As WNBA grows, ‘rest’ designations rise amid officiating concerns and player demands

The “injury designation of ‘rest’ is being used more than ever” this WNBA season, which includes 44 regular-season matches, the league’s most games to date, according to Madeline Kenney of the N.Y. POST. The WNBA has “plans to expand” to 18 teams by 2030, with two teams — Portland and Toronto — starting play next season. And with the league growing in size, the schedule is “expected to expand, too.” In fact, the schedule length and number of games “are on the docket” as collective bargaining agreement negotiations continue. The average time between games is “close to one game every 2 ½ days,” but there are certain stretches of the season that are “more taxing” than others. Wings coach Chris Koclanes said that it is a “tough balance” between monitoring player workloads to prevent injury while also “knowing that people pay to see star players in action.” The NBA implemented “stricter rules” for when teams can hold out All-Star players from games for “load-management purposes” — in other words: “rest.” Kenney: “May the WNBA institute similar policies? Only time will tell” (N.Y. POST, 7/28).

TOO INCONSISTENT: In S.F., Marisa Ingemi writes officiating has become “one of the most contentious issues of the 2025 WNBA season.” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase has called for “consistency.” Players and coaches across the league are “decrying missed calls,” and “criticism is mounting as attendance and league visibility grow.” Nakase is “far from the only one speaking out.” Ingemi noted coaches and players across the league have “repeatedly called out officiating this season, both for inconsistent whistles and for failing to control increasingly physical play.” Ingemi: “Disparity between how the NBA pays officials and holds them accountable has left the WNBA to settle for officiating to be significantly worse.” The pay disparity between officials in the NBA and WNBA “forces some stark choices of aspiring refs.” One veteran official said, “Referees are kind of handcuffed. They can’t have us making more than the players.” However, league officials “aren’t ignoring the criticism.” SVP Referee Development/Training Monty McCutchen admitted that the league has “missed some rough play calls that should have been made” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 7/28).

PAYOFF IN THE LONG-TERM? THE ATLANTIC’s Jemele Hill noted as WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert presented the All-Star Game MVP award to Lynx F Napheesa Collier, “fans inside Indianapolis’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse booed Engelbert and chanted, ‘Pay them!’” However, outside the arena, the reaction was “more mixed.” As the WNBA became a “trending topic” on X and “national pundits began to weigh in, many turned out to not share the perspective of the fans at the game.” Hill noted claims that the WNBA has been “unable to turn a profit” during its 28 years of existence are “credible.” Over that time frame, NBA owners have “indeed spent a considerable amount of money to keep the league afloat.” But that spending “wasn’t charity; it was an investment.” And the investment is “very clearly about to pay off.” Sixteen percent belongs to an investment group that “stimulated” a $75M capital infusion in 2022. The capital raise was “so big” because investors “could see what was coming.” Last year set “popularity records for the WNBA across the board,” and the growth shows “no signs of slowing.” But Hill wrote the “most important figure is” $2.2B. That is the value of the 11-year media-rights deal that the WNBA secured last year, which starts in 2026. This “colossal source of revenue helps explain the immense valuations of WNBA franchises.” Hill: “Every professional sports league has experienced financial ups and downs, but that has never stopped the players from demanding and receiving more” (THE ATLANTIC, 7/28).