Following collective agreement negotiations (ABC), WNBA and the players’ union have agreed to a moratorium on future free agency activity, the league confirmed to IndyStar. Now, no free agency activity will take place until both parties agree on a new collective bargaining agreement.
This moratorium was a natural step in the negotiation process between the league and the players’ union towards a new collective agreement. The two sides have been negotiating for more than a year, with significant sticking points over salary structure and revenue sharing, and the collective bargaining agreement officially expired on January 9 after two extensions.
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Both sides are currently in a status quo state; This does not mean there is an owner-initiated lockout or player-initiated strike, but either party can request one without notice.
If the moratorium had not been agreed, the teams would have been obliged under US labor law. to carry out certain procedural events, which would have included sending qualifying offers between January 11 and 20. These qualifying offers, which would be aimed at prospective players, restricted free agents and reserved players. These qualifying deals would have been governed by the terms of the now-expired collective bargaining agreement, and players were unlikely to have signed them because that would have locked them into the expired CBA salary rates.
The moratorium extends to all free agent activity, including the qualifying offer period, the negotiating period which was scheduled to begin January 21, and free agent signing which was scheduled to begin February 1.
So, what happens now for Fever?
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More: What does the WNBA status quo mean for the Indiana Fever? Impacts Kelsey Mitchell, Lexie Hull
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Indiana will have to wait for a new collective bargaining agreement to send out qualifying offers or negotiate with free agents.
Fever can strategize for certain portionssuch as sending a restricted qualifying offer to Lexie Hull. They could also strategize to send a qualifying base offer to Kelsey Mitchellassuming the fundamentals don’t change in the new collective bargaining agreement, or decide which free agents they would like to target.
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Indiana will also need to prepare as much as possible for an expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, both of whom are scheduled to begin play in the 2026 season. Under a typical WNBA offseason, the expansion draft would have already taken place; the expansion project of the Valkyries of the Golden Statewhich started playing in 2025, was in December 2024.
More: Why the Fever can protect these players in the WNBA Expansion Draft, with one caveat
Neither existing nor expansion teams know the rules of the expansion draft, as these are governed by the collective bargaining agreement.
The WNBA offseason schedule will be compressed. Whenever a new CBA is agreed upon, offseason events, including the expansion draft, qualifying offer period, and free agency, will occur quickly.
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Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever reporter for IndyStar. Contact her at [email protected] or follow her on @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage delivered straight to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark’s Fever Newsletter. Subscribe to the IndyStar YouTube channel for Fever Insiders live.
This article was originally published on the Indianapolis Star: “WNBA, players’ union agree to moratorium”. What this means for Indiana fever
