On Friday night in Phoenix, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert stood at midcourt of Mortgage Matchup Center to hand the league’s championship trophy to Las Vegas Aces owner Mark Davis. The target of a chorus of boos, she announced Aces star A’ja Wilson as the WNBA Finals MVP. Then, seemingly in an instant, Engelbert left the court, as Las Vegas’ championship celebrations began in full force and the offseason officially commenced.
The 2025-26 WNBA offseason is here, and it will likely be one of the most consequential winters in league history. The WNBA is in an ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiation, with debates over salary structure and salaries among the key hang-ups as the deadline nears at the end of the month. More than 100 veteran players are free agents, and a potential broad reshuffling of the league as a result. New franchises in Toronto and Portland are also scheduled to debut next season, and the league will have more than 14 franchises for the first time since 2002 when play resumes next spring.
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Where do things stand on various key offseason issues? Here’s what we know:
What is the latest in CBA negotiations?
Tension between the Women’s National Basketball Players Association and WNBA seemingly remains high as the Oct. 31 deadline looms. Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, the WNBPA first vice president, said before the finals that discussions between the sides remain “combative.”
Revenue sharing and player salaries are wedge issues in the negotiations. Both sides have said they want the next agreement to be “transformational.” Engelbert has said the league has offered a “significant” salary increase. Still, players are looking to rework the league’s revenue-sharing system. Unlike the NBA, the WNBA does not explicitly use basketball-related income to determine its salary cap. Players seek to take full advantage of this explosive growth moment in the WNBA’s business.
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What happens if a deal is not reached by Oct. 31?
The league and the union can agree to an extension to continue negotiations beyond the Halloween deadline, as was the case in 2020, when the CBA was extended through the end of the calendar year. At her finals news conference, Engelbert said, “I feel confident that we can get a deal done, but if not, I think we could do an extension.”
WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson previously told The Athletic that “the league and the teams look to be trying to play the only card they have, and that is running out the clock.” (A WNBA spokesperson said that characterization was “not accurate.”)
If there is no extension, then the WNBA would lock out the players Nov. 1. Although a lockout wouldn’t impact the players monetarily until there are missed games — which won’t happen until May 2026 — it would affect their offseasons. Historically, WNBA players dispersed during the offseasons, going overseas or back to their hometowns to train. Now, many of them stay in-market because they have access to their franchise’s practice facility, but those facilities would not be available during a lockout. Engelbert also indicated that there would not be a draft lottery, which is typically held between mid-November and early December, before a new CBA is signed.
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When will expansion drafts occur? What’s the format?
Engelbert said that the league would probably need to sign a new CBA before a draft lottery and expansion draft could occur. She said Oct. 3 that the format for both events will not be finalized until a new agreement is reached. Although Engelbert said that the league office has given general managers “some guidance” on what the league is thinking and that teams can expect “something similar” to the Valkyries’ expansion draft before this past season, multiple league sources told The Athletic they lack clarity on the format with two teams joining the league. Specific questions include how many players will be protected per team and what rules will be in place regarding unrestricted free agents.
The league’s last expansion draft that featured more than one team occurred in 2000, when four new teams were given six picks for their rosters and a draft order was determined by a random drawing.
How will free agency proceed?
Free agency cannot take place until a CBA agreement is reached as several collectively bargained rules will affect the process, including individual salary minimums and maximums, team salary caps and the core provision.
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Every WNBA veteran (any player not on a rookie contract) besides Phoenix’s Kalani Brown and Seattle’s Lexie Brown is a free agent this offseason as players were advised to take advantage of a potential financial windfall in the new CBA with contracts expected to at least triple in value. Whenever free agency begins, every team will have a bounty of cap space but also many roster spots to fill. For example, the WNBA finalists, Las Vegas and Phoenix, each have only one player under contract in 2026. Although many players could move, the expectation is that several are free agents only to sign more lucrative contracts with the same teams.
One other thing to keep an eye on during free agency: In 2020, all contracts below the new league minimum were bumped up to at least that amount. For instance, Marina Mabrey, a second-round pick in 2019, saw her salary rise from $43,422 to $57,000. Paige Bueckers’ current contract is valued at $80,408 in 2026, but if the league minimum rises to $300,000, it’s likely that she and other rookies would get a raise despite still being under contract.
What will the schedule look like next season?
The current CBA includes a maximum of 44 regular-season games, but players have indicated that the league wants to increase that number. Expansion teams entering the league seem to make that necessary. (The schedule grew by four games in 2025 with the addition of the Golden State Valkyries). Plus, more games would increase the inventory that the league can sell to broadcast partners. Players spoke about being overburdened by the cadence of games in 2025, and with the WNBA unlikely to fundamentally change its calendar footprint (i.e., the schedule will run from May through October), the number of games remains a sticking point in CBA negotiations.
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The one exception to that premise is a likely pause in the 2026 WNBA schedule to accommodate the FIBA World Cup from Sept. 4-13. That could push the postseason into November, but the league would prefer to avoid a conflict with college basketball and the NBA, both broadcast by ESPN. Many WNBA teams share arenas with NBA franchises and could run into scheduling conflicts if their seasons last longer.
The expectation, once a new CBA is agreed upon, is that the 2026 season will begin in May and have an All-Star weekend in July, the location of which is still undecided.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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