Sparks guard Kelsey Plum dribbles under pressure from Indiana Fever players during a game on Aug. 5 at Crypto.com Arena. The 2026 WNBA season will be played after the league and players agreed to a new labor deal. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
There will be a 2026 WNBA season.
After over more than 100 hours of in-person negotiations since March 10 in New York, the WNBA and its players union came to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement early Wednesday morning.
Advertisement
The deal will allow the season to begin on time, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said, and training camp to kick off at the end of April.
Before that, though, there is a lot to get done.
What we know
Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike (3), president of the WNBA players’ union, said for the first time, player salaries will be tied to a meaningful share of league revenue. (Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
The league and players association have not made the terms public yet, but the salary cap will start at $7 million, up from $1.5 million in 2025, and the supermax will start at $1.4 million, up from $249,244 in 2025, a person with knowledge of negotiations not authorized to discuss them publicly told The Times. ESPN was the first to report the figures.
The total salary cap will jump by around 4.64 times the previous amount. The super maximum salary will be elevated by 5.61 times the previous amount. It means the top players will be eligible for larger raises than the league’s middle class.
Advertisement
The average salary will be $600,000, a bump from the previous average of $120,000, and the minimum salary will be more than $300,000, up from $66,079.
“For the first time, player salaries are tied to a truly meaningful share of league revenue, driving exponential growth in the salary cap, increasing average compensation beyond half a million dollars and raising the standard across facilities, staffing and support,” union president Nneka Ogwumike told reporters.
Read more: WNBA releases schedule: Sparks open May 10 vs. Aces
The main sticking point during negotiations was revenue sharing, and that number will be around 20% for the entirety of the multi-year deal. The league had previously offered 15.5%, a source told The Times, and players went down from their 40% ask to around 26% at the end of February, and then reached the agreement around 20% on Wednesday morning. The Athletic first reported the shift in revenue sharing figures.
Advertisement
Players had been negotiating for a percentage of overall revenue without factoring in expenses while the WNBA was seeking sharing tied to net revenue, mirroring the NBA’s structure that deducts expenses before sharing 50% of profits. The players secured a gross revenue deal, which gives them a cut of WNBA revenue without factoring in expenses, a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times.
“This deal is going to be transformational, and you’ll see all the details hopefully soon,” WNBPA vice president Breanna Stewart told reporters on Wednesday. “But it’s gonna build and help create a system where everybody is getting exactly what they deserve and more from on the court and off the court aspects.”
What questions remain
The Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson celebrates with teammates after winning the WNBA title and MVP award after beating the Mercury on Oct. 10 in Phoenix. (Chris Coduto / Getty Images)
Now that the deal has been agreed to in principle, a term sheet will go to the players for a vote and then to the WNBA board of governors for ratification. That, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations, could happen in around two weeks, giving time for the league’s full offseason transaction period to occur in April.
Advertisement
Details are not clear around player housing, league prioritization and core designation salaries after they became touch points of negotiations during the past eight months. Those should be announced once the term sheet is agreed to.
What must happen before tipoff
The Portland Fire logo is unveiled outside the Moda Center during an expansion team launch party on July 15 in Portland, Ore. (Ali Gradischer / Getty Images)
The league’s two expansion teams, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, need to have drafts to build their initial core of players, and according to a league source that would likely occur in the first week of April. The exact terms of what the expansion draft will look like are yet to be announced, and it is unclear whether anything in the CBA regarding the expansion draft changed during negotiations.
Advertisement
Nearly 80% of the league will be free agents shortly after when free agency kicks off and players can sign for more lucrative deals. There will need to be a period for teams to give their players qualifying offers — which will also have new terms under the CBA — before they can negotiate with other clubs.
The draft, which is scheduled for April 13, takes place just six days before training camp and a week after the NCAA Final Four. The Dallas Wings have the first overall pick. The Sparks, who have no first-round picks, traded their No. 3 draft slot to the Seattle Storm in 2024 to acquire Kia Nurse and the No. 4 draft pick used to select Rickea Jackson.
How we got here
The Fever’s Caitlin Clark and the Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu join WNBA players wearing warm-up shirts that read: “Pay us what you owe us” before the WNBA All-Star Game on July 19 in Indianapolis. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
The previous CBA, which was agreed to in 2020, was initially set to run through the 2027 season, but the players triggered an opt-out clause in October 2024. That changed the deadline to the end of October 2025.
Advertisement
After a 30-day extension in November, they agreed to another 40-day extension, pushing the deadline back to Jan. 9. Without an agreement, that opened a period of status quo, where the previous CBA remained in place but either side could engage in a work stoppage.
On Dec. 18, in the middle of the second extension, the WNBPA authorized the executive committee to “call a strike when necessary” in a historic vote, but the players never actually went on strike.
Read more: Sparks announce plans to build new practice facility in El Segundo
The negotiations were at times tense in the public eye. During WNBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis, the players wore warm-up shirts that read “Pay Us What You Owe Us.” Then, as the 2025 season neared a close, Minnesota Lynx star and WNBPA vice president Napheesa Collier heavily criticized Engelbert in her viral end-of-season interview.
Advertisement
The WNBA will begin its 11-year media rights deal, worth roughly $200 million annually, this season with Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal. Games will also air on Ion and USA Network. Last season, franchise valuations soared, and Sportico estimated the expansion Golden State Valkyries brought in $70 million, a league record. The league also accepted $250 million in expansion fees for new teams set to debut in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
