With a strike vote passed and revenue talks stalled, the WNBA faces its biggest commercial threat yet, just as the league’s growth story was hitting its stride
The WNBA is approaching one of the most consequential moments in its 29-year history.
With the 2026 season scheduled to begin on 8 May and a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) still nowhere in sight, the sport finds itself in a bind, which could impact the long-term trajectory of what has been one of the fastest-growing women’s sports leagues globally.
The previous CBA expired on 31 October 2025, and months of negotiations have failed to close a substantial gap between the league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA).
The dispute centers around the fact that the players want a significantly larger share of the revenues they believe their growing popularity has generated, while the league’s owners insist the books do not yet support it.
The WNBPA’s latest counterproposal, submitted on 17 February, requests an average of 27.5% of gross revenue across the life of the deal, with 25% in the first year and a salary cap below $9.5m.
According to ESPN‘s Alexa Philippou, the WNBA swiftly labelled the offer “unrealistic,” maintaining it would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
The league’s own model offers players in excess of 70% of net revenue, which is a figure the union argues equates to less than 15% when expenses are stripped out, making the two positions far further apart than the headline numbers suggest.
WNBA: The revenue sharing fault line
The players’ frustration is not difficult to understand. ESPN reported that the average WNBA salary in 2025 was $120,000, with the supermax sitting at $249,000, at a time when franchise valuations are climbing, two new expansion teams are being added, and a lucrative new media rights cycle is under way.
National Basketball Players (NBA) players, by comparison, receive 50% of basketball-related income.
That disconnect has galvanised the workforce, with 98% of voting members backing a strike authorisation in December, a mandate that is both broad and difficult to ignore at the negotiating table.
From a business perspective, the timing could hardly be more sensitive. The WNBA is on the cusp of launching the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, and is entering the early stages of a new media rights cycle that represents a significant step forward in the league’s commercial maturity. A work stoppage now would land squarely in the middle of what should be a landmark period.
Speaking at a press conference as part of NBA All-Star Weekend, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged that the league had turned a corner on fan interest and commercial success, calling the current impasse “unfortunate,” but stopped short of setting a firm deadline, saying only that negotiations were at “the 11th hour.”
A strike would carry serious commercial consequences
Should talks collapse entirely, the business fallout would be considerable. Beyond lost gate receipts and broadcast revenue, a prolonged dispute would derail the expansion draft, free agency, and the college draft, all of which must be completed before training camps open.
Front Office Sports’ Annie Costabile reported that failure to reach a deal within the first two weeks of February would delay the season, though some league sources have since indicated a start-date delay could still be avoided if agreement is reached by 1 April.
Critically, the WNBA players have the leverage of alternative options. Unlike their NBA counterparts, WNBA athletes compete in Europe and in domestic alternatives such as Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited, often earning comparable wages.
That optionality substantially reduces the financial pressure a prolonged stoppage would ordinarily impose, and could make the prospect of a sustained strike far more credible than in other kinds of labour disputes.
