{"id":549318,"date":"2026-03-20T16:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549318\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T16:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:19:08","slug":"the-new-wnba-cba-agreement-doesnt-drown-out-the-dismissive-undertones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549318\/","title":{"rendered":"The new WNBA CBA agreement doesn’t drown out the dismissive undertones"},"content":{"rendered":"

A CBA agreement between WNBA players and the league has brought a moment of collective exhale. The weight of uncertainty has been lifted, and there is a sense of forward motion in the world of women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n

For the first time, the league\u2019s best players can make over $1 million stateside<\/a>, while minimum salaries have risen to a respectable $270,000.<\/a><\/p>\n

Fans can return to the luxury of lighthearted musing about the upcoming season: Can the Aces defend their dynasty? Will the Wings draft Azzi Fudd and create a Dallas power couple?<\/p>\n

These questions are a privilege following an offseason dominated by existential dread: Will there even be a season? Will players ever get their fair share?<\/p>\n

Throughout a tense negotiating cycle, the players\u2019 stance was rooted firmly in economics. \u201cIt\u2019s just business,\u201d they said, arguing for their share of the success they built. The league\u2019s popularity surged, and leaked figures suggest the league now generates at least half a billion dollars in annual revenue.<\/p>\n

Still, the labor fight was swept up in larger social and political currents<\/a>. Women are persistently asked to accept less than their male counterparts, and union power in America has eroded.<\/p>\n

So does the WNBA\u2019s new agreement represent justice or incremental progress?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to tell. Players will now participate in a far more progressive revenue-sharing model, but their 20% share of league revenue remains a fraction of the 50% standard in major men\u2019s leagues.<\/p>\n

What we know for sure is that the players are proud. Union Vice President Alysha Clark was moved to tears when describing the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we just accomplished,\u201d she said, \u201cis going to change the lives of so many players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new deal delivers palpable wins to the women\u2019s basketball world, both immediate and enduring. Everyone can relax knowing the league\u2019s 30th season will start on time. (May 8th, mark your calendars). The deal also raises expectations for the standard in women\u2019s professional sports.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s remarkable when you consider the low expectations originally placed on the WNBA by its own parent company, the NBA.<\/p>\n

Four-time champion Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve named it plainly during the 2025 All-Star weekend<\/a>: \u201cThere\u2019s been this long undertone [from the NBA] that yeah, the WNBA is nice and everything, but it\u2019ll never become mainstream. I was told that 10 years ago\u2026 Some of those same people are going \u2018Oh! There\u2019s money in it now!\u2019 That\u2019s the nature of women in business, women in sport, women in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decades of underinvestment meant the WNBA \u201cproduct\u201d was defined by hardship: exhausted athletes hooping in understaffed organizations, taking ice baths in garbage cans, and heading straight overseas to make ends meet instead of getting the rest NBA players take for granted.<\/p>\n

Despite these conditions, women\u2019s basketball turned the corner in 2024. A broader audience joined the die-hard fans. Viewership exploded. Billionaires began tripping over themselves to invest.<\/p>\n

The league leaned into its momentum. It will expand to 18 teams by the end of the decade, and a 52-game schedule is reportedly on the horizon.<\/p>\n

But leadership should be thinking even bigger. Imagine what professional women\u2019s basketball could become with an extended season unafraid to conflict with the traditional sports calendar. Imagine a creative, symbiotic partnership with Unrivaled or other emerging platforms.<\/p>\n

Is the league finally ready to take such radical risks? The CBA negotiation process flashed some warning signs.<\/p>\n

In January, union vice president Napheesa Collier told ESPN the league\u2019s tone was \u201cdismissive\u201d and \u201cdisrespectful,\u201d saying players were repeatedly told they didn\u2019t understand the business. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s any cultivation of a culture of trust,\u201d union President Nneka Ogwumike told The Athletic in December.<\/p>\n

These specific quotes may be forgotten amidst the champagne toasts, but neither players nor fans will forget the dismissive undertones.<\/p>\n

And a paternalistic attitude toward players will continue to limit the product\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A CBA agreement between WNBA players and the league has brought a moment of collective exhale. The weight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-549318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549318","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=549318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}