Here’s what will happen if the WNBA does not approve a new CBA originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The WNBA and the WNBPA are running out of time.
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On Oct. 30, the league and the players’ union agreed on a 30-day extension of the current collective bargaining agreement, in anticipation of shaking hands over a historic new deal by the end of November.
Last week, the WNBA made an offer to the WNBPA that promised a $1.1 million supermax salary for qualifying players.
The million-dollar salary was the item that garnered national attention — but the union found the CBA offer on the whole to be unsatisfactory.
That’s because the WNBA reportedly still is not promising to the players that they can partake in the league’s forecasted financial growth through enhanced revenue sharing, similar to models employed in the NBA and the NFL.
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And so, the two sides remain locked in a stalemate, which threatens to throw the league calendar into chaos.
Two new teams, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo, are entering the WNBA in 2026. These two teams need to participate in expansion drafts, taking players from the league’s other 13 franchises to fill out their rosters. The expansion drafts cannot be held until a new CBA is in place.
A further extension, work stoppage scenarios in play
If substantial progress is not made in the next two days, the WNBA and the WNBPA could agree on another extension through the end of 2025.
There is precedent for such a move. The 2020 CBA, which remains the status quo, was tentatively agreed upon in January 2020 after a 60-day extension allowed the sides to keep talking.
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The two sides could continue negotiating even without a new CBA in place. A work stoppage — either an owner-initiated lockout or a player-induced strike — would not begin without a formal vote from one of the two sides.
While there remains hope that an agreement will be struck as the clock ticks down, little apparent progress has been made over the past month. It leaves the WNBA and its players in a precarious position — especially as the rise of rival offseason league Project B could alter the dynamics of women’s professional basketball.
