Four months since the initial deadline for a new WNBA collective bargaining agreement, it seems as if the only thing the league and players’ union can agree on is that they’re running out of time.
On Feb. 23, the league told players that a labor deal must be finalized March 10 to avoid disrupting the 2026 season from its scheduled May 8 opening night.
Veteran Las Vegas Aces center Kiah Stokes reacted with a candid message.
“The league refused to negotiate in good faith (for) the last 18 months,” Stokes wrote on her Instagram story. “Now tryna speed (expletive) up so we sign whatever.”
The union and league are still at odds over the revenue sharing model, which has been the largest point of contention since negotiations began. The union wants a percentage of the gross revenue, while the league is offering a share of the net revenue.
Stokes, who has won three championships with the Aces after being drafted 11th overall in 2015 by the New York Liberty, didn’t expect the road to a new CBA to be so tumultuous.
“The process has just been frustrating. We want to play, we don’t want to strike if we don’t have to,” she told the Review-Journal. “I really had full confidence last year that we would have had a deal by now. So the stalling is annoying, for a lack of a better word. I understand it’s a business and everyone wants to turn a profit, but let’s be fair.”
Players were allotted a 50 percent share of the league’s incremental revenue in the 2020 CBA agreement, which only included the revenue earned above the league’s revenue target for that season – a number that has not been specifically disclosed. The salary cap was $1.5 million in 2025.
The union’s latest proposal reportedly included a percent of gross revenue that would average to about 26 percent over the course of the agreement, with a $9.5 million salary cap for 2026.
The league has not moved from offering 70 percent of net revenue over the course of the deal, which it proposed to include a $5.65 million salary cap in 2026.
Tight timeline
The WNBA announced the 2026 schedule last month, a few weeks after negotiations required a second extension.
Training camps would open April 19, with preseason starting April 25. Before that, the league needs to conduct its rookie draft and two expansion drafts for its incoming teams — the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo.
None of that can happen until the league responds to the union’s latest proposal, which was sent Friday night and included that 26 percent revenue share number. That was a decrease from the 27.5 percent of gross revenue that was reportedly proposed in the WNBPA’s Feb. 17 proposal.
The union’s most recent proposal also reportedly included concessions on housing, suggesting a model that would cover housing for all players and eventually phase out to exclude players making at least 80 percent of the max on multiyear or guaranteed deals.
In Friday’s proposal, the union removed the multiyear aspect and lowered the qualifying threshold to 75 percent of the max.
Before those changes, the WNBA called the union’s previous proposal “unrealistic” and said it would “cause hundreds of millions of dollars of losses” for teams.
The league’s latest proposal was sent Feb. 20. It was headlined by a proposed average player salary of $540,000 in 2026 – including revenue sharing — that would reach $780,000 by 2031. In 2025, the supermax was $249,000.
To strike or not to strike
The WNBPA had a meeting Feb. 24 that became contentious over how to move forward, according to Front Office Sports.
A day before that meeting, ESPN reported that the union said the league generated enough revenue in 2025 to trigger revenue sharing under the 2020 CBA, and that $9.25 million from licensing revenue would be divvied to players in addition to the allotted revenue sharing payments.
Although 93 percent of the WNBPA’s members authorized the union’s executive committee to call a strike “when necessary” in December, players reportedly clashed because they are no longer aligned on whether a strike should be on the table.
The Review-Journal contacted agents and players, many of whom indicated that midlevel players aren’t being well represented.
One player said headlines regarding the negotiations “are always misleading,” noting that an average $500,000 salary wouldn’t benefit everyone.
“We need to stand together and do what’s right for all players,” one player said. “The last couple of CBAs haven’t been kind to role players.”
On Thursday, ESPN reported that a group of nearly a dozen agents sent a letter to WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson asking for “transparency and coordinated communication” about the CBA negotiations.
The reported list of agents to sign the letter included Klutch Sports’ Jade-Li English, who represents Aces stars A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd.
The agents of Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese also reportedly signed.
Some of the agents not reported to have signed the letter included Marcus Crenshaw of the Fam Sports and Fabio Jardine of 1st pick Basketball Management, whose players make up nearly 50 percent of the league combined.
One agent said they weren’t even aware the letter was being sent, but acknowledged the validity of its message.
“All I see is what the media sees,” the agent said. “I hope something gets done. Things are so difficult because nobody’s really budging. What do you do once no one budges?”
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Callie__Fin on X.