The WNBA and WNBPA agreed on Thursday to a 30-day extension on their labor negotiations, sources with knowledge of the discussions told The Athletic. The current collective bargaining agreement will now expire on Nov. 30.
The Athletic reported on Tuesday that the league had offered the players union the extension. The two sides continued to meet in person on Wednesday and Thursday before the WNBPA elected to accept the WNBA’s extension offer. They will continue to negotiate a new CBA during the 30-day window, but the Players Association said a condition is included that allows the players to terminate the extension with 48 hours notice.
Earlier in the week, in preparation for the Oct. 31 deadline, the league met virtually with team front-office personnel to discuss the logistics of a possible work stoppage, sources said. The call was for due diligence and not made with the expectation of a lockout or strike.
The WNBPA responded to a league proposal on Monday, a league spokesperson said. The WNBA responded with a counterproposal on Wednesday morning, a source with knowledge of the discussions said.
“While we believed negotiations would be further along, the players are more focused, united, and determined than ever to reach an agreement that reflects their value and undeniable impact on the league,” according to a statement on Friday from the WNBPA.
Extensions are not uncommon in collective bargaining. When the league’s previous CBA expired in 2019, the sides agreed to a 60-day extension, and then another two-week extension, before the current deal was finalized in January 2020.
The WNBPA opted out of that agreement, which would have otherwise expired after the 2027 season, in October 2024, citing a desire to claim a “share of the business we’ve built.” Upon their announcement, they outlined priorities, including minimum standards for game and practice facilities, better retirement benefits and family planning and pregnancy benefits.
The topic of revenue sharing, however, emerged as the wedge issue throughout the talks. Players have been adamant about enacting a new framework that would not only adjust how league revenue is allocated but also how league revenue would impact player salaries. The union has repeatedly proposed a salary framework tied to the WNBA business, in which player salaries are linked to a percentage of revenue generated by the league. The WNBA, meanwhile, has proposed a revenue-sharing system similar in structure to what is currently in the CBA, with a fixed salary cap and additional uncapped revenue sharing but only if league revenue exceeds certain targets.
Both proposals would result in significant salary increases — the maximum salary in the expiring agreement is around $250,000 — but debate remains about the underlying system.
Other important issues are also being negotiated. The sides have talked about formalizing the league-wide charter flight program, expanding roster sizes and improving family planning benefits and health insurance. Owners focused on implementing a prioritization rule in the last CBA and the policy, which forces most players competing internationally to return for the start of WNBA training camp or face suspension, remains important to them.
The ongoing negotiation comes amid a historic growth period in the league. In recent seasons, attendance, television ratings and merchandise sales have surged. Team valuations are at record highs, and the WNBA has an 11-year media rights deal worth $2.2 billion that goes into effect next season.
The league is also rapidly expanding, with five more franchises set to join by 2030. Expansion franchises will begin play in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia in 2028, 2029 and 2030, respectively, and were awarded with a $250 million expansion fee, up from the $50 million fee the Golden State Valkyries paid two years earlier.
Tensions between the sides became heightened over the summer, as more than 40 players attended an in-person CBA meeting in Indianapolis during All-Star Weekend. Two days after the meeting, the 2025 WNBA All-Stars took the floor for warm-ups in the annual showcase wearing “Pay Us What You Owe Us” T-shirts. A month before the deadline, Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier lambasted the league’s leadership under commissioner Cathy Engelbert, saying that the WNBA had the “worst leadership in the world.”
Both sides have recently traded public barbs. Last week, WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson rebuked NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s framing of players’ financial demands. He said “‘share’ isn’t the right word” and the focus should be on “absolute numbers in terms of what they’re making.” (Engelbert reports to Silver.) Jackson said that the league “responded with bad math” and that “the league’s response has been to run out the clock, put lipstick on a pig and retread a system that isn’t tied to any part of the business and intentionally undervalues the players.”
The league, through a spokesperson, disputed that characterization last week and has repeatedly said it is negotiating in “good faith.”
On Tuesday, a league spokesperson said in a statement that it “urge(s) the Players Association to spend less time disseminating public misinformation and more time joining us in constructive engagement across the table.”
The statement added: “Throughout this process, we have been clear that our top priority is reaching a new collective bargaining agreement that addresses players’ ask for significant increases in pay, benefits and enhancements to their experience, while ensuring the long-term growth and success of the league and its teams.”
It is not a surprise that the sides failed to reach a new deal. Earlier this week, Erin D. Drake, senior advisor and legal counsel for the WNBPA, told The Athletic that she didn’t expect an agreement by Friday’s deadline.
The WNBA has never missed games before due to labor strife. In 2003, however, CBA negotiations were so contentious that then-NBA commissioner David Stern threatened to cancel the upcoming season if the sides could not reach a deal about a month before the season was scheduled to begin.
The 2026 season is not expected to start until mid-May, though the upcoming offseason is especially important. All but two players who are not on rookie contracts are free agents, and two expansion franchises, in Portland and Toronto, are set to debut next spring as well.
The Athletic‘s Sabreena Merchant contributed to this report.
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