The 2025 season is within the books. A brand new champion has been topped. However because the offseason begins, the main focus shifts squarely again on collective bargaining negotiations.
The present collective bargaining settlement expires on Oct. 31. Each commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA Gamers Affiliation (WNBPA) have stated their objective is a “transformational” CBA, however the two sides reportedly stay far aside in negotiations on the largest points.
What are these priorities? What occurs if a brand new CBA is not reached by the deadline? How practical is a lockout? Here is a run by the whole lot to know.
What are the gamers’ largest priorities?
Elevated participant salaries is a key challenge, however an important is income sharing: the way it’s decided and whether or not the share will probably be allowed to develop through the course of the CBA as an alternative of a hard and fast quantity during the deal.
“The gamers are nonetheless adamant that we get a proportion of income that grows with the enterprise, which maybe consists of staff income, and that is simply part of the dialog,” WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike instructed ESPN in early August.
Phoenix Mercury ahead Satou Sabally stated a current proposal from the WNBA makes the gamers really feel as if “we’re not a part of the expansion of the league.”
“If we continued with this CBA, we might, percentage-wise, go down on our [compensation],” Sabally stated final week through the WNBA Finals.
Within the NBA, followers are used to wage caps for groups being set primarily based on a proportion of what the CBA describes as “basketball-related revenue,” or BRI. In contrast, the WNBA’s present CBA outlined the cap for every season forward of time with modest 3% annual raises. A mechanism within the CBA that might improve the cap primarily based on income was successfully invalidated by the timing of the deal.
As a result of the present CBA started in 2020 previous to the COVID-19 pandemic, income targets had been set primarily based on the earlier marketing campaign (2019) and made cumulative over the lifetime of the deal. The league made no cash off ticket gross sales through the abbreviated 2020 season, performed in a bubble on the IMG Academy campus in Bradenton, Florida, and attendance was additionally restricted in 2021 by native restrictions. That made it unrealistic for the targets to be met regardless of the league’s elevated attendance over the previous two seasons.
In August, Ogwumike stated a suggestion from the WNBA dramatically elevated the wage cap and most base salaries — the supermax is $249,244 — however adopted the identical mannequin as the present CBA.
“It is principally the identical system that we exist in proper now,” Ogwumike stated. “They’re proposing a system that features income that might develop with the enterprise. Whenever you method it from the attitude of their response to our proposal, sure, cash is extra, however finally should you have a look at the expansion of the enterprise, the cash relative to the share of the whole lot is just about staying the identical.”
A report Friday from Entrance Workplace Sports activities cited sources estimating a supermax wage round $850,000, with the veteran minimal round $300,000.
“There is a potential lockout. I promise you we aren’t going to play till they provide us what we deserve.”
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham
The gamers see the astonishing leap in franchise valuations up to now couple of years and query if they’re getting their correct share of that progress. The Las Vegas Aces, for instance, had been bought for $2 million in 2021 however at the moment are valued at $310 million, and the New York Liberty had been bought for between $10 million and $14 million after being on the market for greater than a 12 months and now have an estimated valuation of round $450 million.
On its face, that is an affordable factor to ask. However what in regards to the NBA’s claims for years of subsidizing WNBA losses? Will the NBA say the brand new cash is partially backfilling previous deficits? May it show that?
Some of the troublesome components of following the WNBA’s labor negotiations all these years has been getting agency numbers from the league’s aspect of issues. The gamers have stated they do not at all times really feel like they get that. By the identical token, the aspect we do hear rather more from — throughout each CBA — is the gamers and their union. There was dramatic change within the WNBA — and what that signifies for the long run — in a brief time period after a few years that appeared stagnant.
The recognition of 2024 No. 1 draft choose Caitlin Clark has been an unlimited enhance for a league that had clearly began to show the nook towards actual progress over the previous 5 years. If that progress continues as anticipated, it is comprehensible the gamers are involved about how their a part of the pie grows, too.
“We’re seeing enlargement, and the gamers are simply saying, ‘Hey, allow us to have our justifiable share of that,'” Ogwumike stated. “Typically meaning proposing one thing new that is smart for the time. Not likely new — new to us, to not different leagues.”
