Union leaders reveal league-imposed deadlines jeopardized crucial CBA talks, potentially impacting player housing and revenue sharing. Progress now hinges on adapting timelines.
As negotiations for a new WNBA collective bargaining agreement stretch into a second week, union leadership believes the league made a key misstep early in the process, setting deadlines that may not have reflected the complexity of the negotiations.
Talks between the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) have now extended well past the league’s unofficial March 10 target for reaching an agreement without affecting the 2026 season calendar.
While both sides remain at the bargaining table and progress is reportedly being made, union officials say the timeline itself may have created unnecessary pressure.
WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson acknowledged that the league’s internal deadlines helped shape expectations but emphasized that the scale of the negotiations makes rigid timelines unrealistic.
“There are deadlines, arbitrary ones, that the league has set, and then there's a season schedule that has its own milestones,” Jackson said via ESPN. “Absolutely, we recognize that and we respect those. But these are big-time negotiations, and there may be a need to adjust.”
Despite the prolonged talks, both sides appear committed to continuing negotiations until a deal is finalized. According to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, representatives from the league and the union have already spent more than 70 hours bargaining since in-person sessions began last week in New York.
Encouragingly for both parties, union outside counsel Deb Willig indicated that meaningful progress has finally been made; however, she spoke about how the league has underestimated the players' demands.
“I think the why, frankly, is because the league underestimated, seriously, the resolve of the players & what they sought to achieve,” she said.
However, not everything is going south as of now, as ESPN's Alexa Philippou recently shared her side of the updates on the latest development.
“For the first time this week, I’d say there has been progress,” Willig said, adding that she hopes a preliminary term sheet outlining the framework of a new deal could be completed soon.
While such a document would not finalize the agreement, it would mark a major step toward resolving the negotiations and allowing the league to begin preparing for the upcoming season.
The timeline remains tight. The 2026 WNBA season is scheduled to begin on May 8, but several key events must take place beforehand — including free agency, the WNBA Draft, and expansion drafts for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo.
Training camp is currently scheduled to open on April 19, with preseason games set to begin April 25. However, league officials have acknowledged that delays in the CBA process could potentially force adjustments to the schedule.
At the center of the negotiations are two major issues that both sides have identified as critical: revenue sharing and player housing.
WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike previously described those topics as the most significant hurdles remaining in the talks. Players are seeking a greater share of league revenue as the WNBA continues to grow financially, while housing benefits, historically provided by teams, remain an important issue for many players across the league.
Jackson emphasized that players are fully aware of the stakes involved and remain committed to securing what they view as a transformative agreement.
“This is a fight that is meaningful to them,” Jackson said. “They are committed to seeing it through.”
Even with momentum building, significant details still need to be resolved. But after days of marathon negotiation sessions, both sides appear determined to keep working until a deal is in place, even if that means revisiting the timeline the league initially set.