WNBA’s newest CBA offer puts salaries over $1 million

The WNBA’s Players’ Association opted out of its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the league last October, and negotiations have been ongoing ever since. Yet, as the Oct. 31, 2025 deadline approached, the sides agreed to extend until Nov. 30 to have more time to come to an agreement. At that point, the WNBA still was not offering the players what they wanted — namely, increased salaries and a better revenue-sharing system. With the new Nov. 30 deadline about a week and a half away, the league’s newest proposal seems to be their best yet.

Per the Associated Press, this latest offer would mean WNBA max salaries would land at about $1.1 million per season. Now, this is a max salary which would be for the league’s elite players, but it’s almost equal to the previous CBA’s salary cap for an entire team. Minimum salaries would land at about $220,000, which is close to the previous deal’s max individual salary, and the average salary league-wide would land at around $460,000. These numbers are for the first year of the contract and would increase year by year afterward.

While reports state that this new offer does include guaranteed revenue sharing between the league and the players, it does not go into detail about what that would look like. The current CBA did include a revenue-sharing model, but only after certain league-mandated targets were met, and those targets weren’t shared. The convoluted model meant that there was not much clarity or guarantee about when players would get revenue-sharing money.

This new offer from the WNBA certainly is closer to the salary expectations the players were hoping for, but the main factor in whether they accept or not comes down to what revenue-sharing looks like. Per ESPN, there has been no public comment from the Players’ Association on this new offer.

There are obviously more negotiation points beyond salaries, including inking the chartered flight program into the CBA permanently, health and retirement benefits, and prioritization and non-compete rules — especially amid the growth of Unrivaled and now Project B. There’s also the idea of softening the salary cap (similar to the NBA’s model), as well as establishing a standard treatment model across the league when it comes to player recovery, treatment, and practice facilities.

Yet, as ESPN notes, the clock is ticking. There is not much wiggle room when it comes to getting a new deal signed before it starts impacting the WNBA’s schedule. While they went ahead and planned the WNBA Draft Lottery for Sunday, Nov. 23, if a new deal is not reached by Nov. 30, the rest of the league’s offseason will start to be pushed back.

It’s already a tight schedule. The WNBA needs to hold an expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, the two new teams entering the league next season. That needs to happen before free agency can start, and with 80% of the WNBA’s players on expiring contracts, free agency is going to be chaotic. Per ESPN, the sales side of the business is already being impacted, as partners and sponsors are hesitant to renew contracts amid a labor dispute. There is then the WNBA Draft that usually happens about a week or two after the NCAA Tournament wraps up, followed quickly by training camp and the season starting.

Regardless, the players seem committed to holding out until they get the deal they want. As the league’s driving force for growth and the literal product, they have been vocal about knowing the risks and holding out until they see the right deal on the table. Plus, with leagues like Unrivaled and now Project B offering players more and more money, ownership opportunities, and revenue-sharing, the pressure is on the WNBA to compete.

With 11 days left to come to terms on a deal, we’ll see if this latest offer is the one the players agree to.

ESPN’s Alexa Phillipou went on NBA Today on Thursday to report that the WNBPA “doesn’t see proposed $1.1 million max salary as moving negotiations forward.” There is still time, but that likely means it’s going to be a no from the players on this one.

In further reporting for ESPN, Phillpou went on to say that the Union “feels WNBA CBA proposal missing key demands.” The players feel that this new offer does not allow their revenue to grow with the business, and is not as similar to the NBA’s model as they’d like it to be. In the NBA, the salary cap for each team is determined by “basketball-related income.”

While the WNBA had stated that this new proposal included “substantial uncapped revenue sharing,” the players responded in their own statement that the proposal “put lipstick on a pig.” The players believe the proposed revenue-sharing system is a remix of the previous system and undervalues players.

For the players, this negotiation and subsequent deal are about transparency and ensuring that the new systems put in place don’t have any hidden factors. The biggest criticism of the last revenue-sharing model was the lack of transparency with targets and payouts, leading players to feel like they weren’t getting what they deserved. Especially as the revenue of the WNBA has skyrocketed in previous years, the players’ share has not grown to accommodate the overall growth of the league as seen.

Seattle Storm guard Lexie Brown said on a podcast this week that the players want “transparency, investment, and accountability” from the league and team owners.

As of Friday, there are 9 days until the CBA expires.