Potential January 2026 WNBA player strike may not be the worst-case scenario

It’s still a little early to call it, but it certainly looks like the WNBA and the WNBPA will enter 2026 without any kind of Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) resolution on the table. To make matters potentially more disconcerting for everyone involved, it doesn’t seem like the two parties are any closer to such an agreement — but it does seem like the players are increasingly more comfortable calling for a strike.

Yahoo Sports’ Caroline Fenton and women’s basketball writer Cassandra Negley dove into what a potential strike could mean for the league this week. As they pointed out, the players may well opt to call for a strike if there is no new agreement in place January 9, but, crucially, that doesn’t have to mean that there will be no WNBA games in 2026. After all, there’s still a lot of time between January and May, when the preseason usually begins.

In mid-December, WNBA players voted to give the Executive Committee the authority to call a 2026 strike ahead of next season Thursday, the union representing the athletes announced. The members of the WNBPA explained the vote, which 98% of the players supported, in a statement shared on social media.

The ongoing CBA negotiations are delaying several key parts of the 2026 season

Of course, there are a few key WNBA elements that are also on pause as the negotiations continue into the new year. For starters, the Tempo and Fire will end 2025 without having hosted an Expansion Draft, which would allow the two teams to begin building their rosters. No date was officially set for such a draft because the terms of Expansion Drafts are part of what is collectively bargained, but there was hope the teams would be able to begin drafting players this month. (The Golden State Valkyries held their own Expansion Draft in December 2024).

No firm resolution between the WNBA and WNBPA also delays free agency in 2026, which will be a bit of a doozy once it does roll around. While there are plenty of players who are likely to stick with their current team no matter what (for example, it seems highly unlikely the New York Liberty will lose their big three), roughly 96% of the league is available to negotiate with new teams. Free agency can’t happen if there’s no CBA in place.

If negotiations continue to linger, they could also delay the 2026 WNBA Draft, which typically takes place in April following the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament.