It is December 2025, but WNBA fans aren\u2019t sure if there will be a 2026 WNBA season. And let\u2019s be honest. For the first time in league history, it is possible that there could be a league work stoppage \u2014 and perhaps \u2026 even a league where there the WNBA\u2019s future could be uncertain.<\/p>\n
If you are wondering whether the league and the WNBPA Players\u2019 Union are closer to a Collective Bargaining Agreement than before, the answer is uncertain at best. And hell no at worst. Today, Cat Ariail, Swish Appeal\u2019s site manager <\/a>wrote a great analysis piece on the players\u2019 union staying strong on their demands from the WNBA for a fair piece of revenue sharing, not just more pay. They also still demand team provided housing, among other things.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The WNBA has reportedly wanted a longer season, training camp to start in March when rookies from colleges don\u2019t show up until mid April at earliest, probably as an attempt to lower the incentive for players to play in one basketball league (America or otherwise) or another. Historically, the WNBA has allowed players to play overseas or in other leagues during the winter. But the league doesn\u2019t appear to be so kind to that anymore.<\/p>\n Players still want their flexibility to play overseas if they choose. And they appear to be willing to leave the WNBA if they choose. Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham recently said on a podcast<\/a> that she would be open to quitting the league altogether if her new offseason league, Project B, which is a 5\u00d75 league consisting of six 11-woman teams that will play in several two week tournaments in Latin America, Asia and Europe. Players could be paid $2 million each, though details are murky<\/a>. That is higher than any offer the WNBA has offered so far.<\/p>\n I have reservations on how all of these startup women\u2019s basketball leagues will survive for differing reasons. But they all point to the assertion that the WNBA, even given its rapid rise in the 2020s, is not giving a fair enough deal for players. And unlike the NBA, players have multiple options to play \u2014and we didn\u2019t get to the EuroLeague Women, Chinese and Australian teams yet.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s important to make sure that the WNBA offers a fair deal for players and their pay. But I also believe that it\u2019s fair for the WNBA to demand that players are loyal to the WNBA in return for the increase in pay. If the WNBA is truly the best women\u2019s professional basketball league in the world, it must pay the market rate to players. Even if that results in short term losses.<\/p>\n If not, the international leagues (as well as plenty of my ramblings on this topic) will win out.<\/p>\n Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is December 2025, but WNBA fans aren\u2019t sure if there will be a 2026 WNBA season. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[12549,2839,170939,4805,99,434,83943,170938],"class_list":{"0":"post-340158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-collective-bargaining-agreement","9":"tag-indiana-fever","10":"tag-players-union","11":"tag-sophie-cunningham","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wnba","14":"tag-wnba-season","15":"tag-wnbpa-players-union"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}