All 15 WNBA teams released a 44-game 2026 schedule on Wednesday afternoon, shepherding in the league’s 30th season and the league’s two newest teams in Toronto and Portland. Yet, instead of excitement, the announcement was met with pure confusion. How, if the WNBA has yet to come to terms with its players on a Collective Bargaining Agreement, is it possible to schedule a season? Why release the schedule if we don’t know for certain there will even BE a 2026 WNBA season?
The WNBA dropping their schedule today is super confusing
Approach this schedule release with a little bit of caution, WNBA fans.
Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
Chelsea Leite has been writing about professional basketball since 2021, and covers both the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Tempo as a credentialed reporter for SB Nation.
Apparently, it comes down to league operations, venue booking, and logistics, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou. Teams need time to sell ticket packages, make broadcast plans, and ensure the arenas are booked before other events come in and take the dates they need.
When the teams around the WNBA started teasing an announcement for this afternoon, there was speculation on what it could be. Especially knowing there has been no real news about the CBA negotiations in over a week. A 30th anniversary celebration? Jersey updates? Merchandise? If it were the CBA itself, the announcement would have probably been leaked to a journalist and not teased out by the league.
Surely, fans thought, they couldn’t release the dates without a contract? Well, that was wrong.
The WNBA is planning a 44-game season for 2026, starting on May 8 and ending on Sept. 24, with the playoffs to follow. There will be a break from Aug. 31 to Sept. 16 for the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Germany, with the regular season resuming for just over a week after that break. Another confusing aspect of the 2026 campaign is taking a two-and-a-half-week break, right when the season is ramping up, and the playoffs are just around the corner. In previous years, the WNBA has condensed the season during a World Cup year, ending before the tournament, yet with 44-games now, that’s not possible.
The WNBA All-Star Game will happen in Chicago on July 24 and 25. The WNBA will also be welcoming its first international team in Toronto, and the Tempo will play two games in Vancouver on Aug. 21 and 23, as well as two in Montreal on July 10 and 12. The rest of Toronto’s home games will be played in their home city, with three special games at Scotiabank Arena and the rest at the Tempo’s home arena of Coca Cola Coliseum.
Yet, all of this needs to be taken with a grain of salt. There is still no guarantee that there will be a 2026 WNBA season, or that this current schedule will hold. There have been few recent updates on the state of CBA negotiations, and the league and players still seem far apart on their wants and needs. Maybe this is a bit of a push to get the ball rolling on that, but it was still strange to see so many straight-faced updates on a season that is far from guaranteed to even take place.
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