WNBA: Can NWSL’s new CBA serve as a model for the WNBPA?

On Labor Day, it’s worth asking, “What’s the future of labor in the WNBA?”

When the current collective bargaining agreement was signed in early 2020, it widely was hailed as a path-breaking, progressive agreement that provided more equity and empowerment for players. Nearly five years later, however, the agreement seems outdated and insufficient. Protections for players who are mothers, one the CBA’s signature benefits, have been shown to be inadequate, or at least inadequately enforced, by the experiences of Skylar Diggins-Smith and Dearica Hamby. The prioritization clause, which forces players to “prioritize” their WNBA team over overseas opportunities or face financial penalties, quickly came under criticism.

While the current CBA expires in 2027, either the WNBPA or league can choose to opt out by Nov. 1 of this year, which would move the CBA’s expiration date to Oct. 31, 2025. From the outside, it’s hard to imagine the players not electing to opt out, despite the challenges of negotiating a new agreement within a year. Not only have players voiced frustrations about the limitations of the current deal, but the NWSL’s recent CBA also introduces new desires and demands that, in a moment where women’s sports, especially women’s basketball, are experiencing unprecedented growth, players would be right to push for.

Could the WNBPA seek to incorporate some of the more player-first features of the NWSL’s agreement, which includes no drafts, trade vetos, workload management provisions, universal unrestricted free agency and all guaranteed contracts?

No drafts

The 2024 WNBA Draft invitees pose with Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

The dominant headline from the NWSL’s new CBA is the elimination of both the college and expansion drafts, meaning free agency serves as the sole method for teams to build rosters. By axing drafts, the NWSL is adopting the roster-building model used by global soccer leagues, rather than by professional sports league in the United States. Or, more precisely, used by men’s professional sports leagues in the United States.

In American sports culture, the often unstated but widely understood metric of success for a women’s professional sports league is how closely it approximates the men’s professional league in the same sport. The NBA has drafts so the WNBA must have drafts. And since 2.45 million people watched the 2024 WNBA Draft, all must be well. But, is that true? Especially for individual players? As the NWSL shows, there’s another path, one that possibly better prioritizes the experiences of women athletes, rather than assuming that imitating the experiences of male athletes is best.

The majority of highly-drafted NBA players are entering a world of security, with the life-changing money making up for the potential negatives of being drafted by a poorly-run organization, being forced to move to an unfamiliar place far from family or any other challenges. Even for WNBA lottery picks, getting drafted comes with precarity. Your contract is not guaranteed and the team that selected you might not have open roster spots, but you’re still expected to immediately relocate to your new city. The possibilities imagined on draft night quickly can turn into anxieties for all but the most privileged rookies.

Allowing rookies to enter the WNBA via free agency would give players some control over their future. It is a means of talent distribution that prioritizes the player experience (allowing players to find an organization that they believe will invest in their success) over the entertainment product (producing a televised draft that attracts a record number of viewers and social media impressions).

Player veto power for trades

Minnesota Lynx v Phoenix Mercury — Myisha Hines-Allen was the most prominent player traded at the 2024 WNBA trade deadline.

In addition to no drafts, NWSL players will exercise further control over their careers through the ability to veto trades. Players must consent to trades, protecting them against in-season or offseason surprises that could disrupt their lives, both on and off the field.

For The IX Newsletter, Howard Megdal spoke to the Dallas Wings’ Satou Sabally, co-chair of the WNBPA’s CBA Committee, about this provision. She shared:

It’s refreshing in a player sense, because you can actually make some family [plans]. You can actually plan on where you want to be. But… I don’t know how it would look in the WNBA, but I think it’s really interesting. So I will follow it in a in a soccer league, and see how it goes.