WNBA CBA negotiations: Four ways a new deal can get done

In just over 100 days, on May 8, the 2026 WNBA season is set to tip off with three games.

Between now and then, the league needs to hold a two-team expansion draft for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, more than 100 unrestricted free agents need to sign contracts, and the 2026 rookies need to be drafted to their teams. Most importantly, the league and players need to agree on a collective bargaining agreement — a process 15 months in the making.

As the deadline passed on Jan. 9, the sides ushered in a period called «status quo» where the conditions of the 2020 deal remain in effect.

In the three weeks since, the stalemate has continued. The Women’s National Basketball Players Association is still awaiting an official response from the league since sending it a proposal a month ago. The league believes the proposal didn’t warrant a response, since it wasn’t that different from the past ones the union has submitted — and instead, sources told ESPN, it’s waiting for the players to submit what it would consider a more «realistic» proposal.

As the season creeps closer, and with so much to accomplish before the ball can be tipped, the clock seems to be ticking on the two sides coming together on a deal. And multiple sources have told ESPN there is an understanding that the only way to find resolution is to find a compromise.

«That’s literally what a negotiation is,» one player told ESPN.

ESPN’s Kendra Andrews, Katie Barnes, Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel assess a potential path toward resolution.

Come to a mutual understanding on revenue sharing

Under the league’s proposals, players would see significant salary increases at the start of the new CBA, with those at the max earning over $1 million dollars. And for the first time, every player’s salary would be tied directly to the league’s success, growing as the business grows. But a big part of the reason for this stalemate is that the sides still do not see eye-to-eye on how revenue sharing will work under a new agreement. The league has proposed a system where players would receive, on average, 70% of net revenue over the lifetime of the agreement, while the players have proposed receiving 30% of gross revenue (net revenue is defined as revenue after deducting expenses, whereas gross revenue is revenue before deducting expenses).

Napheesa Collier told ESPN earlier this month. It’s unclear exactly how much, if at all, the players are willing to budge. The union continues to point to growing franchise valuations and the league’s new media deal as signs that there’s a significant influx of revenue into which owners can tap, and there’s a sentiment among some on the players’ side that team owners who cannot afford to keep up with the wealthier owners of the league should sell their franchises. Others have wondered whether it would be more beneficial for the players to get whatever revenue sharing they can now, potentially pursue a shorter-term deal, and — assuming the business continues to grow as hoped — fight for an even better cut of the pie in the next round of negotiations, where they would have even more leverage. — Philippou

---

Find a middle ground on housing

Team-provided housing emerged as a tension point in negotiations in December 2025. Since the first CBA was ratified in 1999, teams have been required to provide housing for all players from training camp through the playoffs. If players choose not to live in team-provided housing, they receive a stipend, the maximum of which is market dependent. Multiple sources told ESPN that the majority of players use team housing instead of electing to receive the stipend.

Regardless of the details of revenue sharing and the salary cap, WNBA salaries stand to increase substantially. Those pending raises introduced the question of whether team-provided housing remains a necessary cost for the franchises. But it’s not just full-time players with guaranteed salaries who would be affected. WNBA franchises can roster a maximum of 12 players (with many currently only rostering 11 due to the existing salary cap), but only six of those salaries are guaranteed. Throughout the course of a season, teams might also sign players to short-term contracts. Even with raises, finding and securing housing would be a significant burden for those players.

«Housing for all players remains a priority, especially for those on non-guaranteed contracts and international players,» one player told ESPN. «But I think this is one of the toughest issues for the league for whatever reason.»

The NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS and MLB do not provide seasonlong housing for players. The NWSL has a plan to phase out team-provided housing by 2027, but that plan has stipulations for players who don’t have high salaries and/or are in expensive markets. In a deal for the WNBA’s CBA, expect to see a similar type of compromise when it comes to salary and market variability. — Barnes

---

Lean into the wins

Much of the players association’s narrative for months has been the insistence that the league’s proposals are so far from adequate as to be insulting. That’s not an unusual tact for a union to take in such disputes. But sources outside the WNBPA have told ESPN that the union might benefit by starting to talk more optimistically about the wins it appears to have even before the deal is done.

Watch your favorite events in the newly enhanced ESPN App. Learn more about what plan is right for you. Sign Up Now

Dialing down the acrimony doesn’t mean sacrificing the union’s strengths. One of the biggest wins, for instance, is the proposed maximum salary of more than $1 million per season, an important financial milestone for WNBA players. Plus, the average salary is expected to at least triple, also a huge step for the union.

Although the parameters of revenue sharing are still being debated, the eventual terms are projected to be a significant improvement from the last CBA.

When that agreement was signed in January 2020, most observers anticipated the use of charter flights to and from WNBA games would be a major battleground issue in the next CBA. However, chartering came in 2024 — outside of collective bargaining — and that aspect of travel is expected to be codified in this deal. That’s a union win, too.

So is the overall increased player engagement and unity that the players’ association has fostered since the last CBA. That has made the players’ position stronger for this labor deal and subsequent agreements.

Key to reaching a successful conclusion in labor negotiation is that both sides feel confident that gains are made. Thus, an effective strategy for the players association might be to subtly shift its focus toward the union’s victories. — Voepel

---

Nneka Ogwumike sat side-by-side and announced an eight-year CBA. They both wore blue, Ogwumike in a royal blue dress and Engelbert a navy blazer, as they shared the news of their agreement on «Good Morning America.»

«We’re so proud of the players and their ability to unify around important issues to them,» Engelbert said. «While they bargained hard, we came together, collaborated and we have what we think is a groundbreaking agreement that’s going to support these players for the long term.»

It was a different time. This was before COVID-19 upended the world and severely impacted sports seasons. Before the player activism during the ensuing bubble season that led to the sale of the Atlanta Dream by former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and the players campaigning for her eventual replacement in the Senate, Raphael Warnock. This was before the 2022 capital raise that further complicated the WNBA ownership structure. It was before the explosion of women’s basketball’s popularity, driven by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. It was before closed-door dissatisfaction with Engelbert’s leadership spilled into the public when Collier put the commissioner on blast during her 2025 exit interview. It was before there was a massive break of trust between the league and its players.

As it stands, the WNBA and WNBPA are struggling to do what Engelbert boasted about back in 2020: collaborate. Instead, the two sides have thrown barbs — and in doing so, eroded much of the mutual trust, leading each side to question whether the other is negotiating in good faith.

Ogwumike indicated as much when asked about the league’s projection that the current WNBPA proposal would lead to $700 million in losses, telling ESPN she feels «the league and teams saying that they’re losing money is like saying their pockets are empty while you’re also holding the keys to a brand-new Ferrari.»

Union vice president Breanna Stewart told ESPN she’d like to meet face-to-face with the league’s owners, a sentiment other sources have echoed as a potential route to consider. Allowing the key stakeholders to engage in a dialogue and hear each other out — directly and not through layers of lawyers and middlemen — could be more productive in helping break the stalemate and get a deal across the finish line.

«At some point, enough is enough,» she told ESPN. «Personally, I want to be in the room talking about the real stuff happening. These meetings get so sidetracked by the language, verbiage and context. We’re missing the point.» — Andrews, Barnes and Philippou