There’s something particularly climactic about this year’s WNBA Finals, coming weeks before the league’s collective bargaining agreement is set to expire and with most players becoming free agents in anticipation of a new leaguewide salary structure. As owners and the players union negotiate the deal, the Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury are still battling for a title—and close to $23,000 in prize money per athlete.

Vegas takes a 3-0 series lead into Friday night’s Game 4.

The CBA, which has been in effect since 2020, initially called for W champions to earn $11,356 apiece. The league then expanded its postseason bonus pool to $500,000 total in 2022. The 2024 champion New York Liberty earned a $20,825 bonus per player.

“We’re just trying to chip away and find ways for the players and to lift them and to pay them more,” commissioner Cathy Engelbert said when announcing the increased payouts in 2022. 

This year the WNBA Finals lengthened to a best-of-seven contest for the first time. As a result, the league increased the prize pool again. Winners will get $22,908 each—roughly $25,000 more as a team compared to 2024—while the runners-up receive $8,521 each, up from $7,746. Players eliminated in the first two rounds also receive increased prize money.

Still, as the business of women’s basketball has grown, other payouts exceed the bonuses paid to WNBA champions. 

Indiana Fever players, for instance, gained up to $30,000 each by winning the league’s midseason Commissioner’s Cup final in July, as cash is often used to add stakes for a new event. The 2020 CBA initially set aside $750,000 annually for special competitions. “You get more [money] for this than you do if you’re the [WNBA Finals] champion,” Fever star Caitlin Clark said during the postgame celebration. “It makes no sense.”

Earlier in the year, 3-on-3 league Unrivaled paid winners on Rose BC $50,000 each.

Another imperfect comparison point: In the NWSL, playoff champions each get a minimum of $5,000, as do the league’s Shield winners as the top regular-season team. Those prizes both increase to a minimum of $10,000 beginning in 2027, according to the CBA that went into effect last year. NBA champions make more than $800,000 each, the highest figure in American team sports.

“Once our paycheck stops after regular season, and we go into playoff basketball, honestly, you’re just playing for pride at that point,” Lynx guard Courtney Williams said this summer.

Winning a title also likely comes with increased marketing opportunities. In past offseasons, the league has signed its own brand ambassador deals for players who promote the W during the hiatus. Prize payouts are expected to increase alongside salaries in the WNBA’s next CBA.

“We want to significantly, and I mean significantly, increase their salary and benefits, while also supporting the long-term growth and viability of the WNBA,” Engelbert said prior to Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. “We have made proposals to that end. We have been meeting regularly throughout the summer and playoffs, and we will continue to negotiate in good faith until we get a transformative deal done.” 

Game 1 of the Aces-Mercury series averaged 1.9 million viewers on Oct. 3, the most for a Finals game since the league’s 1997 inaugural season. Sunday’s Game 2 drew 1.2 million average viewers. Even for those players still working on the court, these Finals are only the beginning of what promises to be a momentous stretch for the league off it.

“We got to get to four [wins],” Mercury guard Kahleah Copper said last week, “and then we can go full throttle.”