After the 2024 WNBA season concluded, the WNBPA (the league’s gamers’ union) opted out of the ultimate two years of its collective bargaining settlement (CBA). The present CBA will expire on the finish of the 2025 season, and negotiations have already began between the union and the WNBA.
Their present settlement was reached in January of 2020 — earlier than the increase of ladies’s sports activities, earlier than Caitlin Clark even went to varsity at Iowa, and earlier than the WNBA signed an 11-year media rights deal valued at over $2.2 billion. A lot has modified for the gamers and the league on this time, and the expectation is that the subsequent CBA shall be historic.
The 2024 WNBA season was the most-watched season of the league in historical past. The season attracted over 54 million viewers throughout their community platforms, not even together with native broadcasts and League Go numbers. In addition they broke single-game attendance data and had the very best complete attendance in 22 years.
League Go had a 366% enhance in 2024, per the league, and video games had been seen in 207 completely different international locations.
Numbers like that imply that gamers have all of the leverage this time round. They don’t should dig very far to provide proof of how a lot the product has grown in reputation and revenue over the previous 5 years. Viewership numbers and ticket gross sales apart, there may be additionally the truth that Unequalled was simply in a position to pay a few of its gamers triple their WNBA salaries for a fraction of the work a WNBA season requires. Not too long ago, it was introduced that Paige Bueckers will receives a commission extra for one 10-week season at Unequalled than she’s going to for all 4 years of her WNBA rookie deal.
On high of that, NIL enlargement within the faculty universe has meant numerous gamers getting into the WNBA have already been making a living for years earlier than getting into the league.
Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation govt director Terri Carmichael Jackson spoke on the ESPNW Summit this week, and adopted up her engagement by chatting with reporters. The New York Publish reported that Carmichael Jackson mentioned the union is “dedicated to negotiating for so long as it takes.”
That would embrace a strike, as Madeline Kenney of The Publish famous after being amongst a handful of reporters to talk with Carmichael Jackson:
CBA negotiations will proceed to be a serious storyline for the upcoming WNBA season, which opens Might 17. A piece stoppage will not be out of the query if they’ll’t attain a deal earlier than subsequent season.
Kenney additionally reported that the WNBPA has already submitted a number of proposals to the league, and hopes to have a lot of the deal hammered out earlier than the WNBA All-Star break in July. The present CBA expires on Oct. 31, and ideally, the brand new deal shall be signed earlier than then.
WNBA assertion on CBA negotiations:
“We stay dedicated to working with the WNBPA on a brand new CBA that’s honest for all events and lays the muse for development and success for years to come back.” https://t.co/rbHvbasdor
— Madeline Kenney (@madkenney) Might 1, 2025
Amid scorching matters in these negotiations are wage will increase, reconfiguring the present wage cap system, extra advantages for moms and households, household planning help, in addition to roster enlargement. The earlier CBA made vital progress on a few of these factors, but it surely was extra naked minimal help again then — the gamers finally deserve extra and understand it.
The supermax wage for the 2025 season is $249,244, a quantity that a big majority of the league gained’t attain. The league’s common wage for 2025 is as a substitute $147,745. The laborious wage cap for every workforce is $1,507,100, beneath half of the NWSL’s new cap of $3.3 million, not together with income share from their league. Within the WNBA, the wage cap can’t be exceeded, completely different from the NBA’s softer wage cap that enables groups to spend extra money however probably pay luxurious taxes for exceeding the cap utilizing particular exemptions.
One other massive negotiation level within the final CBA was making certain gamers who had been pregnant had been in a position to make their full season wage for the time they missed. But, that wage was counted in direction of the workforce’s wage cap regardless of the participant not enjoying. With 12 roster spots and a good cap, this made roster and wage negotiations extra difficult for each groups and gamers.
Enlargement of roster spots can also be a giant level of emphasis in these present negotiations. Most groups go into the season with 11 rostered gamers to assist keep beneath the wage cap. In 2025, which means whereas there are 156 complete roster spots, there’ll possible solely be round 144 gamers on opening day rosters. This creates an issue relating to growing younger expertise, with many draft picks and youthful gamers being reduce from groups earlier than they’ve an opportunity to discover a strong place within the league.
There have been some change in situations because the 2020 season, regardless of being on the outdated CBA nonetheless. Groups have invested in participant apply services, extra restoration instruments, and extra amid the rising concern for participant therapy league-wide. There was additionally the difficulty of chartered flights, which was set to be a giant level in these negotiations, even earlier than the WNBA needed to haphazardly restructure its journey insurance policies on the fly final season resulting from issues over participant security whereas utilizing public industrial airways to journey. The purpose on this CBA is to have these journey insurance policies inked completely in contracts.
The gamers will not be afraid to strike, as Carmichael Jackson famous in New York this week. They are going to do no matter it takes to enhance their situations, and know they’ve heightened leverage this time round. Rely on them utilizing it in no matter methods they should safe what they’re price.