Caitlin Clark gets great update from WNBA’s latest CBA proposal originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
A new collective bargaining offer from the WNBA appears to be great news for many of the league’s rising stars, including Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers and the Indiana Fever‘s Caitlin Clark.
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Though Clark missed all but 13 games of the 2025 season due to a variety of injuries, she was named first-team All-WNBA as a rookie in 2024, when she won Rookie of the Year honors and placed fourth in MVP voting.
Because of her stellar debut season in The W, Clark could benefit massively if a new provision from the league finds its way into a ratified collective bargaining agreement.
Clark “fast-tracked” to maximum salary
According to Doug Feinberg at the Associated Press, the WNBA has included in the new CBA a provision that stipulates that players on rookie-scale contracts will become eligible for a maximum contract after four years if they are selected for first- or second-team All-WNBA honors during their rookie deals.
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That means Clark now becomes eligible for a max contract in 2027. Bueckers, a second-team All-WNBA selection in 2025, will be able to sign a max deal in 2028.
In 2025, the WNBA’s max salary was around $249,000. Under the proposed new CBA, that figure would grow to $1.3 million in the first year of the deal.
That means Clark would be in line to receive more than 16 times her rookie salary when she sits down with the Fever to negotiate a new deal in 2027.
