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Alexa Philippou
PHILADELPHIA — The WNBA and the WNBPA are scheduled to hold an in-person meeting in New York on Monday after talks for a new collective bargaining agreement have been at a standstill for weeks and with the 2026 season under 100 days away.
The meeting is expected to include union staff and union leadership as well as league leadership, including the labor relations committee and team owners. WNBPA executive committee members Kelsey Plum, Napheesa Collier and Nneka Ogwumike are set to attend in person.
«I think we’ll learn a lot from this meeting,» Plum said from Philadelphia, where she is participating in a tour stop for the 3-on-3 Unrivaled league. «This is a meeting that, I think, everyone understands what’s at stake, timeline-wise.»
Plum, the first vice president of the players’ union, estimated that there has not been an in-person meeting between the league and players since the WNBA playoffs last fall.
«At the end of the day, we’re human beings. I think conversation face-to-face goes a long way,» Plum said. «Going into this meeting, I’m just excited for the opportunity to be able to be there in person with other players that are really invested in this, in the [executive committee] and stuff, and then of course the league making the commitment to be there.»
Those sentiments were echoed by WNBPA vice president Breanna Stewart earlier this month, when she told ESPN, «At some point, enough is enough. 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.»
Stewart is also planning to participate in the meeting.
Fifteen months after the WNBPA opted out of the last CBA, the two sides remain far apart in determining how a new revenue-sharing system should work, among other topics, in a new deal.
The league still announced its 2026 schedule last week. Even after an agreement is reached, the league must hold a two-team expansion draft and unprecedented free agency period. The WNBA draft is scheduled for April 13.
Though they have held smaller staff-to-staff meetings, the two sides have not met for a full bargaining session this month. The WNBPA submitted a proposal a month ago that the league has not yet responded to, believing it didn’t warrant a response since it wasn’t that different from past ones the union has submitted. Sources told ESPN the league is waiting for the players to submit what it would consider a more «realistic» proposal.
«I think the thing is just sitting down and understanding the relationship and conversation, I think, is No. 1,» Plum said. «Let’s be real: When we play telephone with people in our own lives, a lot of times things can get scattered, right? So to be able to sit down face-to-face and say ‘this is how I feel, this is how you feel, let’s see what we can do from there.'»
