{"id":459153,"date":"2026-02-07T05:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T05:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459153\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T05:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T05:59:13","slug":"wnba-sends-players-long-awaited-counterproposal-in-labor-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459153\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA sends players long-awaited counterproposal in labor negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ball is now in the players union\u2019s court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The WNBA shared a counterproposal to the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players\u2019 Association on Friday for a new collective bargaining agreement, sources confirmed to The Post.<\/p>\n

The WNBPA had been waiting for an official response<\/a> from the league since it filed a proposal Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

Several members of the union\u2019s executive committee, including WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike<\/a>, attended an in-person meeting with league officials on Monday in hopes of breaking an impasse in CBA talks that had stalled in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Instead of arriving with a response to the union\u2019s proposal submitted roughly six weeks ago, the WNBA shared slides that detailed some of the improvements and benefits the league had already agreed to offer in the new deal. <\/p>\n

\"WNBAWNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks to media prior to Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Finals at Barclays Center. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n

Some of those proposed changes included a supermax base salary of $1.1 million in 2026 that could swell to $1.8 million by 2030. <\/p>\n

The average base salary for the upcoming season is projected to jump to $465,000 \u2014 up from roughly $102,000 in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other proposed improvements from the league include more guaranteed contracts, two developmental player spots per team, increased performance bonuses and the introduction of salary cap exceptions for pregnant players and those who suffer season-ending injury, among other items.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The biggest sticking point in the negotiations, though, continues to center on revenue share.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Players are asking for roughly 30 percent of gross revenue share and a $10.5 million salary cap. The WNBA previously offered 70 percent of the net revenue share (which equates to roughly 15 percent of gross league and team revenue share) and a $5 million salary cap. It\u2019s unclear as of publication whether the league changed those figures in their most recent proposal.<\/p>\n

\"SeattleSeattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike plays against the Las Vegas Aces in Game 2 of a WNBA basketball first-round playoff game, Sept. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. AP<\/p>\n

One source previously told The Post the WNBA didn\u2019t believe the union\u2019s late December proposal warranted a response because it was \u201cessentially unchanged\u201d from the previous proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, that sentiment \u2014 that the WNBPA\u2019s most recent proposal was too incremental \u2014 was never expressed directly to the union at any point leading up to Monday\u2019s meeting, sources said.<\/p>\n

Both sides are feeling the time crunch, with the 2026 season scheduled to start May 8. If talks continue to drag on beyond this month then a delayed start to the season will likely be inevitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two-team expansion draft, free agency and the college draft can\u2019t happen until a CBA is ratified.<\/p>\n

Oguwmike told the Associated Press, which first reported the new proposal Friday, that she believed a deal would come to fruition quickly once both sides agreed on a revenue-sharing model.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made the point that once we nail this, we can get everything else done,\u201d Ogwumike told the outlet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ball is now in the players union\u2019s court.\u00a0 The WNBA shared a counterproposal to the Women\u2019s National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,60163,630,105474],"class_list":{"0":"post-459153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-unions","12":"tag-wnba","13":"tag-wnba-free-agency"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459153","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=459153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}