{"id":528607,"date":"2026-03-11T07:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/528607\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T07:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:37:08","slug":"wnba-and-players-union-meet-as-cba-deadline-nears-to-get-season-started-on-time-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/528607\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA and players’ union meet as CBA deadline nears to get season started on time | National"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The WNBA and its players’ union had a marathon negotiation sessions at a hotel that stretched past midnight to continue discussions on reaching a new collective bargaining agreement, with a deadline to get the season started on time at hand.<\/p>\n

The meeting comes on a day that the league has said at least a handshake agreement<\/a> on a labor deal would need to be done to start the season as scheduled.<\/p>\n

The union leadership walked into the hotel shortly before 5 p.m. EDT. The group included executive committee members Nneka Ogwumike, Breanna Stewart, Alysha Clark and Brianna Turner. The league was represented by Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, head of league operations Bethany Donaphin and New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai.<\/p>\n

The sides were still meeting after midnight.<\/p>\n

The sides exchanged proposals over the weekend with the league sending one on Saturday, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.<\/p>\n

Revenue sharing is the key sticking point between the sides.<\/p>\n

Time is running out. The league had said it would need a deal by Tuesday to be able to have it signed by the end of the month. Under that timeline, the expansion draft for new franchises in Portland and Toronto would be held sometime between April 1-6, according to a timetable obtained by the AP.<\/p>\n

Free agent qualifying offers, including franchise player tags, would be sent out April 7-8. Teams would then have three days to negotiate with the more than 80% of players who are free agents. The signing period would take place from April 12-18.<\/p>\n

Training camps would open the next day and the season would be able to start on May 8.<\/p>\n

But for any of that to happen, the two sides have to figure out a revenue sharing model. The union’s previous proposal from a week ago<\/a> had asked for an average of 26% of the gross revenue \u2014 revenue before expenses \u2014 over the course of the CBA. That would include only 25% in the first year of the new deal. The league has said that number was unrealistic.<\/p>\n

The WNBA’s last few proposals have offered more than 70% of net revenue, with that number going up as the league continues to grow.<\/p>\n

The meeting comes three days after Caitlin Clark said at USA Basketball training camp that the two sides should stop sending proposals and instead meet face-to-face until a deal gets done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why we don\u2019t just get in a room and iron it out and shake hands,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s how business is. You look each other in the eye, you shake hands, you respect both sides. For me, that\u2019s what I would love to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart agreed with Clark’s idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that would be great for us all to sit in a room until we really get it done,\u201d the New York Liberty star said. \u201cIf that means sitting in there for hours and hours at a time, let\u2019s do it. That\u2019s for the better of the player. While a situation like that has never happened before, there\u2019s a first time for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The WNBA and its players’ union had a marathon negotiation sessions at a hotel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,201428,26671,82,630,5689],"class_list":["post-528607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cba-wnba","tag-labor-unions","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528607","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=528607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}