The historic negotiations for a new CBA agreement are hopefully looking to wrap things up on Monday.
There is urgency for both the WNBA and the players’ union to wrap up negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement, and that timeliness is growing in importance by the day. Without a finalized agreement on March 16, that could throw off the timeline for major WNBA events including the 2026 WNBA Draft on April 1, and training camp that quickly follows on April 19, with preseason scheduled to start on April 25 and the regular season will tip off May 8. The talks between the Women’s National Basketball Players Association and the league had a marathon session that lasted from Sunday afternoon and finally wrapped up around 3 a.m. on Monday morning. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert claims that this deal will get done soon, noting that is really has to be Monday, otherwise the process of the league will be disrupted.
The Monday meeting will mark the seventh consecutive day of negotiation talks, with the points of contention being on revenue sharing and housing. A major point of that is the league proposing terms for “net revenue,” which is revenue after expenses, while the players’ union has focused on “gross revenue,” which would be the revenue before expenses. The union stated negotiations over a year ago asking for 40 percent of gross revenue, which they’ve taken down to 26 percent ahead of the marathon session that began Tuesday. In a counter, the league had been proposing 70% net revenue for players.
Here is the full story from WNBA Roundtable writer Nitish Singh on the historic negotiations that continue to stretch into this week.
Engelbert claims that the deal they’re working towards is historic. For the players, it’s about making sure their terms are satisfied, specifically surrounding the key distinctions of gross revenue vs. net revenue and a larger Year 1 salary cap, the latter of which has seen a bit more progress. The players have made it clear that they’re not going down without a fight, with 98 percent of the WNBPA members voting in favor of a strike in the event that talks break down back in December.