WNBA targets better salaries and benefits after media deal

Last week’s WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix was “probably the greatest spectacle in the league’s history,” longtime Minnesota Lynx and U.S. national team coach Cheryl Reeve said.

Transcendent rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese battled established superstars Diana Taurasi and A’ja Wilson, with celebrities Jason Sudeikis, Aubrey Plaza, the Bryant family and some 16,400 others watching at the Footprint Center. All-Star MVP Arike Ogunbowale led Team WNBA past the U.S. Olympic squad in a showcase viewed by 3.4 million people on ABC, the league’s most-watched game ever on ESPN platforms.

It was the latest example of the surge in popularity of women’s basketball, an explosion that over the past nine months has been punctuated by the announcement of the league’s first two expansion franchises since 2008, the shift to full-time charter travel at the beginning of the 2024 season and, most recently and arguably most significantly, the signing of an 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal that WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert believes will fuel a sustainable, long-term economic model.

“This moment in the WNBA,” Engelbert told ESPN recently, “is really important to set this league up for decades.”

The WNBA is experiencing unprecedented success behind shattered TV ratings and its highest attendance in 26 years, but those involved say there’s still work to be done. ESPN spoke to WNBA players across eight teams, including five members of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association’s executive committee, and Engelbert about what they consider the league’s most pressing issues moving forward. Players’ answers ranged from salaries and pensions to scheduling and family care, and there was mostly optimism about how this new rights deal would make those improvements possible.

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“Salaries are going to go up, player benefits are going to go up hopefully, benefits for families, working moms are going to get better. And then pension, I think that’s something that we need to start dissecting a little bit,” reigning MVP Breanna Stewart said Friday. “But now, the investment is there.”

Before specifics are determined, a decision looms ahead of the current collective bargaining agreement’s Nov. 1 opt-out deadline. While the CBA runs through 2027, the opt-out would go into effect following the 2025 season.

No matter the timing of the next negotiations between the players and the league, the growth the WNBA is seeing could bring lasting change — while also raising yet-to-be-answered questions.

“With this surge of attention, accessibility, visibility and, of course, investment in dollars, the most pressing thing to consider right now is how we use those dollars to continue to grow and also value the players,” WNBPA president and Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN, “and seeing what that looks like in what feels like a very transformational period in our league.”

DIANA TAURASI HAS seen all the ways life for WNBA players has changed since the Phoenix Mercury drafted her in 2004 — and all the ways it hasn’t. A 20-year veteran and the league’s all-time scoring leader, Taurasi played overseas in Russia and Turkey for years during the WNBA offseason to supplement her income.

“That’s the one thing I always have been talking about: player salaries,” Taurasi, the league’s longest-tenured player, said Friday. “How do we move that forward? How do we make sure our players don’t have to go overseas for 10 years? We can grow the league. Hopefully the All-Stars and young Olympians can be here in our country and make that same amount of money for the next 10, 20 years.”

In conversations with ESPN, several other players also identified raising salaries and changing the salary structure as a top priority. The player supermaximum currently sits at $241,984 for 2024, while the minimum salary for players with 0-2 years of service is $64,154 and $76,535 for those with 3-plus years. Each team operates with a hard cap of $1,463,200 for 2024.

“The most pressing thing to consider right now is how we use those dollars to continue to grow and also value the players, and seeing what that looks like in what feels like a very transformational period in our league.”

Nneka Ogwumike, WNBPA president

Teams that prioritize signing multiple higher-salaried veterans might only be able to afford 11 players instead of the maximum 12. (Phoenix, Seattle, the Connecticut Sun and the Las Vegas Aces are carrying 11 players this season.) Some midlevel veterans get squeezed out in favor of rookies on cheaper salaries.

Potential changes could involve more than simply bumping salaries and the cap. Terri Jackson, the executive director of the WNBPA, wants to see creativity in how salaries are structured and how the cap system works, particularly if the league adopts a more malleable cap.

“We’re getting to a point where the salary cap and the systems and that part of the business needs to start looking like a professional league that’s not a startup, that properly values the labor and properly values the players,” Jackson told ESPN. “We haven’t really done that with this kind of rigid, hard cap system that we have, and it’s unfortunate.”

Engelbert has often said top players can earn up to $500,000 in total wages, which includes additional compensation through merit bonuses and marketing opportunities on top of salary. The WNBA might explore ways to augment those compensation routes, especially as players arrive to the league with pre-existing brands and platforms via name, image and likeness deals.

“We’re seeing even a new wave of players that are already coming in with the money from NIL,” Chicago Sky forward and WNBPA secretary Elizabeth Williams told ESPN, “and I think we’re going to have to think a little bit outside of the box as far as how players can be compensated and ways that salaries can continue to grow moving forward.”

“Whenever negotiations are next, it’s not groundbreaking or landmark that we’re aiming for. We’re aiming for transformational.”

Terri Jackson, executive director of the WNBA players’ union

The salary discussion is closely tied to prioritization, a set of rules implemented in the last CBA requiring WNBA players with overseas commitments to arrive on time for training camp. Revisiting prioritization remains a priority for players, Jackson said, though Ogwumike believes higher salaries would help keep more players stateside. Expanding the season would also drive higher salaries.

The current CBA allows a maximum of 44 regular-season contests per team. But scheduling can be tricky in World Cup and Olympic years like this one. In early June, Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu lamented the cadence of playing seven games in 12 days. Phoenix guard Natasha Cloud quipped, “Do you see these designer bags under my eyes? It’s a lot.”

But as Engelbert told ESPN, “If you want to be considered a legitimate sports media and entertainment property, you play more games.” And so the players and the league will have to find the sweet spot between increasing the league’s footprint and ensuring player health and recovery, and determine what the schedule could look like.

Salaries aren’t the only issue on players’ minds. “Long term,” Las Vegas Aces guard and WNBPA first vice president Kelsey Plum told ESPN, “it’s pensions and benefits that can be really influential in people’s lives.”