agreed to a moratorium on free agency<\/a>, which was scheduled to begin last week, but otherwise league operations will continue as normal.<\/p>\nA league source told Yahoo Sports the schedule release is to help teams, players, partners, broadcasters and fans begin logistical preparations. That includes booking arena dates so that arenas aren\u2019t filling in spots with concerts or performances, coordinating major announcements such as jersey retirements and arranging accommodations for travel.<\/p>\n
The schedule will remain at 44 games in 2026, the highest total allowed under the previous CBA and the number played a year ago. The league has no intention of expanding the schedule in 2026 since it will be impacted by the FIBA Women\u2019s Basketball World Cup in early September, the source said. The WNBA will pause for an 18-day break between Aug. 30 and Sept. 17, with the playoffs being pushed into November. The general consensus is that the league will expand its footprint in future seasons, which will be collectively bargained.<\/p>\n
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Portland and Toronto will tip their inaugural seasons when play is underway the weekend of May 8. Toronto and head coach Sandy Brondello will host Washington on opening night; Portland will host Chicago on May 9.<\/p>\n
Opening weekend will feature the two recent Rookie of the Year winners when Caitlin Clark\u2019s Indiana Fever host Paige Bueckers\u2019 Dallas Wings (Saturday, 1 p.m. ET). The reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces will host the Phoenix Mercury in a WNBA Finals rematch (3:30 p.m. ET).<\/p>\n
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A rematch of the inaugural game between Los Angeles and New York will be held on the 30th anniversary on June 21. The Commissioner\u2019s Cup will feature a 49-game schedule from June 1-17. The All-Star game in Chicago will be held on July 25. And the playoffs will begin on Sept. 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA is moving ahead with plans for its 30th anniversary season in 2026, releasing the full 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[135293,49,735,48,6681,3459,2803,3460,1522,4658,3461,57655,82,630,92787,11043],"class_list":["post-424388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-30th-anniversary","tag-ca","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-canada","tag-chicago","tag-dallas-wings","tag-indiana-fever","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-los-angeles","tag-paige-bueckers","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-regular-season-schedule","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-champion","tag-wnba-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}