With a official schedule released for its 30th season, the WNBA is all set to kick off in style. The opening day will feature a matchup between the Indiana Fever and the Dallas Wings. But what caught everyone’s attention was Caitlin Clark, who will lock horns with a rival from her college basketball days.
On Saturday, May 9, the Fever will welcome the Dallas Wings to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in a 1 p.m. ET tipoff.
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But if you think this is just another game, it’s not. This is a long-awaited showdown between Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, a rivalry that dates back to their unforgettable NCAA Tournament battles and is still talked about to this day. The hype around their professional face-off truly ignited in 2025, when the Dallas Wings selected Bueckers with the No. 1 overall pick. However, that season produced just one meeting between the two, with injuries limiting their opportunities to go head-to-head.
This Fever–Wings opener is expected to feature the last four No. 1 overall draft picks: Aliyah Boston (2023), Clark (2024), Bueckers (2025), and Dallas’s yet-to-be-named 2026 top selection. But that’s not all, as this game will also mark the first time since the Wings’ inaugural season in 2016 that Indiana and Dallas meet on opening night.
Besides this, the Fever home schedule is packed with high-profile matchups. They will host both of their 2025 postseason opponents, welcoming the Atlanta Dream on June 4 and June 18, before the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces make their lone trip to Indianapolis on Aug. 6.
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Moreover, they will also face off against two brand-new opponents.
Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, who will debut in the upcoming season, will play against the Fever, with the Fire visiting Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 20 and the Tempo arriving on June 16.
The league will also bring the Commissioner’s Cup back for the sixth year, with regular-season games from June 1 to 17. So, the 2025 Cup winner, Indiana, will look to defend its title against six opponents – Atlanta Dream, New York Liberty, Washington Mystics, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, and Toronto Tempo.
But it’s worth noting that the season is still full of uncertainty. While matchups like Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers are already circled on the calendar, much of what these teams will actually look like by May is still very much unresolved.
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WNBA and WNBPA remain far apart on a new CBA
While the schedule release is widely viewed as a positive step towards the upcoming season, after months of stalled progress. The fact remains that the players and the league have consistently failed to find a common ground when it comes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
While the players are pushing for a system that pays them roughly 30% of gross revenue to players, along with a much higher team salary cap, the league is offering a model that will pay players more than 70% of net revenue, which would be calculated after expenses like travel, facilities, and medical care.
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On a positive side, the league’s proposal could raise the maximum base salaries to around $1 million in 2026, with the potential to climb to $1.3 million through revenue sharing. But the players have argued that what the WNBA is offering masks the true value that they bring to the table. This gap is keeping both parties in limbo.
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As a result, after multiple missed deadlines and no new CBA in place, the players’ union and the league have entered a ‘status quo’ period, which has pushed free agency across the league to later dates, leaving rosters, including those of Indiana and Dallas, largely unresolved.
So until that logjam clears, the Caitlin Clark–Bueckers showdown remains clouded by uncertainty, even when the schedule says so.
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