Who are the WNBA labor agreement winners and losers?

Let’s get this out of the way first: The fact that the WNBA will complete a full season in 2026 is a win for everyone involved. The league has experienced so much growth over the past few years that, even as negotiations grew tense and sometimes stalled during collective bargaining, the WNBA could not afford a stoppage that risked halting this wave of momentum.

The collective bargaining agreement, which was finally reached by the players’ union and the league early Wednesday morning, brings record player salaries and a revenue-sharing model tied to their pay. The particulars of the CBA will naturally benefit some parties more than others.

Until the full CBA is drafted, we don’t have a complete picture of how it will affect the WNBA’s business. However, we understand how transformative it is and the ripple effects it will have.

Here is our first attempt to assess winners and losers from the 2026 CBA.

Winners

Nneka Ogwumike

The WNBPA president has now presided over two labor negotiations that were immediately hailed as landmark victories for players. After the 2020 CBA raised the standard of player experience across the league, the 2026 deal delivered on compensation.

Ogwumike and the players’ association secured revenue sharing, albeit at a lower percentage than they may have hoped, and dramatically increased salaries for every player in the league, with the promise of significant increases throughout the life of the seven-year CBA. The average salary has increased by about five times from 2025 to 2026.

Consider where the union was two weeks ago: Two of its vice presidents were publicly messaging that the league’s CBA offer was a good deal and privately expressing concern with union leadership.

Rather than let the solidarity splinter, Ogwumike got everyone in line and didn’t blink in the face of the league’s self-imposed deadlines. After a week of face-to-face meetings, she helped the union close a deal with a salary cap more than a million dollars higher than it was when the two sides arrived in New York.

Being the president of the union is a challenging and thankless job. There is a reason no one has tried to run against Ogwumike since she assumed the role in 2016. She led the players through a tumultuous period and came out on the other side with a life-changing deal.

WNBA stability

The WNBA secured a seven-year CBA deal with an opt out after six, ensuring labor peace for the foreseeable future. The league can pitch investors and sponsors with confidence in its financial outlook. It’ll be easier to manage WNBA growth knowing what the expenses will be during this period.

The players also benefit from this stability — unlike in the previous CBA, when the salary system didn’t allow them to partake in the revenue the league was bringing in, they will share in the gains over the next seven years.

Given how contentious this process had been, the fact that union and league leadership were able to sit down together and reach a deal that suits both parties bodes well for the WNBA’s ability to conduct business going forward.

Superstar players

Everyone was underpaid in the last CBA, but no group more so than superstar players. A’ja Wilson made $200,000 in 2025 — only $80,000 more than the average salary. The overall values and gradations didn’t make sense considering how much superstars drive winning and popularity.

Now, the best players will be compensated accordingly. Max players and supermax players will make seven-figure salaries, and the best players don’t have to wait until they finish their rookie contracts to sign those contracts. High-performing young players will also be able to earn supermax salaries in their fourth season, provided they meet certain benchmarks.

Plus, rookie contracts will be right-sized to the 2026 rookie scale so that no one in the recent draft classes gets left behind.

The players fought to secure better pay for their full body, but it’s undeniable that the superstars are most responsible for the league’s rocketship growth. They deserve their reward.

Tunnel fits

This could apply to clothes, jewelry, bags, even cars — anything that players can spend their growing disposable income on. The lifestyle of the average WNBA player is about to change, and it’ll be plain to see when they walk into games.

The Langham

The hotel where many negotiating meetings were held is New York City’s latest hot spot!

Breanna Stewart even shared on social media that her phone location automatically suggests this as a destination because of her frequent trips there for negotiations.

Losers

Free agency

The 2026 free agency period should have been the most exciting in the league’s history. Essentially, every veteran in the league can switch teams. There is so much money available to them, and players will actually have choices about where they want to play, who they want as teammates and the length of their contracts.

However, those decisions require time. And the WNBA doesn’t have any of it. The league and players essentially engaged in a staring contest for the first month of 2026, resulting in an extremely truncated offseason. All of the news of player signings and trades will come out in a flood rather than spread out over a few weeks, limiting the potential drama.

With so much to accomplish in so little time, the hope is that too many parties don’t regret the decisions they have made in haste.

Toronto and Portland front offices

Speaking of having very little time, no one will feel the squeeze more than the front offices of the expansion teams. In theory, every team is assembling a roster at this time of year since more than 100 players are free agents. But the returning teams at least have relationships with players and can bank on re-signing some of the players from their 2025 rosters; the Tempo and the Fire are starting from scratch.

They’re selling WNBA players on something entirely new, even if their organizations have a few familiar faces. Toronto and Portland also have to prepare for an expansion draft, another task while the rest of the league focuses on the college draft and free agency.

Teams will start training camp in less than a month. The Tempo and the Fire have zero players. They can’t have an identity because they don’t know who will be on the team. Expansion teams already have an uphill battle in professional sports, but never has the climb been so steep.

Non-billionaire ownership groups

The price of being a WNBA owner just became a lot higher. Between salaries, improved staffing standards and new facility standards, there are many more expenses the owners will foot.

Many teams have been clamoring for a way to provide for their players beyond the CBA’s rules for quite some time — think of the New York Liberty illegally chartering flights in the second half of the 2021 season or the Aces providing impermissible benefits to Dearica Hamby when she extended her contract in 2022.

Now, those ownership groups can spend their money in sanctioned methods, and the players will still benefit.

The owners who don’t have the money? This will be a tough new world. The spotlight is on them, and players won’t have to settle for substandard experiences. The line of people wanting to buy a WNBA team is long. The league could put pressure on owners who don’t meet the new CBA standards if their teams diminish the product and embarrass the league.

Offseason leagues

The launch of Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited has already reduced the number of players who choose to compete overseas during the WNBA offseason, when they can instead earn money domestically. Now that the average salary in the WNBA has increased fivefold, fewer players will need the extra paycheck if they prefer the time off.

Then again, the WNBA offseason is long, and many players don’t want to sit out for six months. Many players also have equity in Unrivaled and are invested in the league’s success. However, the finances and player experience were the draw for Unrivaled, and that is no longer an advantage over the WNBA.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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