What are WNBA players seeking in the next collective bargaining agreement?

New York Times

21-05-2025

For 18 months leading up to last October's opt-out deadline for the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement, executive director of the players association Terri Jackson heard a consistent drumbeat about what the league's players wanted to prioritize.
Fair wages, consistent codified minimum work standards and expanded retirement benefits were among players' demands. In an era of explosive growth for the WNBA, players' desire for meaningful changes increased, too. So it came as no surprise that just days after the 2024 WNBA season ended, players opted out of the current CBA three years before its expiration.
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The current CBA, agreed to in January 2020, created significant shifts in the WNBA. Maximum player salary jumped from $117,500 to more than $200,000. Groundbreaking maternity benefits were enacted, and granular aspects of the player experience were adjusted: For the first time, players would be entitled to individual hotel rooms instead of shared rooms.
'I think what we did last time was right for the time,' Jackson said. 'This has to be different. … This has got to be seen as a moment, as a CBA that is building on the winds of last time and still pushing this league — not just the players but the players and the teams and the league — forward.'
The two sides have been negotiating for months. Jackson said league executives and WNBPA leaders talk 'often.' WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike (a Seattle Storm forward) and Jackson said they want the new agreement to be 'transformational.'
'I think the players are in solidarity of what we want and making sure that we're continuing to fight and advocate for our rights and making sure this league is continuing to get better,' said Breanna Stewart, a vice president on the WNBPA's executive committee and New York Liberty forward.
The 2025 WNBA season has just begun, but questions about the future of the league are swirling. Here are answers to important questions about where the negotiations stand:
Players are coming to the negotiating table with several priorities, including increased salaries, a softened salary cap and more access to family planning services. Retirement benefits that provide long-term security for players and their families are also among key priorities, and standardizing team work environments, including facility and travel accommodations as well as support staff minimums, are on the list too. Jackson said the WNBPA has asked to have a seat at the table for future media rights negotiations, too. Jackson had previously said players should be informed how the deal was valued at $200 million. As is the case across other professional sports leagues, media rights are a significant revenue driver for the WNBA.
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'We asked to be a part of media rights negotiations (that resulted in last year's agreement),' Jackson said. 'And we are hopeful to be a part of them this next go-round. The commissioner seemed inclined to do that.'
Player leadership has been consulting an advisory committee, which is composed of experts in sports and media rights, labor negotiations and economics. Player leadership interviewed and selected the group to inform it on as much as possible across topics. 'The resources are different and make us even stronger this time around,' Jackson said.
Engelbert has not publicly commented on what team ownership seeks at the bargaining table. At April's draft, she said she wants 'a fair deal for all, but it has to be within the confines of a sustainable economic model that goes on for 10 years.'
Englebert has said she wants to work within the growth framework that allows the league to invest in players. She said introducing full charter travel last season cost more than $20 million.
'That has to be recognized as part of the economic model that we've built,' she said. 'We've had a few years of great growth, hyper-growth, I would call it. But we need to continue to make sure that we can fund the things that the players are asking for, that we want for them, too.'
'We continue to meet regularly and engage in productive discussions with the WNBPA as we work collaboratively toward a new agreement,' a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement to The Athletic.
In the last agreement, owners successfully pushed for league prioritization in a clause that forces most players competing internationally to return for the start of WNBA training camp or face suspension. Prioritization would seemingly remain important as owners are likely to try to keep this clause in the CBA as it helps bolster the WNBA talent pool at the start of the season.
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Salaries are expected to significantly increase in the upcoming agreement. This year's top four draft picks will make around $79,000. The minimum player salary for a player with three-plus years of service is also around $79,000, with this season's maximum salary around $250,000.
In addition to salary increases, protections on players' contracts could be negotiated. The first three seasons of WNBA rookie contracts are unprotected — meaning players are not guaranteed any of their salaries. This creates greater uncertainty for younger players relative to the NBA, where first-round rookie contracts are guaranteed for the first two seasons. Stewart also said she'd like to see developmental roster spots added for practice players who are not on teams' active rosters in the new agreement. If enacted, that would presumably require another salary framework.
Stewart said the sides are still in 'preliminary rounds.' Ogwumike seems content with the process so far. 'As a union and as union staff, we're on schedule with where we want to be,' Ogwumike said.
Jackson said players have submitted multiple proposals to the league. Engelbert said at the 2025 WNBA Draft that they received partial proposals.
Jackson said that she would like to see significant progress made on the deal by the mid-July All-Star break, and a deal finalized, or close to being completed, by the conclusion of the 2025 season in mid-October.
'We're hopeful that the league and the teams are as committed to those due dates for this group project as we are,' she said.
The new 3×3 winter professional women's basketball league that debuted last winter does not have a CBA. However, it's hard to overlook the impact the winter league could have on the ongoing talks.
Unrivaled is a reminder of what players could be worth in a non-CBA environment. It paid its 30-plus players an average salary of more than $220,000 for a 10-week season and signed a six-figure TV deal ahead of its debut. The league, which provided players with equity, also put a premium on amenities.
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Unrivaled created a private professional training facility in a matter of months and ensured its facility offered numerous childcare options. The league made $27 million in revenue this year, a source with knowledge of its financials said. That's double what league officials had projected last summer, and Unrivaled nearly broke even.
'A league at this level happening in the WNBA offseason built by players, just hitting high marks, and they almost broke even, I am paying attention,' Jackson said. 'I think it adds more detail and more information and context to the business of women's basketball.'
While Ogwumike, Jackson and the rest of the WNBPA hope an agreement is in place by Oct. 31, which is the final day of the current agreement, players association leadership has also not ruled out the possibility of a work stoppage.
'The job is to get a CBA done and to get it done on time,' Jackson said. 'We're not interested in doing anything but getting a deal done. The players opted out early, announced early and hit the ground running. And that's what we're doing. We still have time on our side and we're gonna manage that.'
As negotiations progress, there's a question about how long any new agreement will be in place. The current agreement included an option for either party to terminate the deal by Nov. 1, 2024, if it didn't want to see the document through until the end of the 2027 season. That seven-year span is consistent with past CBAs the two sides have agreed to. However, Ogwumike acknowledged that an agreement's longevity could change.
'We've only known it to have the statute that it has now,' she said. 'As we've currently known it to be, whenever we do come to an agreement, it probably feels like it's too long. The changes that we're seeking. The changes that the players want, I'm not sure if we would want to lock ourselves into anything that we're not necessarily able to attain for too long.'