNBA players deserve a big raise and should get a higher percentage of revenue than they currently receive, revenue “share” was the wrong frame for the conversation; instead he said that salary figures should be fixed.
The WNBPA took umbrage at this characterization, and WNBPA Executive Director Terri Jackson issued a statement saying the league’s “response was to run out of time, put lipstick on a pig, and retread a system that is unrelated to any part of the business and intentionally undervalues players.”
The crux of the conflict concerns revenue sharing. The WNBA wants to give players a significant raise. Sports at reception reports that the WNBA proposed a deal with a maximum salary of about $850,000, up from $250,000, and a minimum salary of $300,000, up from about $80,000. But the league wants to keep the current framework in place, a fixed salary cap that increases by a predetermined percentage each year. In this model, revenue sharing is only triggered if certain financial goals are met, although the WNBA has issued a statement “The overall proposals we have made to players include a revenue sharing element which would see player compensation increase as league revenue increases – with no cap on the increase.”
Players want a model closer to that of the NBA, where salary caps are directly tied to a percentage of basketball-related revenue. This would allow them to reap the rewards of the WNBA’s growth in real time. In the NBA, players receive approximately 50% of basketball-related revenue; it is unlikely that WNBA players will be able to get a 50% split because operating costs are high and there is not as much revenue to cover them as in the NBA. But right now, WNBA salaries only make up about 9 percent of basketball revenue.
These are two fundamentally different ways of looking at compensation and growth, and it is undoubtedly worrying that the two sides continue to approach negotiations in such disparate ways at such a late stage in the process.
But my optimism remains, because for perhaps the first time in the history of women’s team sports, there is enough money in the kitty to make all parties happy, and enough momentum to provide the motivation needed to make uncomfortable decisions in the short term and set the stage for more riches for everyone in the long term.
The WNBA’s revenues have not only increased in recent years; it exploded. The league just signed an 11-year, $2.2 billion television deal, with additional broadcast deals to come. Mark Davis purchased the The Aces of Las Vegas for $2 million in 2021. Four years and three championships later, the Aces are valued at more than $300 million. The owners of the three most recently announced expansion teams – Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029) and Philadelphia (2030) – each shelled out $250 million in expansion fees. Sportico reports that the Valkyries of the Golden Statewhich just completed its inaugural season, are already worth $500 million and are expected to generate around $70 million in revenue this year. The 2025 season attendance records broken and I saw grades soar. Business is healthy and shows no signs of slowing down.
Historically, women’s sports have been treated with kid gloves by investors and owners, with operational structures created to minimize losses and prioritize stability above all else. Given that women’s team sports are so new to the professional market compared to their men’s counterparts and face multiple levels of systemic sexism in media, advertising, fans and business, the conservative approach was somewhat understandable.
But when you let the worst-case scenario dictate every decision, you put a cap on the best-case scenario. It’s a testament to the players that the league has grown as much as it has despite this limited governance. With this upcoming CBA, players are asking the league to take the training wheels off. It will take a change in mindset from the owners and, most likely, some compromise from the players to help grease the wheels. But there is too much money to be made for all parties for common sense not to prevail.
The WNBA is no longer in survival mode, and it’s time to have a CBA that reflects that. Hopefully by November 30, this will be a reality.
