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The WNBA CBA is set to expire on Oct. 31 and the league is reaching an inflection point.
The pending expiration of the CBA hung over the 2025 season, with the issue of increased player pay and revenue sharing standing out as the primary goal for the WNBPA to secure in renegotiations. The WNBA has exploded in value over the last few seasons, while player salaries have remained stagnant, with the league’s highest-paid players topping out at roughly $250,000 per year.
“We are being so grossly almost taken advantage of, and it should be illegal,” Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said (via Emily Tannenbaum of Glamor Magazine).
Collier has been one of the most vocal leaders of the players’ fight for more pay. Collier is the vice president of the WNBPA and made headlines earlier this year for her scathing statement on WNBA leadership and commissioner Cathy Engelbert that she made during the Lynx’s exit interviews.
Since that statement, Collier has continued to speak out in favor of the players. She added a new chapter in her growing history of player advocacy with an interview she did with Glamour Magazine that she did earlier this year, and her comments have recently resurfaced.
“If we give in, we’re not only doing a disservice to us, we’re doing a disservice to where we have gotten in women’s sports,” Collier said (via Emily Tannenbaum of Glamour Magazine). “We really have no choice but to stand strong again, not just for the present, but for the future of our league too.”
Based on Colliers’s statement, the players union is prepared for a league-wide walkout if they don’t reach favorable terms for the CBA.
So far, negotiations have not gone well. The WNBPA rejected the league’s initial offer back in July, and with the deadline just days away, there have been no reports of any progress toward an agreement. The WNBA has made a 30-day extension offer to avoid the possibility of a walkout, but extended negotiation time really only delays the inevitable if more progress toward an agreement isn’t made.
Beyond her advocacy for players within the confines of the WNBA, Collier has made moves to assist her fellow players with the founding of Unrivaled Basketball, a 3×3 basketball league she co-founded with Breanna Stewart with the purpose of providing players better offseason financial opportunities so they don’t have to resort to playing offseason basketball overseas.
Unrivaled has so far delivered on that promise. The average salary of Unrivaled players is reportedly around $220,000, far exceeding the average salaries of the WNBA, and Unrivaled’s leadership promises to increase that number as the league continues to grow strong.
Collier and the WNBPA aren’t backing down, and that isn’t likely to change even if the league’s 30-day extension is accepted. If an equitable deal can’t be reached, the players are prepared to take drastic measures until they can prevail.
We are standing really firm on what we want, and we’re not going to give in before we get it,” Collier said.
