{"id":682674,"date":"2026-06-03T22:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/682674\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T22:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:34:10","slug":"wnba-notebook-why-the-commissioners-cup-still-matters-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/682674\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Notebook: Why the Commissioner’s Cup still matters in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s June in the WNBA, which means Commissioner\u2019s Cup season<\/a>. The league\u2019s in-season tournament returns for its sixth season with 49 games scheduled between June 1-17, culminating in the championship game on June 30.<\/p>\n

While the format remains largely unchanged, a new collective bargaining agreement and league expansion have created a couple of notable wrinkles for 2026.<\/p>\n

SCHEDULE: Check out the full WNBA on NBC, Peacock slate of games<\/a><\/p>\n

While the term \u201cCommissioner\u2019s Cup\u201d wasn\u2019t in the fine print of the 2020 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), it is now included in the 2026 CBA, which is available for all to read, 409 pages in all, on the players association\u2019s website.<\/a> (Don\u2019t worry, our analysis of it is coming!)<\/p>\n

The older document specified that in the first year of the cup that the player prize pool would begin at a minimum of $500,000 and could reach a maximum of $750,000.<\/p>\n

The 2026 CBA reveals that the Commissioner\u2019s Cup MVP bonus has doubled from the previous<\/a> $5,000 to $10,000. The new CBA also specifies that beginning in 2027, Commissioner\u2019s Cup bonuses will rise or fall in conjunction with the salary cap. In other words, the tournament\u2019s financial reward structure will now grow alongside league revenue.<\/p>\n

What is the purpose of the Commissioner\u2019s Cup in 2026? <\/p>\n

When it was first established, the $30,000 given to each player of the winning team and the $10,000 given to each player of the losing team represented a significant chunk of money being added onto what for some players was a more modest five figure salary. Let\u2019s take last year\u2019s Cup finalists the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx as an example.<\/p>\n

Makayla Timpson, the Fever\u2019s 2025 19th overall pick, made<\/a> a base salary of $69,267. The Cup payout represented more than 43 percent of her annual salary. Anastasiia Olairi Kosu, another rookie but on the Lynx, earned over 14 percent of her yearly salary via the Cup money that the Lynx earned by making the championship game.<\/p>\n

\u201dI think the money has been more top of mind for them than anything else,\u201d Fever head coach Stephanie White admitted<\/a> last year leading up to the Cup championship game.<\/p>\n

But with average WNBA salaries increasing by around<\/a> 400 percent in the new CBA, will Commissioner\u2019s Cup prize money still carry the same significance? When Jonquel Jones, the Liberty\u2019s center who has played in three of the five Cups, was asked about that, she still believed the money to still be significant.<\/p>\n

\u201c$30,000 is $30,000,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Her teammate Breanna Stewart agreed, noting that $30,000 isn\u2019t \u201cchump change.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for both players, what is motivating them most to play hard throughout the month of June is the philanthropic portion of the Cup. Ever since the 2022 season, each WNBA team has chosen a charitable organization to play for.<\/p>\n

Each time a team wins a Cup game, $3,000 is donated to the team\u2019s chosen charity. Losing teams still donate $1,000 from each game played. For the two finalists of the Cup championship, the winner donates $10,000 to their organization and the loser donates $5,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charity component is probably, probably the most important part,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cFor us, a team that\u2019s kind of been in the mix for a few times, like making sure that we\u2019re able to have money go to our charity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous years have included themes with 2023 spotlighting organizations that help communities access health care. Last season the charities were chosen under the theme of fostering inclusivity and freedom. Multiple teams chose<\/a> to donate to their local ACLU branches.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s charitable partnerships are less unified around a single theme and more reflective of each franchise\u2019s history and community<\/a>, especially with the league celebrating its 30th season.<\/p>\n

For instance, the Sparks have been partners with their charity Brotherhood Crusade ever since the league\u2019s first season. And the Liberty have decided to partner with the African American Policy Forum, the organization that played a role during the league\u2019s bubble season that was dedicated to the #SayHerName campaign.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Clark speaks on reaction to loss, coach White<\/p>\n

LaChina Robinson, Cheryl Miller and Sue Bird unpack the “W’s” of the week, including Serena William’s comeback and updates to Caitlin Clark’s comments after the Fever’s loss.<\/p>\n

Impact of Expansion on WNBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup<\/p>\n

Another difference between 2026 and previous iterations of the Cup is the introduction of two new expansion teams in the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. For the second year in a row beginning with the Valkyries last season, the conferences aren\u2019t balanced. This season there are eight teams in the Western Conference and seven in the East.<\/p>\n

The Eastern Conference teams (Dream, Liberty, Tempo, Mystics, Fever, Sky and Sun) all only play six Cup games while the Western Conference teams (Lynx, Wings, Aces, Valkyries, Fire, Sparks, Storm and Mercury) play seven Cup games. It\u2019s a practical limitation created by expansion in two straight years, and it remains to be seen whether the disparity will continue to have any meaningful impact.<\/p>\n

Are the results of the Commissioner\u2019s Cup predictive of who makes the WNBA Finals?<\/p>\n

In short, no it does not. The fact that the Las Vegas Aces were the only team to win both a Cup championship and a WNBA title in the same year points to the fact that 1) it\u2019s incredibly difficult to win both in the same season and 2) the parity in the WNBA isn\u2019t what it is now. (Parity, a topic to explore in a future column.)<\/p>\n

Year
Commissioner\u2019s Cup finalists
Commissioner\u2019s Cup Winner
WNBA Finals participants
WNBA Finals Winner
2021
Connecticut Sun
Seattle Storm
Phoenix Mercury
Chicago Sky
Seattle Storm
Chicago Sky
2022
Chicago Sky
Las Vegas Aces
Connecticut Sun
Las Vegas Aces
Las Vegas Aces
Las Vegas Aces
2023
Las Vegas Aces
New York Liberty
New York Liberty
Las Vegas Aces
New York Liberty
Las Vegas Aces
2024
New York Liberty
Minnesota Lynx
Minnesota Lynx
New York Liberty
Minnesota Lynx
New York Liberty
2025
Minnesota Lynx
Indiana Fever
Phoenix Mercury
Las Vegas Aces
Indiana Fever
Las Vegas Aces <\/p>\n

Then if you look at 2023 and 2024, those years were accurate indicators of which teams were consistently the best performing teams. Those years in particular resulted in a rematch during the WNBA Finals months later in October with the winner being the team opposite of the one who won the Cup months prior.<\/p>\n

The Cup can also serve as a benchmark for how teams can really flip the switch and go on runs that serve as tales that stand the test of time. The two bookend years of the Cup so far in 2021 and 2025 both didn\u2019t feature any of the Cup finalists in the WNBA Finals. The 2021 Chicago Sky went from ending the regular season at .500 to winning the franchise\u2019s first title. The 2025 Las Vegas Aces famously lost 111-58 to the Cup runner-up in the Lynx before winning 17 straight<\/a> games to march all the way to the Finals and then sweep the Mercury in four games.<\/p>\n

While the Cup doesn\u2019t always serve as a crystal ball, it for sure serves as a marker that plays a role in shaping storylines, which was the point of the Cup in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s June in the WNBA, which means Commissioner\u2019s Cup season. The league\u2019s in-season tournament returns for its sixth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-682674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682674","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=682674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}