Rebecca Lobo voices concern as WNBA labor talks stall, warning that player messaging could alienate fans crucial to the league's growth.
The WNBA is heading toward the 2026 season without a labor agreement in place, and with it comes a growing concern that the public enthusiasm players once commanded may be starting to erode.
An early-January target date for a new collective bargaining agreement passed without resolution, leaving the league and its players’ association at an impasse with fewer than four months remaining before the regular season is scheduled to begin. Free agency has effectively been frozen, and negotiations remain bogged down by fundamental disagreements over how the league’s financial growth should be shared.
Just a year ago, the players appeared to hold the moral high ground in the court of public opinion. During All-Star weekend in Indianapolis, players wore shirts reading “Pay Us What You Owe Us,” a coordinated show of solidarity that spread rapidly online and was met with loud approval inside the arena. That momentum carried into the postseason, when union leadership openly criticized league governance, framing the labor talks as a referendum on whether the WNBA would fully capitalize on its recent surge in popularity.
Now, that unity between players and fans may be less secure.
Speaking this week on the A Touch More podcast, ESPN analyst and former WNBA star Rebecca Lobo said she is worried that the tone surrounding the negotiations has shifted in a way that could cost players valuable public support. Lobo, one of the league’s earliest stars and its most prominent television voices, said fans were firmly behind the players during last season’s most visible moments.
“Coming off those viral moments, the support was absolute,” Lobo said.
But as negotiations have stretched on, she believes some of the public messaging has become counterproductive. Lobo pointed specifically to reactions from the players’ side to recent league proposals.
“When a deal that includes seven-figure max salaries and revenue sharing is described as a ‘slap in the face,’ that language matters,” she said. “I think that’s where things can start to turn.”
According to reporting from ESPN, the league’s latest offer would dramatically raise player pay across the board. The average salary would increase from roughly $120,000 to more than $530,000, while the maximum salary would climb from under $250,000 to more than $1.3 million. The proposal would also include a revenue-sharing component, a key issue for players who have long argued that compensation has lagged far behind the league’s growth.
Players, however, have reportedly countered with a framework that would more than double the proposed salary cap and tie it directly to gross league revenue, similar to models used in many men’s professional leagues. Owners have resisted that approach, preferring a cap based on net revenue after expenses.
Lobo stressed that questioning the fairness of any offer is legitimate, but she cautioned against rhetoric that may be difficult for casual fans to accept.
“If you’re an average fan at home, hearing someone call a $500,000 average salary or a $1.2 million max a slap in the face can be hard to relate to,” Lobo said. “That’s where some of the sympathy can start to disappear.”
She added that it feels as though fan support has already begun to soften as the stalemate continues.
Behind the scenes, the league and the players’ association are still working through unresolved issues, including how to handle 2026 free agency, which remains on hold. With the calendar moving closer to training camps, pressure is mounting on both sides to find a workable compromise.
Despite her concerns, Lobo made clear that she hopes the players secure a landmark agreement and that the final deal is ultimately viewed as a win.
“I want the players to get everything they possibly can,” she said. “And when this is done, I hope everyone can step back and say this was an awesome deal for the players.”
For now, the negotiations remain unresolved, and the balance between leverage, language, and public perception may prove just as important as the numbers themselves.