The WNBA’s latest proposals for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) keep coming, and frankly, they get more confusing every day. Now, we know that negotiation points are often dramatic when they are first presented to the table, so that they can be talked down — but some of these new rules the WNBA is suggesting make little sense. Beyond making sense, they don’t even seem like offers the WNBA would seriously be able to implement without harming fan engagement, viewership, and the relationships players have to the college system and their international federations.
Not only that, they seriously undermine the players in the league, as well as the players who will be entering the league in the next few years. Players like Juju Watkins and Sarah Strong will undoubtedly become some of the biggest stars in the WNBA immediately, and don’t deserve to have their earning potential curtailed over policies proposed and agreed to by parties they are not a part of yet.
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Negotiating a CBA brings up a lot of topics about labor rights, equality, and justice to begin with, but when the league negotiating their contract is a women’s league, it brings up these injustices a lot quicker. Women’s athletes have a lot more to negotiate in their contracts, especially when you think about the history of pay inequality globally and healthcare differences for women, just to name two big points.
Players’ Union president Nneka Ogwumike told The Athletic this week that players “don’t feel valued in these talks as they stand today.” She continued on to say that she feels players are “being heard, but not listened to.”
Here are a few things the WNBPA (the WNBA’s players’ union) is proposing to add to this new CBA, per Ben Pickman of the Athletic:
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Eliminate the core designation and team-exclusive negotiation rights (reserved contracts).
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Shorten the length of rookie scale contracts, which are currently 3 years with a team option in the 4th year.
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Inact maternity leave for non-birthing parents.
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“Meaningful” retirement benefits.
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Uniform standards league-wide for private practice, training and recovery facilities.
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Staffing requirements league-wide, including strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, doctors etc.
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Reimbursement for mental health services.
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A revenue-sharing program that grows in line with the league’s growth per season.
On the other hand, here are a few of the WNBA’s proposals, per Pickman:
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No longer paying for team housing.
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A mandatory draft combine for incoming rookies, with salaries of absent players cut in half.
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Limit the number of guaranteed contracts each team can have each season.
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Move the start of the season up.
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One week of paid non-birthing parent leave.
Even comparing these proposals, you can see the ways in which players are being undervalued, and that’s without going into the salary and revenue-sharing points. As Ogwumike states, the players are feeling it as well. In past negotiation years, maybe the league could use finances or lack of reach to explain some of the things they didn’t want to offer, but this is a different women’s sports landscape. The WNBA has seen tremendous growth in the past 5 years, and the fact that there isn’t language in the CBA that mandates teams have athletic trainers on staff is incredibly outdated. Much of how the WNBA’s players are treated is outdated.
Funny enough, a lot of the way the WNBA markets its league and players has to do with this “girl power” mentality. Highlighting the ways that women are breaking barriers and glass ceilings, being very adamant to publicize viewership growth and how the numbers reflect the ways in which the league has grown. The players are the reason for all the growth, and the main subject of the content that is driving said growth — yet, they still aren’t seen as worth enough to be treated the way they want to be in a contract?
That growth in women’s sports has made it so that we now have research proving that women’s athletes need to be training differently than their male counterparts in order to reduce injury risk. That growth has made it so that more women feel comfortable growing their families during their careers, and making comebacks that didn’t happen as often before. That growth has turned women’s athletes from being forgotten about roster numbers to global businesswomen and ambassadors.
Yet, their own contract does not even reflect that growth, and these proposals make it seem like the next one won’t either.
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To compare bargaining points with another United States-based women’s sports league, let’s take a look at the NWSL’s CBA, signed in August 2024. The NWSL was able to double its team salary cap, while also adding a revenue-sharing program that is tied to the previous season’s media rights and sponsorship money. On top of that, the NWSL eliminated their draft and made it so that all players automatically go into free agency as rookies. They were also able to make every contract guaranteed, enforce no-trade clauses, and expand family planning and health benefits.
All of those points help the NWSL’s players have more autonomy over their lives and careers, where they play, and have financial security. It also sets a precedent for what women’s athletes deserve, and the WNBA’s players are hoping to gain a new level of autonomy in this new contract, just like the NSWL was able to.
There’s nowhere to hide, either. The WNBA has a vocal and devoted online fan base, who aren’t afraid to make noise about these topics. The WNBA’s online fans were a big part of why the league finally enacted the charter flight program, and the fans’ vocal support of players in these negotiations puts pressure on getting a deal done. Not just any deal, though, one that reflects the players’ wants and needs as a labor force.
This new CBA needs to make the WNBA players feel valued for the work they put in for the league, and they are holding out strong until that happens.
