During the fourth day of lengthy in-person meetings in New York between representatives of the WNBA and the players’ union, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters there is urgency to get a new collective bargaining agreement approved by Monday, The Athletic confirmed.
“I’ve never been a betting woman in my life, and I’m not going to start now. But we have to get a deal done by Monday,” Engelbert said Friday night. “We have to get it done without disrupting … this two-team expansion (draft). We have to get expansion going. We got to get free agency going. We gotta get the college draft.”
Two weeks ago, the league set a drop-dead date of March 10 for an agreement to ensure a full training camp and preseason schedule, but negotiations continued this week as both sides told reporters they sensed movement toward an agreement.
The WNBA and the WNBPA have frequently traded proposals over the last month and have now had four consecutive day-long bargaining sessions to try to reach an agreement. On Friday, WNBPA vice president Napheesa Collier joined the meetings, according to reports, along with union president Nneka Ogwumike and co-vice president Breanna Stewart, who have been present at meetings since Tuesday.
The players initially opted out of the CBA in October 2024, and the agreement expired Jan. 9 after two extensions. The league and the union have been trying to agree on a new economic model to compensate the owners and the players amid the WNBA’s rapid growth over the past two seasons.
Under the league’s projected schedule, training camp will begin on April 19. A six-game preseason would start on April 25. The 2026 regular season is set to tip off May 8 with three games and a marquee game the following day between Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever and Paige Bueckers’ Dallas Wings.
A deal reached by the end of the weekend might allow training camp, preseason games and the regular season to start on schedule, but free agency will be severely shortened. The league was supposed to begin its free agency period — with more than 100 free agents — on Feb. 1, but the lack of an agreement has delayed that, leaving players in limbo.
The WNBA has not yet announced a date for the 2026 expansion draft, but sources throughout the WNBA told The Athletic in February that if a deal were struck by March 10, Toronto and Portland would make their picks on April 6, just after the Final Four. Details for how that draft would be operated are a part of the ongoing CBA negotiations.
The primary contention during negotiations has been the revenue-sharing system. The league has proposed a system that shares revenue after expenses. As of Thursday, that model would result in a salary cap of $6.2 million with players receiving 15.5 percent of gross revenue. The union has proposed sharing the revenue without deducting expenses to secure a larger share of gross revenue for the players. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, players have conceded to receiving less than 26 percent.