Prioritization is one other challenge that the gamers agreed to within the 2020 deal that they’re anticipated to push again on extra in these negotiations. For the reason that WNBA’s launch, gamers have been allowed to play in different leagues — principally abroad — even when that meant lacking coaching camp or just a few early-season WNBA video games. New guidelines had been put in place within the final CBA that required gamers to prioritize the WNBA. Whereas there are built-in exceptions for youthful gamers and time spent with gamers’ nationwide groups, prioritization has stored some gamers out of the WNBA for a whole season.
Sabally stated that gamers are in so many various conditions primarily based on the place they’re of their careers, how a lot cash they make and if they’re getting back from accidents that she would not suppose it’s helpful to place restrictions on them taking part in in different leagues. Nevertheless it appears unlikely the WNBA homeowners will utterly again away from prioritization.
Sabally additionally stated she has talked with athletes in different basketball leagues, in different sports activities and in different international locations about their very own labor negotiations.
“It is attention-grabbing to listen to in regards to the movement of negotiations,” she stated. “Typically you need outcomes instantly, however it does take time for each events to return to the desk and actually agree on sure issues.”
What influence does the WNBA’s broadcast rights deal have on negotiations?
Final 12 months, the league introduced an 11-year deal — which begins in 2026 — with Disney, Amazon Prime Video and new rights holder NBCUniversal. The deal is valued at about $2.2 billion, a supply instructed ESPN, however future agreements with further companions may convey the league’s general media offers nearer to $3 billion. In line with sources, the settlement may be revisited after three years.
The gamers see that cash, together with the vastly elevated enlargement charges, and wish to make sure that they’re getting what they suppose is a good lower of it. Underneath the deal, Disney (utilizing ABC and the ESPN networks) will telecast eight semifinals collection and 5 Finals, whereas Prime and NBCU every will present seven semifinals and three Finals.
How may the current criticism of Engelbert influence negotiations?
Engelbert was loudly booed by followers Friday in Phoenix when she offered the championship trophy to the Aces and the WNBA Finals MVP award to A’ja Wilson. Commissioners listening to followers’ wrath in these conditions will not be new in professional sports activities — the NHL’s Gary Bettman and MLB’s Rob Manfred have skilled the identical therapy as current examples — however it has raised the problem of how the fractured relationship between Engelbert and the gamers will have an effect on CBA negotiations.
Throughout a four-minute assertion to open her exit interview on Sept. 30, Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier stated the WNBA had the “worst leadership in the world,” accusing Engelbert of being “negligent” in her governance.
Collier stated the league has did not sufficiently deal with points with officiating, compensation for gamers and the state of the general product. She additionally alleged that Engelbert instructed her in a personal dialog in February that Clark and different younger standouts “needs to be on their knees” in gratitude for the platform the league has given them.
Three days later, the commissioner stated there have been “plenty of inaccuracies” in Collier’s assertion and vehemently denied saying the remarks about Clark. “I didn’t make these feedback,” Engelbert stated Oct. 3 at her annual information convention forward of Recreation 1 of the WNBA Finals on Friday.
Collier then canceled a gathering she and Engelbert had tentatively deliberate for the next week, sources instructed ESPN. Engelbert’s assertion that Collier’s depiction of the non-public dialog between them was stuffed with inaccuracies has “just about pushed the connection past restore,” a supply stated.
“Typically you need outcomes instantly, however it does take time for each events to return to the desk and actually agree on sure issues.”
Phoenix Mercury ahead Satou Sabally
On Oct. 6, because the Las Vegas Aces had taken a 2-0 lead over the Phoenix Mercury within the WNBA Finals, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said a brand new collective bargaining settlement with WNBA gamers will probably be reached however acknowledged relationship points should be repaired following.
“There is not any query that the WNBA goes by rising pains, and it is unlucky that it is coming simply as their most vital video games and their Finals are on proper now,” Silver stated Monday. “We have had two unbelievable video games up to now, and we wish to rejoice the sport in the mean time, after which we have to sit down down with the gamers and negotiate a brand new collective bargaining settlement.”
Many WNBA gamers, together with Ogwumike, have stated they help Collier, however she did not inform Ogwumike or the union about her assertion earlier than making it. It got here at a troublesome time for Collier, after she had suffered a season-ending harm in Recreation 3 of the semifinals, adopted by the top-seeded Lynx being upset within the collection by Phoenix.
Whether or not the connection between Engelbert and the gamers may be repaired would take religion effort from either side, which could be even more durable to make occur throughout CBA negotiations when tensions are at all times excessive.
