{"id":516701,"date":"2026-03-05T21:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516701\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:02:09","slug":"sophie-cunningham-warns-wnba-cba-fight-could-become-a-sht-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516701\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham Warns WNBA CBA Fight Could Become A ‘Sh*t Show’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WNBA labor negotiations appear far from resolved. And according to Sophie Cunningham<\/a>, the league still hasn’t addressed the issue the players care about most.<\/p>\n

On the most recent episode of her Show Me Something podcast<\/a> with West Wilson, Cunningham offered a blunt assessment of the current state of talks between players and the WNBA.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s so much to get into,” Cunningham said. “I think a lot of people who are on the outside are like, \u2018Just sign it. Your salary increase is four or five times higher.\u2019 But that\u2019s not it at all.”<\/p>\n

The proposed salary for players is, in fact, much higher than it’s ever been. Under the new structure proposed by the league, maximum salaries in 2026 would jump from roughly $249,000 to more than $1.3 million, while average salaries would increase from about $120,000 to $540,000 in the first year of the deal.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Sophie Cunningham says the players are unified over the issue of revenue sharing.<\/p>\n

(Photo by Jeff Bottari\/NBAE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But Cunningham says the league has yet to address the players’ central concern: revenue sharing.<\/p>\n

“They came back and zero \u2014 nothing happened with the revenue share,” Cunningham said. “And that is the whole thing that we\u2019re fighting for.”<\/p>\n

The league has proposed players receive roughly 70% of net revenue, while the union has continued pushing for a share of gross revenue. WNBA leadership is adamant that the model proposed by the players’ association<\/a> is simply not financially sustainable.<\/p>\n

Is Revenue Sharing The Reason For The Stalemate?<\/p>\n

Cunningham said that players believe the current economic structure of the league is dramatically out of step with other professional sports.<\/p>\n

“Pretty much every other league, it\u2019s like 50-50,” she said, referencing revenue splits in leagues such as the NBA.<\/p>\n

“If you break it down\u2026 if you\u2019re paying $100 for a jersey, the league gets $50, and I get $50,” Cunningham explained. “But right now in the W, it\u2019s like the league gets $97 or $98, and I get $2.”<\/p>\n

Learn More About The Ultimate College Hoops Experience<\/a><\/p>\n

She also argued that the league is asking players to commit to significantly more games without improving that revenue split.<\/p>\n

“They want to extend our season until November 30,” Cunningham said. “They want 10-plus more games outside of the playoffs\u2026 If you want more of our time, then that says even more that you should be giving us more revenue share.”<\/p>\n

\u2018Show Us The Books\u2019<\/p>\n

Another major sticking point, Cunningham said, is transparency.<\/p>\n

League officials have reportedly argued that larger player revenue shares are difficult because of expenses. But Cunningham says players haven’t seen any financial data to prove that claim.<\/p>\n

“We haven\u2019t seen the books,” she said. “They\u2019re talking about expenses and how expenses are so high\u2026 it\u2019s like, show us. There\u2019s no way we\u2019re trusting you guys. Just show us.”<\/p>\n

Cunningham also criticized the league for attempting to placate players with smaller financial concessions instead of addressing revenue sharing.<\/p>\n

“They keep coming back and changing literally half percentages of things we\u2019re not even asking for,” she said. “They give us like $50,000 to $100,000 more on the team salary cap\u2026 but they won\u2019t even talk about revenue share.”<\/p>\n

Players Are Unified\u2026 Or Are They?<\/p>\n

Despite the ongoing stalemate, Cunningham said the players’ union is more engaged than ever. And they are prepared to take drastic action if necessary. That includes a strike.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m telling you, we are as unified as it gets right now,” she said.<\/p>\n

“And if we don\u2019t have a season, that says a lot more about the WNBA league than us because we\u2019re ready. We are all training. We are all playing. We are ready to go. But we are not going to play for less than what we deserve.”<\/p>\n

I’m not entirely convinced this is true.<\/p>\n

Cunningham’s comments strike a noticeably sharper tone than other prominent players who have recently spoken publicly about the negotiations.<\/p>\n

Just this week, WNBA stars including Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum expressed hopes of reaching an agreement and warned against a work stoppage. They also criticized union leadership’s handling of the negotiations, specifically “the lack of adequate player involvement in the process.”<\/p>\n

READ: WNBA Stars Raise ‘Serious Concerns’ About Union Leadership As CBA Standoff Drags On<\/a><\/p>\n

So what’s the real story? Right now, it depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n

But without a CBA, the expansion draft, the WNBA<\/a> Draft, free agency and the 2026 season are all in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be legit a sh*t show,” Cunningham concluded.<\/p>\n

And that is something we can all agree on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA labor negotiations appear far from resolved. And according to Sophie Cunningham, the league still hasn’t addressed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-516701","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\/516701","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=516701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}