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Alexa Philippou
Multiple Authors
The Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association submitted a new counterproposal to the WNBA on Friday evening with some concessions on revenue share and housing, a source familiar with the collective bargaining negotiations told ESPN.
In the new CBA proposal, the players union is asking for players to receive 26% of gross revenue (defined as revenue before deducting expenses) over the lifetime of the agreement, with the salary cap in Year 1 of the deal (about $9.5 million) unchanged from its previous offer.
The revenue share split is down from 27.5% of gross revenue as proposed in the WNBPA’s Feb. 17 proposal, a change that a source said amounts to nearly $100 million in reductions on revenue share.
The new proposal also contained tweaks to the union’s housing offerings: Previously, the players asked that teams continue to provide housing to players in the first several years of the new deal, but that in later years, teams will no longer be obligated to provide it for players making at least 80% of the maximum salary, on multiyear deals and receiving full salary protection.
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In the new proposal, the union struck the multi-year component and lowered the salary threshold to 75% for which players would no longer be obligated to receive team-provided housing.
The two sides are still going back and forth on the years of service limit for developmental players – a new feature of this CBA with each team now expected to have two developmental player spots. The union is now proposing a year of service limit of six after originally asking for no experience limit for those players, a source said, while the league’s latest proposal suggested four or five years of service based on minutes played.
The WNBPA’s counterproposal comes one week after the league submitted one of their own. That Feb. 20 league proposal guaranteed housing for all players in 2026 before being phased out in subsequent years of the deal. Players on their applicable minimum salary and those with zero years of service would be provided a one-bedroom apartment in 2027 and 2028 only, while developmental players would be provided studio apartments for the entirety of the deal.
But the two sides are still far apart on the issue of revenue sharing, including in proposing different revenue sharing systems: The WNBA has held firm in its proposals, with players being offered on average over 70% of net revenue (revenue after deducting expenses), what would amount to less than 15% of gross revenue. The 2026 salary cap would come in at $5.65 million salary cap (up from $1.5 million in 2025) that in subsequent years will grow in line with revenue growth. The league’s proposal features maximum salaries, including revenue sharing payouts, amounting to nearly $1.3 million in 2026 and projecting to approach $2 million in 2031. The supermax in 2025 came in at $249,000. The average player salary, including revenue sharing, would be projected to reach $540,000 in 2026 and $780,000 by 2031, up from $120,000 in 2025.
The WNBA publicly struck down the WNBPA’s previous proposal as “unrealistic” and “caus[ing] hundreds of millions of dollars of losses for our teams.” A source familiar with the negotiations told ESPN the league projected that Feb. 17 plan would result in losses of $460 million over the lifetime of the agreement, though the union has maintained its revenue sharing model would still put the league in a “profitable position,” a separate source said.\
Earlier this week, the league gave the WNBPA and its teams a target date of March 10 to complete a term sheet, or else the schedule for the 2026 season may be impacted.
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