Finally, the help of Silver and the homeowners that Engelbert is representing in CBA talks is of utmost significance for her to remain in her place.
4:24
WNBA commissioner on Collier’s feedback and officiating
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert discusses Napheesa Collier’s feedback and protocols surrounding officiating.
What occurs if a brand new deal is not reached by Oct. 31? How practical is a lockout?
Failing to achieve settlement by Halloween would not essentially translate right into a lockout. Previous to the 2020 collective bargaining settlement, for instance, the 2 sides prolonged the time period of the earlier CBA till they accomplished negotiations in mid-January on the eve of free company.
A piece stoppage could be unprecedented in WNBA historical past. Throughout exit interviews following the Indiana Fever’s playoff elimination earlier this month, guard Sophie Cunningham stated it’s a risk.
“There is a potential lockout. I promise you we aren’t going to play till they provide us what we deserve,” she stated. “That is type of the place it is headed, sadly, which might be the dumbest basketball choice, business-wise, ever, contemplating the momentum the W has.”
The WNBA might need extra urgency this 12 months due to the whole lot that should be completed this offseason. With the Portland Hearth and Toronto Tempo set to start play in 2026 (and enlargement to 18 groups by 2030), the league might want to maintain an enlargement draft and the draft lottery. Final 12 months’s Golden State Valkyries enlargement draft was held Dec. 7, which gave the staff time to arrange totally free company and gamers to advertise their inaugural season.
Though an offseason lockout could be disruptive, most notably by stopping gamers from using staff services to work out — one thing that is extra of a difficulty now than in 2020 with a number of groups constructing devoted apply services which might be accessible to gamers year-round — the actual concern is lacking video games. That is not in anybody’s greatest curiosity.
Particularly, homeowners have extra at stake now that franchise valuations have escalated. Most explicitly in 2003, when negotiations on the WNBA’s second CBA took till April to finish, gamers have at all times needed to cope with the chance that homeowners may withdraw their help for the league.
With fierce competitors for enlargement groups, the WNBA is now not vulnerable to going anyplace. That is elevated participant resolve to make a deal on their phrases — nevertheless lengthy meaning.
“I do not suppose anybody desires to see a lockout,” Ogwumike instructed ESPN shortly after the All-Star Recreation. “That is not one thing that we’re advocating for. We simply wish to be sure that it is a deal that is finished the suitable means and utilizing no matter time it takes for us to have the ability to have either side agree on one thing.”
Key dates to know
One thing to observe is how the WNBA adjusts its timeline of key offseason occasions if the 2 sides mutually conform to an extension for CBA negotiations. A have a look at when occasions had been held final offseason main into the 2025 season:
November and December: Enlargement draft and draft lottery
Final 12 months’s draft lottery was held Nov. 17.
With Toronto and Portland becoming a member of the WNBA for 2026, the league might want to maintain an enlargement draft for a second consecutive 12 months. In 2024, the WNBA held the Valkyries’ enlargement draft on Dec. 6.
January to March: Unequalled’s second season
Unequalled would not have a direct influence on the WNBA, and its stakeholders have stated they do not view it as competitors for the WNBA. However Unequalled — the 3-on-3 league co-founded by Collier and Breanna Stewart — will probably be a focus for ladies’s basketball this offseason. The facilities, high quality of play and continued curiosity degree within the league — which can tip off its second season on Jan. 5, once more primarily based in Miami — will probably be underneath a microscope. It will likely be a hub totally free brokers, common managers and brokers through the offseason.
January and February: WNBA free company
A mammoth free company is anticipated this offseason as virtually each participant not presently on a rookie contract will probably be a free agent for the 2026 season.
Earlier this 12 months, WNBA free company ran from Jan. 11 to Feb. 1:
Jan. 11-20: Groups despatched qualifying affords to designated gamers, making them both restricted free brokers or core gamers.
Jan. 21: The negotiation interval for unrestricted free brokers started. Throughout this window, restricted free brokers additionally negotiated with different groups throughout this time, with the unique staff having the suitable to match any supply.
Feb. 1: Gamers formally signed contracts and free agent signings had been introduced.
April: WNBA draft and coaching camps open
The 2025 WNBA draft was held on April 14. WNBA coaching camps opened on April 27.
Might: WNBA season opens
The 2025 season opened Might 16.
