What’s the latest on the WNBA, WNBPA negotiations? (2:00)
Alexa Philippou breaks down the WNBA’s latest proposal to players amid a 40-day extension on the current CBA. (2:00)
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Alexa PhilippouDec 2, 2025, 04:42 PM ET
- Covers women’s college basketball and the WNBA
- Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer
Along with significant salary increases and a new compensation system, the WNBA also is proposing to its players amid CBA talks an earlier start date for training camps and cutting team housing, sources confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.
WNBA training camps typically start in late April, but the league has proposed moving them up to as early as mid-March, a change that would expand the season’s footprint but also would bring about potential scheduling conflicts for players.
The WNBA season currently runs from May to October, with a record 44 regular-season games held in 2025. In the current agreement, training camp cannot start earlier than April 1 or more than 30 days before the first day of the regular season.
It is unclear when the league is suggesting the regular season would start under its latest proposal. WNBA drafts in recent years have been held in mid-April, following the conclusion of the NCAA tournament, with a few weeks in between for incoming rookies to join their new teams.
An earlier start date could also impact non-rookies: Several overseas leagues still compete into April, and Project B, a new league set to launch in the fall of 2026 that already has signed several WNBA players, is supposed to run through then, too. Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league started by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, concludes the first week of March.
A set of rules ratified in the current CBA called prioritization do not allow WNBA players to be late to training camp due to overseas commitments.
Under the current CBA, players are either provided team housing or a monthly stipend to help cover housing costs, with the amount depending on the market.
The league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association are in ongoing CBA negotiations, with the sides agreeing ahead of a deadline Sunday night to extend those talks through Jan. 9.
The league’s latest proposal included a maximum salary for 2026 with a guaranteed $1 million base, and projected revenue sharing pushing total earnings for those players to more than $1.2 million, sources told ESPN on Monday. The average player’s salary in 2026 would be projected to exceed $500,000, and the minimum player salary would be projected to exceed $225,000. The salary cap would increase to $5 million in 2026, and would be set in each subsequent year based on revenue growth, sources said.
The league’s minimum salary was $66,079 in 2025, its supermax was $249,244 and its salary cap was $1,507,100, increasing at a fixed rate of 3% each year under the agreement. The current deal also has a separate revenue sharing provision that grants direct payments to players if the league hits certain revenue targets, though that has yet to happen largely because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new structure in which salaries are tied to the growth of the business and players can more directly benefit from the league’s revenue has been a main priority for players.
The proposed earlier start date and team housing changes were first reported by Front Office Sports.
