A landmark labor agreement signals a turning point for player pay, revenue sharing, and the league’s future.
The Deal That Rewrote the Rulebook
After months of tense negotiations, late-night bargaining sessions, and a labor standoff that tested the patience of players and fans alike, the WNBA and its players union have reached a verbal agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement — and the terms are nothing short of historic.
The WNBA Players Association confirmed the breakthrough early Wednesday, capping a prolonged battle that began when the previous CBA formally expired in October 2025. Players had opted out of that agreement ahead of schedule, pressing the league for a fairer deal amid explosive growth in viewership, sponsorship, and cultural cachet. By all indications, that pressure worked.
WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike hailed the agreement as a defining milestone, emphasizing that the league is entering uncharted territory by directly linking player salaries to league revenue for the first time in its history. Forward Breanna Stewart echoed that sentiment, describing the deal as a sea change for players — one that brings meaningful improvements to parental leave policies, housing support, practice facilities, retirement benefits, and beyond.
Still, a word of caution: the new CBA remains a verbal agreement. It has yet to be formalized into a term sheet or ratified by both the players and the WNBA’s board of governors. But optimism is running high — and for good reason.
Here are the three most consequential terms of the deal, as reported by ESPN.
Salary Cap Rockets From $1.5M to $7 Million
The league’s salary cap will jump to $7 million in the first year of the new agreement — a staggering increase from the $1.5 million cap under the previous CBA. The figure represents a compromise between the two sides: the players union had initially pushed for a Year 1 cap of roughly $9.5 million, while the league countered with approximately $6.2 million, according to ESPN.
The gap has now been bridged, and the result is a cap structure that finally reflects the commercial reality of a league that has evolved dramatically since its last major labor deal.
WNBA Revenue Sharing Gets a Long-Overdue Upgrade
Perhaps the most closely watched issue throughout negotiations was revenue sharing — and the resolution here is significant. Under the new deal, players will receive an average of 20% of league revenue across the life of the agreement. That figure is based on total revenue, not net revenue, meaning it is not subject to deductions for operating expenses.
The contrast with the prior arrangement is striking. Under the previous CBA, players were taking home just 9.3% of league revenue — a fraction of what their counterparts in other major professional sports earned. In the NBA, by comparison, revenue is split roughly evenly between players and ownership.
For months, the two sides were deadlocked over competing revenue-sharing models. The players union had proposed that players receive 40% of total revenue, later softening that figure to 26% in a late-February session. The league, meanwhile, had been offering around 15.5% of total revenue over the CBA’s full term.
The previous revenue-sharing structure from the 2020 CBA was effectively a moving target: it only kicked in once revenue surpassed an annual threshold — one that grew 20% each year on a cumulative basis. During the pandemic-affected seasons, that bar was nearly impossible to clear. Remarkably, the WNBA reportedly crossed it for the first time in 2025, distributing $8 million to its 13 teams for players to share.
WNBA Supermax Contract Breaks the Million-Dollar Barrier
The new deal’s salary structure will push average annual earnings into the range of $600,000, with a floor above $300,000 — compared to a league minimum of just $66,000 last season. The supermax contract will begin at $1.4 million, four times the figure under the previous agreement, and will mark the first time in WNBA history that any player earns a seven-figure salary from the league directly.
The milestone is symbolic as much as it is financial: it signals that the WNBA is no longer in the business of asking its elite players to subsidize the league’s growth with discounted labor.
What Comes Next for the 2026 Season
With a finalized CBA on the horizon, the 2026 WNBA season appears on track to proceed as scheduled. Several offseason milestones hinge on the agreement being completed, including an expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, a free-agency period in which more than 80% of players are currently unsigned, and the traditional April draft.
Training camp is set to open April 19, with preseason beginning April 25 and the regular season tipping off May 8.
For a league that spent the better part of a year locked in a labor dispute, the finish line has never looked closer.
Source: Sports Illustrated