The process toward a new WNBA collective bargaining agreement took its next step as the league submitted its latest proposal to the WNBA Players Association Friday night, sources with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic.
The league’s major movement in the current offer regards league-issued housing provided to players, but the overall revenue-sharing system remains largely unchanged.
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In the new proposal, all players would be guaranteed team housing in 2026. In 2027 and 2028, only players on minimum salaries or those with no years of service would be provided housing, after which the housing benefit would expire for the full-time 12-player roster. However, developmental players would be provided studio apartments for the entirety of the agreement.
The league’s proposal includes a salary cap of $5.65 million for the 2026 season, maintaining the figure from its prior offer. The WNBA adjusted its calculation of expenses in its proposal to slightly increase the players’ portion of net revenue; the players would still receive about 15 percent of gross revenue over the length of the deal. The union’s latest proposal offers an average of 27.5 percent of gross team and league revenue to the players.
The WNBA also increased employer contributions to the players’ 401K accounts and increased the benefit for retired players to $4,500 per year of service, in the latest proposal. Players who are currently retired and played for at least eight seasons in the WNBA would be eligible for that one-time payment.
Other items that remain in the league’s newest proposal include: two developmental player spots, new minimum facility standards, increased team staffing requirements, a seventh guaranteed contract per team (there are currently six), codified charter travel and more performance bonuses for postseason awards and playoff series wins.
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On Tuesday, the union sent its most recent offer to the league, which the WNBA called “unrealistic” because it said the league would lose hundreds of millions of dollars under those conditions. A source familiar with the negotiations said the WNBA claims the WNBPA’s proposal would result in $460 million in losses over the life of the agreement. The league’s stated goal is to maintain the health of the business to ensure continued investment into the WNBA and the growth of the game.
In a message to players earlier this week, which was obtained by The Athletic, WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson disputed the league’s characterization of their proposal.
“It is unfathomable that anyone would question our commitment to negotiations and desire to get a deal done after nearly a year and a half of pushing and pulling, meetings upon meetings, proposal after counter proposal. And then to have been kept waiting (six) weeks for a response from the league?” she wrote.
“What we have proposed is very realistic. What the league and the teams have done is played games.”
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The players and league have been negotiating a new CBA since the WNBPA opted out of the previous agreement on Oct. 21, 2024. The current deal expired on Jan. 9, 2026, after two extensions, and the league has been operating in a status quo period since.
Most offseason business remains unfinished until the completion of a new CBA. Although the 2026 schedule has been announced, the WNBA needs to conduct an expansion draft, a free agency period (where all but two veteran players are currently free agents), a college draft and training camp before tipping off the season on May 8.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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