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Alexa Philippou
As negotiations between the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association over a new collective bargaining agreement near a Jan. 9 deadline, the sides remain far apart on several key issues: what a revenue sharing system should look like, what should be considered revenue and how to account for expenses.
Multiple sources familiar with the negotiations told ESPN that the WNBA is projecting that a recent proposal from the WNBPA — which would give players about 30% of gross revenue and is believed to feature approximately a $10.5 million salary cap — would result in $700 million in losses over the course of the agreement. Such losses would jeopardize the league’s financial health, the sources said, and they would be more than the combined losses of the league and its teams in the WNBA’s first 29 years of existence.
The projection, sources said, was determined based on previously audited league financial information.
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But the union believes its revenue sharing model still puts the league in a “profitable position,” a separate source close to the negotiations said, and calls the league’s projected loss figure “absolutely false,” citing a discrepancy in whether expansion fees are factored in.
The league soon will grow to 18 teams — Portland and Toronto will debut in 2026, and Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia recently paid $250 million each to join the league between 2028 and 2030.
The league considers expansion fees a transaction that generates zero net revenue: New teams are out the expansion fee but 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.
The union’s proposal, meanwhile, accounts for expansion fees in its projections, seeing them as real money that still contributes to owners’ bottom lines.
Either way, the two sides remain divided on the nature of the next deal’s revenue share model, sources told ESPN.
The league has proposed a system where players would receive in excess of 50% of net revenue, essentially defined as revenue after subtracting expenses, a source told ESPN. The last reported WNBA proposal, from Dec. 18, featured: an uncapped revenue sharing component; a raise of maximum salaries above $1.3 million and growing to nearly $2 million over the life of the deal; average salaries to above $530,000 and growing to more than $780,000 over the life of the deal; and minimum salaries to more than a quarter of a million in the first year alone. The salary cap would be $5 million in the first year and grow in line with revenue growth in the years afterward.
By comparison, in 2025, the WNBA supermax was $249,244, the average salary $120,000, the minimum $66,079 and the salary cap $1,507,100.
The league has previously said that in addition to substantially increasing salaries and other cost commitments, it wants to incentivize owners to continue to invest in operating the business. The WNBA’s tremendous growth in recent years provides an opportunity for the business to go from operating at losses to building sustained profitability.
Should revenues exceed projections, including if the league and its media partners reevaluate their recently agreed-upon rights deal, the WNBA’s revenue sharing component allows players to still participate in that upside.
WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN on Dec. 19, though, that the league’s revenue share model is “not adequate.” The union is proposing a system based on gross revenue — defined as revenues before subtracting expenses — giving players about 30%. The WNBPA believes that players who provide the labor and have no control over business expenses shouldn’t be paid last.
According to a document obtained by ESPN that was shared with players, the WNBPA proposed a compensation system last month with a projected salary cap of approximately $12.5 million in 2026, over eight times the 2025 cap. That Nov. 28 proposal also included approximately a $1 million average player salary and maximum player salary of $2.5 million, 20% of the proposed salary cap — altogether marking the first reported salary figures from the players’ side of the bargaining table.
More recently as talks have continued, the union has proposed a lower salary cap closer to $10.5 million, multiple sources familiar with the negotiations told ESPN.
“WNBPA staff regularly provides members with written and verbal updates on the status of ongoing negotiations with the league and teams,” the WNBPA said in a statement provided to ESPN when asked about the document. “The players remain fully engaged and focused on securing a transformative agreement that delivers a meaningful share of the revenue their labor creates.”
Both sides have previously agreed to two extensions on the current CBA and to continue negotiating a new deal. But Ogwumike told ESPN that even after opting out of the current CBA over a year ago, it almost feels like negotiations are “a bit in their infancy.”
Earlier this month, the players authorized Ogwumike and the rest of the union’s executive committee to vote on a strike “if necessary,” calling the move an “unavoidable response to the state of negotiations with the WNBA and its teams.”
“This means we could possibly strike if we need to, but it doesn’t mean that we want that to happen,” Ogwumike told ESPN about the vote. “But we have it in our arsenal in order for us to get exactly what we need, which is a fair deal that represents our value in a very meaningful way.”
ESPN’s Michael Voepel contributed to this report.
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