New league's global tour clashes with potential WNBA calendar shifts amid stalled labor talks, creating scheduling uncertainty.
Project B is already prompting broader questions about scheduling and labor stability before it has played its first game. The startup women’s basketball league announced its first international tour dates this week, revealing plans that could intersect with the WNBA calendar. The 5-on-5 league, which intends to launch its inaugural season in November and run through April, confirmed that its Tokyo tournament will take place from March 26 through April 4, 2027, according to a report by Front Office Sports.
Project B is planning a global series of tournaments across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, positioning itself as a high-profile offseason option for elite players. Several top-tier WNBA stars are already under contract to participate, making the timing of the Tokyo stop particularly notable. The late-March window suggests it would be among the league’s final events before players transition back to their WNBA obligations.
That assumption, however, could be complicated by potential changes to the WNBA calendar.
The WNBA and the WNBPA remain at a stalemate in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. Sources familiar with the talks indicate the players’ union is still waiting for a response to a proposal submitted close to Christmas, slowing progress on an agreement that will shape the league’s competitive and financial structure.
In that proposal, players are seeking a $10.5 million salary cap per team and roughly a 30% share of the league’s gross revenue. The request was made in response to the league’s proposal, which included a $5 million salary cap and a revenue-sharing framework based on net revenue rather than gross.
Beyond financial terms, scheduling has emerged as one of the most consequential elements of the negotiations.
According to a source familiar with the discussions, the WNBA is proposing to expand the regular season from 44 games to between 50 and 54 games. The proposal also includes a significantly earlier start to the league year, with training camps potentially opening as early as mid-March and the Finals extending into November.
The proposed March start date has raised questions across the league.
Several league sources have expressed uncertainty about how a mid-March training camp would function while the NCAA tournament is still ongoing. Questions have centered on how incoming rookies would be expected to report to camp while college seasons remain active, and whether such an overlap would create logistical or competitive challenges.
Under the current CBA, the WNBA already has the ability to begin training camp as early as April 1, though it has never exercised that option. Last season, training camp opened April 27, roughly two weeks after the WNBA draft. Historically, the league has avoided an early April start because the women’s Final Four is played on the first weekend of the month.
A shift to mid-March would represent a sharp departure from long-standing scheduling norms—and could place the league on a collision course with Project B’s late-March international events.
While Project B’s Tokyo stop remains more than a year away, its announcement underscores the growing complexity of the women’s basketball landscape. With new leagues offering global exposure and alternative earning opportunities, the timing of the WNBA season and the structure of its labor agreement have taken on increased significance.
As negotiations continue, the overlap between Project B and a potentially expanded WNBA calendar could become a defining issue in how elite players navigate their professional commitments moving forward.