WNBA term sheet reveals CBA details on schedule, facilities standards, more

The WNBA on Tuesday provided teams with a term sheet of details on the new and unanimously ratified collective bargaining agreement. The Athletic obtained one of these term sheets that goes into further detail about some of the negotiations that haven’t previously been reported.

Among other items, the term sheet included greater details on the new developmental player spots. These two spots can go to any player who either has fewer than four years of WNBA service or has four or five years of service but played between one and 160 minutes in the previous season.

Teams will be able to use a single developmental player in up to 12 games during the 2026 season (or the greater of 12 games or 25 percent of the games of the regular season). These players will receive a weekly stipend of $750 that doesn’t count toward the team’s salary cap, as well as a per-game payment (for games in which they appear) that will be $6,136 during the 2026 season.

Teams will be able to convert developmental players to full-time rostered players at any time. For 14 days after a team signs a developmental player, that player may only negotiate a contract with their team. After those two weeks, the team has the right of first refusal if another franchise offers that player a standard contract.

There is a new schedule footprint. Training camp can start as early as April 1, and the WNBA Finals can run as late as Nov. 21, though that date can change during Olympic years. The preference appears to be avoiding a conflict with the end of the college basketball season. In that vein, despite proposing a mandatory draft combine during the bargaining process, which would have created some scheduling challenges for players still participating in March Madness, there is no combine as of yet.

WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike had trumpeted one of the wins of the CBA as “raising the professional standard across facilities, staffing, and support.” In practice, that will result in each team’s having at least: “(A) two lead team physicians, including one orthopedic specialist and one physician in internal, family, or emergency medicine; (B) one head athletic trainer and one assistant athletic trainer; (C) one strength and conditioning coach; (D) one physical therapist; and (E) one massage therapist, each on a full-time basis during the Season.” Teams will also be required to provide players with security during travel or team events.

In terms of practice spaces, by the start of the 2028 season, each team is required to have a facility that has: a locker room exclusively used by the team, a private regulation-sized court, a separate weight room and cardio area, a medical/treatment room and a private area for meals. By 2027, each arena will also have to have a family room. Teams will be disciplined if they don’t provide these spaces, unless the reason is a construction delay beyond their control.

During the prior CBA, the league was required to spend $1 million annually on player marketing agreements; that is no longer in place. However, the league will have to use the $8,423,000 generated by the revenue-sharing system of the expired CBA on marketing deals by the end of the 2030 season.

As previously reported, teams must carry 12 players at all times. They can also sign seven players to guaranteed contracts, an increase from six in the previous CBA. There will be no more time-off bonuses given to players who stay in market for parts of the offseason.