After prolonged months of negotiations, including a fierce marathon spanning 100 hours of in-person sessions in the final week, the WNBA will open the 2026 season with a brand new deal.
Ever since the conclusion of the WNBA Finals on Friday, Oct. 10, to the early hours of March 18, discussions about the future were swarming the league. Negotiations regarding a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) were controversial at times, and there were concerns over whether the upcoming season would begin on time.
Despite a heavy amount of obstacles, a verbal agreement for new deals has been reached as a result of bargaining sessions from the week of March 20. The WNBA and Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association (WNBPA) signaled this as a landmark achievement for the league, which will celebrate its 30th season this year.
Though the full details of the CBA are still to come, there are already factors in play at how this will impact the league, players, and new salaries.
How this CBA is “transformational”
The new deal is an improved foundation in which succeeding CBAs will be built on. All previous deals were forward-moving, but they were gradual and spanned over long periods of time. Now with this go-around, a large step forward has altered the league’s financial structure in ways that will have long-term benefits for the next generation of professional female athletes.
For the first time in league history, the salary system will have a direct tie to a league revenue share. As the business continues to flourish, so will the player salaries. This is a complete shift from previous CBAs where in the 2020 edition, the salary caps were set numbers, increasing by 3% each year.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, it’s been reported that this deal’s average revenue share would reach nearly 20% across the agreement length, though the exact details of how the sharing systems operate remains unknown.
In years past, players that have signed agreements sometimes left more on the table than what was originally intended. However, they shouldn’t feel that way about this go-around since they had a tight grip on the most important issues and managed to negotiate them with a meaningful purpose.
According to Michael Voepel and Alexa Philippou with ESPN, this deal sets the standards on salaries and growth that weren’t in the picture just six years ago when the prior CBA was signed, which is why this deal can be described as “transformative” across a plethora of factors.
Player Salaries
According to sources, the salary cap in 2025 was around $1.5 million, now it’ll jump to $7 million in 2026. The supermax, which is the highest allowable salary, will begin at $1.4 million, which was originally $249,244 in 2025. The average salary will be approximately 600,000 ($120,000 in 2025) and the minimum will exceed $300,000 ($66,079 in 2025).
The Las Vegas Journal-Review has reported that the Las Vegas Aces are signing four-time MVP A’ja Wilson to a supermax deal. With this, some additional options in the mix include Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, and Kelsey Mitchell, who was last year’s highest-paid player.
By the end of the agreement, the cap is projected to surpass $10 million, sources told Philippou.
Current and Future Schedule Changes
Under the new agreement, the league is changing the current possible end date to Nov. 21, nearly a month later than the previous deal.
In 2028, the season could expand to Nov. 30 due to the Summer Olympics schedule. If this happens, it will be the latest season extension in WNBA history. Also, beginning in 2027, the number of games played will increase to 50 and 52 by 2029.
In addition to a calendar change, the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire are joining the league this season. There will be a record total of 18 teams by 2030 as commissioner Cathy Engelbert continues to emphasize the importance of a scheduling footprint.
Starting in 2027, players must arrive to their respective teams by April 15 or the opening of training camp. In previous years, the report date was May 1 or the beginning of camp.
The late November end date and possible earlier report deadline could have a potential impact on players who play overseas during the offseason, including those signed to Project B, which is a new international, high-salary five-on-five league slated to run from November 2026 to April 2027.
From the last CBA, Oct. 31 was the latest possible end date and there was a maximum 44 games allowed. Due to the basketball calendar, the earliest possible start date remains unchanged at April 1.
Ratification
After a unanimous player approval, the WNBA board of governors officially ratified the CBA on Tuesday, March 24.
“This marks the beginning of a bold new era of the WNBA that was made possible by the passion and dedication of players, team owners, fans, investors, partners, and the entire WNBA family,” commissioner Cathy Engelbert said. “We remain focused on building on the unprecedented momentum around the league and preparing for our milestone 30th season, tipping off in May.”
Lawyers across both sides are currently in the process of writing up the long form of the deal, which will be done soon. With this monumental step in the right direction, this now marks the sprint to May 8, which is the start of the regular season.
Expansion Draft and Free Agency
In the later part of February, the league put tentative dates in place to outline the condensed offseason that will be squeezed into a few weeks, versus the several months it typically takes. According to various sources, these dates are subject to change as the new CBA is signed in a formal manner and the paperwork is ratified by March 31.
To begin, a two-team expansion draft will take place on Monday, April 6 for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. On April 1, teams will begin assigning the players that would be protected from being picked. From there, a coin flip will determine whether the Fire or Tempo will receive the first pick and who will select higher, between the sixth and seventh picks in the first round, in the collegiate draft.
The free agency period is expected to begin on April 7, with the player designation period taking place April 7-8, then negotiations starting on April 9, and ending with signings from April 12-18.
More than 75% of athletes in the WNBA are free agents and most of them avoided signing contracts that extended past the 2025 season in order to take advantage of potentially higher salaries in the new CBA. Because of this, there’s a possibility for a heavy amount of movement across the landscape before training camps begin on April 19.
What fans can expect
In addition to massive growths in salary, revenue sharing, league expansion, and schedule structures, the key elements of this deal consist of new rookie scales, expanded benefits, and improved workplace standards. With this monumental change for the league, fans can expect a brand new era with an enhanced level of competition due to the major positives that the CBA is bringing to the table.
