At first, this WNBA offseason won’t be about how teams are upgrading or where the top players in the league end up in free agency. Instead, a potential new WNBA collective bargaining agreement will dominate the storylines.
The WNBPA opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement one year ago, declaring it was time for “transformational change.” Since then, negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement have been contentious on both sides, with the players’ union pushing for an overhaul that includes changing the salary structure and prioritization rules, and the league trying to keep lower salaries.
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The two sides have butted heads multiple times, and there have been multiple public demonstrations by the players: the All-Stars wore ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us” shirts during the All-Star Game in July in Indianapolis, and Lynx forward Napheesa Collier prepared an explosive statement following Minnesota’s elimination from the playoffs in October.
“I’m just tired of our league,” Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said during Indiana’s exit interviews Oct. 2. “They need to step up and be better. Our leadership, from top to bottom, needs to be held accountable. I think that there are a lot of people in positions of power in the WNBA who, they might be really great business people, but they don’t know shit about basketball, and that’s got to change.”
The deadline for the two sides to come to an agreement is Oct. 31, when the current collective bargaining agreement will expire. And players won’t back down from their biggest priorities.
“We are in the biggest moment in WNBA history, there’s no denying that everybody knows that,” Fever superstar Caitlin Clark said Oct. 2. “And everybody that’s in a place in power has a true responsibility, and even myself, we have a responsibility to make sure that this game is in a great place going forward with the CBA and caring for our players, and building this league to make sure it’s in a great spot for many years to come.”
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So, what are the players’ biggest priorities in this CBA cycle?
New WNBA salary structure, WNBA revenue sharing
One of the main sticking points between the league and the players’ union has been about the salary structure, which doesn’t include revenue sharing.
“I promise you that we are not going to play until they give us what we deserve,” Cunningham said.
The salary structure is a fixed rate, with a minimum around $66,000 and supermaximum around $250,000, and player salaries and the team cap increases by 3% each season. WNBA players also only receive about 9% of revenue sharing.
Front Office Sports reported last week that the league proposed a salary structure for the new agreement that would put the rookie minimum at around $300,000 and the supermaximum around $850,000, but it would still be a fixed-rate model.
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But the players’ union is pushing for a salary cap model that relies more on the amount of revenue brought into the league, similar to the NBA’s salary model. NBA players get 50% of the revenue sharing, and that is reflected in each season’s salary cap for the league.
“It’s a problem that we’re not part of the growth of the league,” Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally, a WNBPA player rep, told reporters during the WNBA Finals. “If we were to continue with this CBA, we would really go down, percentage-wise, on our salaries within the growth of the league.”
WNBA players are also pushing for additional retirement and pregnancy benefits. The league hosts a 401(k) program for its players that has an employer match as well as additional contributions based on service years. The players’ union is pushing for a pension for additional benefits after retirement, similar to the NBA.
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WNBA prioritization restructuring
A lot of players in the WNBA, from rookies at the end of the bench to MVP starters, play in different professional basketball leagues in the WNBA offseason to improve their play and supplement their income.
That’s something the WNBA wants to change via prioritization.
The league already made strides in their favor in prioritization in the CBA agreed to ahead of the 2020 season. The WNBA requires contracted players to be with their team the date that team sets or by May 1, whichever is later, or risk being suspended without pay for the entirety of the season.
Players can garner much higher salaries playing overseas than in the WNBA. Diana Taurasi, considered one of the best players in the WNBA over a 20-year career with the Mercury, famously sat out of the 2015 WNBA season because her offseason team in Russia, UMMC Ekaterinburg, paid her $1.5 million.
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Unrivaled, which was founded by Collier and Breanna Stewart and played its first season in January 2024, is a 3×3 league that runs from January to March and doesn’t conflict with the WNBA’s prioritization rules. Unrivaled has also said its salaries are much higher than those of the WNBA.
Still, the WNBA wants to take it a step further in this new agreement.
“The WNBA wants to forbid us from making a lot more money than we ever would here, it seems like, in other leagues,” Sabally said. “It’s very personal. We have families, this is our job, we make more money in China, Russia, Turkey, than we do here.”
Even outside of the financial aspect, playing overseas is an opportunity for players, like Fever rookies Makayla Timpson and Bree Hall, to get more playing time in the offseason. Timpson is playing for USK Praha in the Czech Republic, and Hall is playing in Athletes Unlimited, a 5×5 league based in Nashville.
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The WNBA doesn’t have a developmental program like the NBA’s G-League, so offseason leagues are one of the only opportunities for younger players at the end of benches to get crucial playing time to improve.
“Players that don’t play a lot in the WNBA, they don’t have the opportunity to then get better on other teams,” Sabally said. “You have to play to get better. All that individual training, and with the lack of resources … to access in the offseason, you won’t get better.”
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An overhaul of WNBA officiating
WNBA officials, who typically supplement their income in the offseason with G-League or college games, have salaries ranging from $1,500 to $2,500, depending on experience.
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Still, the WNBA is considered a stepping stone to something bigger for officials.
The NBA recently announced WNBA officials Biniam Maru and Jenna Reneau to be staff officials starting with the 2025-26 season, with NBA head of referee development Monty McCutchen calling it an “advancement” to the NBA staff.
Officiating has long been an issue in the WNBA, but multiple coaches and players calling it out throughout the season. Both Fever coach Stephanie White and Aces coach Becky Hammon were fined multiple times throughout the season, with players fined, as well.
Now, with a new CBA on the way, players are calling for a complete overhaul of officiating, from training to the rules themselves.
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“It’s like a battlefield out there, when we’re agreeing on the court because of how awful the officials are, that’s saying something,” Cunningham said. “Like, listen to us. We’re not going to come for your heads, but I think there is room for improvement to change the (officiating) criteria when the whole league is asking for it.”
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What happens if the WNBA, players’ union don’t agree by Oct. 31? Will there be a lockout in the WNBA?
The original deadline for the two sides to come to an agreement is Oct. 31, but there are other options if they can’t agree by then.
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They can agree to extend the CBA, in order to keep the WNBA offseason schedule on track. The league and players’ union agreed to a two-month extension in 2019 before agreeing to a CBA in January 2020.
An extension would allow the draft lottery, typically held in November, and the expansion draft, typically held in December, to go on as planned while the league and players’ union work toward an agreement.
If either the players’ union or league refuse an extension, however, the league will enter a lockout, or work stoppage. No official WNBA business, including the draft lottery or expansion draft, could go on during a lockout.
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at capeterson@gannett.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Subscribe to IndyStar’s YouTube page for Fever Insiders Live.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: WNBA collective bargaining agreement, players union, officiating, salary
