INDIANAPOLIS — Fever coach Stephanie White remembers when WNBA players’ priority in collective bargaining agreements was to get year-round health insurance.
White, who has been around the league for over two decades in various roles, was a player when the league and players’ union agreed to their first collective bargaining agreement in 1999. That CBA gave players some benefits that were already common in most workplaces: health insurance that extended through the offseason, a retirement plan and paid maternity leave for the first time.
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It’s been 26 years since that first agreement. Negotiations have drastically changed in this negotiation’s cycle, with players pushing for higher salaries, more equitable revenue sharing and a revamped officiating structure.
Now as the Fever’s coach, White isn’t directly involved in negotiating a new CBA — that’s between the league leadership and the players’ union. But as a former player, she knows the importance of a fair deal.
“I don’t have the same experience in the CBA as these players do,” White told IndyStar. “I was a part of the very first CBA agreement where we wanted insurance all year round, because we just had insurance during the season. Now, I think it’s really important to have a fair and equitable agreement for both sides.”
But even though she’s not involved in negotiations, the result of them could heavily affect her job.
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White, along with other coaches across the league, have been heavily pushing for an increase in roster sizes. Rosters are set at 12, with hardship provisions in place if the number of healthy players go under 10.
Indiana was a unique case this year, with six season-ending injuries over the last two months of the regular season. The Fever ended up needing to find multiple players midseason, calling Chloe Bibby while she was in China and Aerial Powers while she was in Turkey and filling out their playoff roster with four players on hardship contracts.
The injuries likely could not have been avoided. But, with a roster size of 15, the rush to find players midseason could’ve been.
“I think it’s really important, I think we all want to see roster sizes expand, as well, to make sure that we’re not in situations where we’re having … four or five hardship contracts or something throughout the course of the year,” White said. “And we’re developing young talent in our league. There are a lot of players who deserve an opportunity to develop in the WNBA that aren’t on teams.”
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CBA negotiations between the league and players’ union have been tense, as well, opening up the possibility of a lockout if the two sides don’t come to an agreement by Oct. 31.
Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray told reporters during the WNBA semifinals that the two sides have agreed on essentially nothing, and Lynx forward and players’ union vice president Napheesa Collier read an explosive statement criticizing the league in her exit interview following Minnesota’s semifinals loss.
Fever guard Sophie Cunningham emphasized during exit interviews that the players will initiate a lockout if necessary.
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“There’s a potential lockout, because I promise you that we are not going to play until they give us what we deserve,” Cunningham said Oct. 2. “And that’s kind of where it’s headed, unfortunately, which would be the dumbest basketball decision business-wise ever (by the league), considering the momentum the W has right now.”
A lockout between the league and the players’ union would make it impossible for the WNBA offseason to proceed as planned. The draft lottery, which would decide the top five picks of the draft between the teams that didn’t make the playoffs, would not be able to go on as planned in November.
The expansion draft for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, which affects every single team in the league, would not happen, either. The league cannot even solidify terms for the expansion draft until the league and players’ union either decide to extend the current CBA or agree to a new one.
Free agency, slated for January, will not happen without a new CBA. All but two league veterans are free agents this offseason, and nobody will sign until there is an updated salary structure. The supermax under the current collective bargaining agreement is around $250,000, but Front Office Sports reported that the league recently proposed a rookie minimum of around $300,000 and a supermax of $850,000 per season.
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Anything and everything could change with this new CBA, which both the players’ union and league have said will be transformational for the league.
But that also leaves coaches and front offices in the dark on how they can navigate the offseason. In the Fever’s case, that leaves them preparing for as many scenarios as possible.
“Without really having an idea of where conversations in the CBA go, I don’t know how many contingencies we’ve built out,” White said. “It’s like, what does this look like? This is who we’d like to have back. That’s a free agent, right? This is who we’d like to bring in. That’s a free agent if it looks like this, if it looks like that, what happens with the core designation? There’s just really too many unknowns to dive into.”
The Fever, like many other teams across the league, only have a few players under contract for 2026. Aliyah Boston will be entering the final year of her rookie contract, Caitlin Clark is under contract through the 2027 season, and Makayla Timpson is under contract through 2028.
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Indiana does have some priorities heading into free agency, and No. 1 on that list is retaining Kelsey Mitchell. Lexie Hull, who is a restricted free agent, has also expressed interest in returning to Indiana, as well as Cunningham, an unrestricted free agent.
“I do think that making sure that we’re all on the same page about free agency, No. 1, and what that looks like and what our opportunities are, is going to be important,” White said.
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: Stephanie White on CBA, Indiana Fever offseason plans, negotiations
