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NEW YORK — After more than a year of tumultuous negotiations, more than a week of nearly nonstop discussions, and another day of talks that stretched into the early morning, the WNBA and its players union reached a verbal agreement on the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement.
The league and the WNBPA finally reached a deal after 2 a.m. Wednesday here to move forward with a new pact that will redefine the economic and governing rules of the WNBA going forward. The agreement, Breanna Stewart said, will be “transformational” for the league and its players.
Though there is an agreement in place, it still must be formalized into a term sheet and approved by the players and the league’s board of governors. The details of the agreement are still not known.
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Still, there was celebration in the early morning in midtown New York. After months spent far apart in nearly every way, league staff, including Engelbert, WNBPA leadership, and members of the union’s executive committee came together early Wednesday morning in a conference room at the Langham hotel and toasted with glasses of champagne.
Finally, the WNBA has peace again.
“It’s been obviously a process, but we’re very proud to be leading in women’s sports,” Engelbert said.
“In our time as a league that is evolving, as a union that is evolving, this is historical for women’s sports,” said WNBAPA president Nneka Ogwumike. “I told Cathy, it’s not just for the players that are entering the league or the players that aren’t already here, but it’s the ones that are standing next to next to her and beside her. And so we’re just really grateful to be able to come to a deal.”
Despite deadlines and saber-rattling that the league could have the start of its season impacted, Engelbert said that training camp and the regular season will start on time. Opening night is scheduled for May 8.The agreement comes just in time for the league’s upcoming season, as a long to-do list awaits over what’s left of the offseason. Three weeks ago, the WNBA set a March 10 deadline to reach a deal, which the league said was necessary to avoid disruptions to the 2026 season. After that deadline passed, WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert told reporters Friday that an agreement needed to get done by Monday to stay on track.
The league could have a formal CBA in place within weeks and conduct its full offseason during April. Before training camps open on April 19 and the season tips off on May 8, the WNBA must hold both an expansion draft for incoming teams in Toronto and Portland and a college draft, plus conduct a historic free agency.
After the league imposed the deadline, negotiations quickened after months of stalemate. During Wednesday’s 11-hour session in New York (which followed a 12-hour session that began Tuesday), the WNBA proposed a $6.2 million salary cap — up from its most recent proposal of $5.75 million — which would put the supermax salary at $1.3 million in Year 1 that would increase to roughly $2 million by Year 6 of the deal, according to a source with knowledge of the sessions. Under the previous CBA, the 2025 salary cap was roughly $1.5 million with a supermax salary worth slightly less than $250,000.
The league’s recent proposal before the deal offered players roughly 15.5 percent of the total revenue over the lifetime of the CBA. Players offered to decrease their initial proposal of a 40 percent pre-expenses revenue share to 26 percent in a Feb. 27 meeting and even lower in this week’s meetings, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
The two sides had largely been deadlocked because they used different revenue-sharing models. In addition, the players were frustrated that the league’s proposals prohibited them from auditing league and team expenses. The league had also continued to eliminate team housing benefits from proposals, which became another point of contention.
The league’s previous CBA expired on Oct. 31, 2025. The players opted out in October 2024, giving the league and union more than a year to make a deal before its expiration, but little progress was made before the first 30-day extension.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
