{"id":453820,"date":"2026-02-04T18:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453820\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:30:09","slug":"sophie-cunningham-calls-wnba-a-laughingstock-as-cba-standoff-drags-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453820\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham Calls WNBA A ‘Laughingstock’ As CBA Standoff Drags On"},"content":{"rendered":"

A three-hour meeting this week between the WNBA and its players union ended with still no resolution.<\/p>\n

PublishedFebruary 4, 2026 12:17 PM EST\u2022UpdatedFebruary 4, 2026 12:18 PM EST<\/p>\n

FacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link<\/p>\n

Sophie Cunningham<\/a> is just as tired of the WNBA’s ongoing CBA standoff as we are.<\/p>\n

During the latest episode of her Show Me Something podcast<\/a>, the veteran guard delivered a blunt assessment of the league’s current situation, calling the WNBA a “laughingstock of sports” as negotiations with the players’ union continue to drag on with no resolution in sight.<\/p>\n

“We had a big old meeting this week,” Cunningham said. “Negotiations are in process in hopes of getting (things) moving because it has not been moving at all. Both sides are kind of getting frustrated, but I know, us players are holding our ground, so it should be interesting.”<\/p>\n

Cunningham was referring to a roughly three-hour, in-person meeting held Monday in New York between the league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA)<\/a> \u2014 the first in-person meeting between the two sides since the fall. Despite expectations that the session would finally move things along, it ended without a counter-proposal from the league.<\/p>\n

“They volunteered that they did not have a proposal prepared at the top of the meeting,” WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said afterward. “That kind of set the tone for the conversation because we were hoping to hear otherwise.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: The Players’ Association Has Officially Overplayed Its Hand In WNBA CBA Standoff<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of negotiating new numbers, the meeting was spent with both sides explaining the reasoning behind their existing proposals.<\/p>\n

As of Feb. 4, the WNBA<\/a> season is scheduled to tip off in May, and the league has already released its schedule \u2014 despite no CBA in place, no draft completed and free agency currently frozen.<\/p>\n

\"Sophie<\/p>\n

(Sophie Cunningham. Photo by Scott Winters\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

For Cunningham, who is a free agent this year, the frustration goes beyond stalled talks and into how the league is presenting itself publicly.<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, depending on where these negotiations go, like if you give these players what they want,” she said. “You\u2019re gonna get all the best players; therefore, you\u2019re gonna win. Therefore, your ticket sales are gonna be up. Everything\u2019s gonna be up. It sucks because how our negotiations are going, it\u2019s like we\u2019re the laughingstock of sports right now.”<\/p>\n

Sophie Cunningham Calls Out Cathy Engelbert<\/p>\n

She also took aim at league leadership \u2014 specifically commissioner Cathy Engelbert \u2014 for what she described as a lack of visible support during the standoff.<\/p>\n

“Anytime you\u2019re in a position of leadership, yes!” Cunningham said. “But just like in a position to influence and empower other people. For some reason, our league doesn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

“Our commissioner, right now, even though we\u2019re not agreeing on negotiations, we\u2019re barely even talking at all. Like she could still go on other social media platforms and be like, \u2018Hey, I believe in our product. I love our product.\u2019 Because that gives off a different feel than just not saying anything and acting like we don\u2019t exist.”<\/p>\n

\"'Pay<\/p>\n

(Grace Smith\/IndyStar \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

The core dispute remains unchanged: revenue sharing and salary structure. The league’s last proposal includes a maximum salary of $1.3 million, average salaries above $530,000, and players receiving roughly 70% of net revenue. The union has countered with a proposal tied to approximately 30% of gross revenue and a significantly higher salary cap.<\/p>\n

The league previously said the players’ desired structure simply isn’t financially sustainable.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the calendar keeps moving. And Sophie’s right. It’s beyond embarrassing at this point \u2014 both for the league and its players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A three-hour meeting this week between the WNBA and its players union ended with still no resolution. PublishedFebruary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-453820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453820","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=453820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}