INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JULY 19: Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever wears a shirt saying “Pay us what you owe us” prior to the 2025 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 19, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
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The pressure and tension between the WNBA and WNBA Players Association seems to be mounting as a hard deadline of March 10 has been set to come to a resolution.There is genuine fear that further delays will cause issues with the start of the 2026 season.
This announcement comes on the back of the WNBPA confirming Monday, Feb. 23 that the league passed the threshold for net revenue sharing for the first time in history during the 2025 season.
According to ESPN and writer Katie Barnes, the 13 teams who competed in the 2025 WNBA season will receive a total of $8 million out of an earned $16 million, with the funds split directly among active players from last year. The league will invest the remaining $8 million into marketing agreements, in which select players receive promotional work for the WNBA in the offseason.
The players union has also begun distributing a total of $9.25 million of licensing revenue compiled from 2020 to 2025 to athletes playing during those years. The cap for the licensing revenue is $50,000 to those players who actively competed across all five seasons. This is a stark contrast to the $1,600 max per player distributed for the 2016-2019 seasons.
This is an interesting and pivotal development as the league has entered negotiations with the WNBPA citing, “The Players Association’s latest proposal remains unrealistic and would cause hundreds of millions of dollars of losses for our teams,” a WNBA spokesperson told Front Office Sports. “We still need to complete two drafts and free agency before the start of training camp and are running out of time. We believe the WNBA’s proposal would result in a huge win for current players and generations to come.”
However, the league has yet to reveal their full financial records, causing statements like this to become murky at best. The players have found these statements to be highly problematic. For example, New York Liberty guard and Unrivaled player Natasha Cloud recently took to Instagram to express the disdain and frustration with the league’s communication and statements about losses.
Breeze BC guard Paige Bueckers (5) drives forward defended by Phantom BC wing Natasha Cloud (15) in their Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Medley, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
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She said, “We will give you updates on the CBA, when we get updates on the CBA, but for eight months we have got no updates. And every time, we keep coming back to the league, there is a new estimate on the overall value of the league that keeps increasing.” She continued, “We have blown the roof off, we have blown it. You could go back a few years ago and be like ‘we can’t give it to you’ and we would be like ‘we understand, we are not there yet, so we are going to take the short end of the stick, but when we get there, we are not taking the short end of the stick, we are not doing it.’”
Where WNBA Labor Negotiations Stand As Deadline Nears
For now, the two sides are at a standstill. The players most recent proposal asked for the players to receive 27.5% of gross revenue over the course of the agreement along with a salary cap less than $9.5 million in year one.
The league’s latest proposal would give the players 70% of net revenue over the lifetime of the deal and a $5.65 million salary cap in year one. This follows their trend from the previous 202o CBA agreement which dictated that net revenue would be shared after a predetermined expenses percentage. In the 2020 CBA, players would receive 50% of shared revenue after 30% for expenses was accounted for.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JULY 19: (L-R) Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings, Nneka Ogwumike #30 of the Seattle Storm, and Angel Reese #5 of the Chicago Sky celebrate after defeating Team Clark during the 2025 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 19, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
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The players seem ready to stand on their percentages and asks. The WNBPA voted to give the executive committee the rights to strike in December 2025. However, the players do want to see a 2026 season happen. As Nneka Ogwumike, President of the WNBPA stated, “Players do not want to strike, nobody wants a work stoppage. But at the end of the day, we do have to be ready.”
Is A WNBA Strike Or Work Stoppage Imminent?
At this point, there is grave and genuine concern over whether the WNBA 2026 will be played on time or in full from avid WNBA insiders and fans. Players have begun to make moves that signal serious concern over the timeline.
For example, recent news that Brenna Stewart is planning to compete in the EuroLeague Women Final Six, which runs through WNBA training camp, just feels like the season will at best be delayed.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – JANUARY 30: Rickea Jackson #2 of the Breeze controls the ball against the Phantom during the first half of the Unrivaled 2026 game at Xfinity Mobile Arena on January 30, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Hunt Martin/Getty Images)
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Further, Cloud stated a few weeks ago when Unrivaled had their stop in Philadelphia, “If the league wants to play around, and we don’t have a CBA, I have money. I’m getting paid from Unrivaled, and I have other revenues of income as well. So, it’s really their loss. So, that’s why I think that it’s just ridiculous that they’ve dragged it on this long.”
As of now, there is very little time to complete an expansion draft, for two teams, settle the largest free agency in league history, and also conduct the WNBA Draft on April 13,2026, all with the first game of the season slated for Friday, May 8.
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