{"id":621312,"date":"2026-02-24T06:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621312\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T06:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:38:15","slug":"wnba-players-union-on-the-clock-for-season-postponement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621312\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA, players union on the clock for season postponement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The WNBA and the players union have only two weeks to agree to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement to avoid a delayed start to the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what league officials told the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association in a virtual meeting Monday that included more than 50 players.<\/p>\n<p>March 10 is the deadline for the term sheet to be completed before labor talks impact the league\u2019s May 8 start date, sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Post on Monday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Even after a deal is agreed upon, it could take weeks to ratify as both sides\u2019 lawyers comb through the document.<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA still needs to complete a two-team expansion draft and go through one of the largest free agencies in league history, with 80 percent of players on expired contracts.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38582225\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/05-17-25-las-vegas-104744450.jpg\" alt=\"WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks during the New York Liberty's 2024 Championship ring and banner ceremony.\" class=\"wp-image-38582225\"  \/>Cathy Engelbert is pictured in May 2025 at Barclays Center. Michelle Farsi for the NY Post<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA draft is scheduled for April 13. <\/p>\n<p>Training camp is slated to open six days later.<\/p>\n<p>But none of that can happen while the CBA remains unsettled.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest sticking point remains revenue sharing, with the league standing firm on its stance of offering players a cut of net profit rather than a share of gross revenue (revenue before expenses are paid).<\/p>\n<p>The NBA, NFL, and NHL\u2019s revenue share models are all based on gross revenue.<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/21\/sports\/wnba-gives-latest-response-to-players-union-in-cba-negotiations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">submitted a counterproposal to players Friday afternoon<\/a> \u2014 three days after blasting the WNBPA\u2019s latest proposal as \u201cunrealistic.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>While the league offered to restore housing for all players in 2026, it made no significant changes to its revenue-share offer.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s still roughly a 12.5 percent gap in gross revenue share between the two parties and a $3.85 million difference in proposed salary caps.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney&#8217;s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The WNBPA has lowered its demand from an initial 40 percent of gross revenue to 27.5 percent this month. <\/p>\n<p>The league continues to offer 70 percent of net revenue, which is less than 15 percent of gross revenue.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been more than 15 months since players <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/10\/21\/sports\/wnba-players-opt-out-of-cba-potential-work-stoppage-after-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">opted out of the previous CBA<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Negotiations didn\u2019t pick up steam until the new year.<\/p>\n<p>The two sides have until March 10 to agree to a deal before it impacts playing games.<\/p>\n<p>A player strike for the first time in league history is a distinct possibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA and the players union have only two weeks to agree to terms on a new collective&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,66,458,32398,29933],"class_list":["post-621312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-draft","tag-wnba-free-agency"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116124235198810497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}