Expansion teams play a role in prolonged WNBA CBA negotiations

ESPN’s latest reporting on the ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations between the WNBA and the WNBPA largely indicates those conversations are stalled around a key issue that has driven most of what’s transpired so far: revenue sharing.

According to a report published by CNN on December 31, the WNBA believes its most recent proposal, which would give the players approximately 30% of gross revenue and is said to come with a $10.5 million salary cap, would result in losses of $700 million over the course of the agreement. That amount is more than the combined losses incurred by the WNBA over the first 29 years of the league. ESPN also noted that the projection was based on “previously audited league financial information” but did not specify when that audit took place.

But the players dispute this claim, the outlet also noted, and it seems like expansion teams are playing a larger role in the conversation.

The WNBA will grow to 18 teams by 2030

The WNBA announced three new expansion teams in Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Detroit in 2025. Those teams join the Golden State Valkyries, who played their inaugural season this year, and the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, who are each set to make their debut once a new CBA is agreed upon and implemented. The Tempo and Fire have been unable to hold an Expansion Draft as the terms of such a draft are part of what is collectively bargained.

The Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Detroit buyers each paid a $250 million to join the WNBA, fees that the players see as money that is folded into owners’ incomes. The WNBA argues expansion fees essentially cancel themselves out, because new teams “earn a fractional share of future league revenue, while preexisting teams get a portion of the fee but lose a fractional share of future league revenue.”

Cleveland will make its debut in 2028 and presumably hold an Expansion Draft at the end of 2027. The franchise will be owned by Rock Entertainment Group (REG), which is the umbrella over REG Chairman Dan Gilbert’s sports and entertainment properties under the Rock Family of Companies. Gilbert has owned the Cleveland Cavaliers since 2005. Detroit will join in 2029, and Philadelphia will round things out in 2030.

Of the three cities, Philadelphia is the only that has never been home to a WNBA team before. Philadelphia’s team will be owned by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. The company’s co-founder Josh Harris is a managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers