Negotiations pause as the WNBA CBA deadline passes. Players and league remain divided on crucial revenue-sharing terms.
The WNBA’s labor talks are poised to stretch well beyond this week’s deadline, with players and the league preparing to negotiate under existing terms rather than finalize a new agreement.
That reality was laid out bluntly by Breanna Stewart, a cornerstone of the New York Liberty and a vice president of the WNBPA, who confirmed Thursday that an extension of the current collective bargaining agreement will not be reached before the cutoff.
“We are not coming to an agreement by tomorrow, I can tell you that,” Stewart said. “We’re just going to continue to negotiate in good faith.”
Her comments came after practice with Unrivaled, where several high-profile players acknowledged that the talks, while tense, are far from broken. Instead, the league and union will enter what both sides describe as a “status quo” period, keeping the current CBA in place while negotiations continue without a formal extension.
Behind the scenes, the stakes are significant. In mid-December, WNBA players voted to grant union leadership expanded authority, including the option to initiate a strike if negotiations stall. That leadership group includes WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike, Stewart, and co-vice president Napheesa Collier. Stewart made clear that while the strike mechanism exists, it is not an immediate next step.
“Not something that we’re going to do right this second,” Stewart said. “But we have that in our back pocket.”
According to reporting by ESPN, league officials are not considering a lockout and remain confident that a deal will eventually be reached, preserving a 2026 season. That confidence persists even as negotiations remain far apart on their most contentious issue: how revenue should be defined and shared.
At the core of the dispute is whether player compensation should be tied to gross revenue or net revenue. The WNBA has proposed a model in which players would receive more than 50% of net revenue — money calculated after expenses are deducted — arguing that gross figures do not accurately reflect the costs of operating teams and the league. The union, however, has pushed for a system based on gross revenue, maintaining that players should not be disadvantaged by expenses they do not control.
Sources cited by ESPN have said the league projects that a union proposal granting players roughly 30% of gross revenue and establishing a salary cap around $10.5 million would generate approximately $700 million in losses over the life of the agreement, exceeding the combined losses from the league’s first 29 years. A source close to the negotiations countered that the union believes its proposal would still leave the league profitable.
Despite those sharply different projections, players emphasized that compromise — however difficult — is unavoidable.
“While we are both seemingly far apart, there is a place where we can come and find a mutual ground,” Stewart said.
For now, the deadline will pass without resolution. The existing CBA remains intact, leverage remains in reserve, and the next phase of negotiations will test whether the league and its players can close the gap on how the WNBA’s future growth is shared.