Despite being less than two months away from the WNBA season's May 8 tip-off, there is still no concrete update on the CBA deal, and a noted analyst had both parties to blame for the fiasco.

Following the previous disagreements, March 10 was set as the deadline to conclude the CBA negotiations. However, the situation has not improved despite the passage of the mutually agreed deadline. On March 11, WNBA analyst Rachel A. DeMita assessed the entire scenario and criticized both parties for not living up to the proposed deadline of March 10, which she dubbed "doomsday."

The Courtside Club host said, "It's the day of the deadline, the doomsday day for the WNBA-CBA negotiations. And we have been covering this relentlessly for over six months now, and it's exhausting. And here we are, it's 4.33 PM central time on March 10th. And we don't know what's going on."

She further stated, "We don't know if a deal is going to get done. Now, the latest news that we have is that  the players and the owners, they swapped proposals over the weekend, but they didn't disclose any details about those proposals."

"The sense of urgency just hasn't been there," DeMita added.

The biggest issues causing the delay of the agreement still remain the same: revenue sharing and salary cap.

The WNBPA wants at least 25% of gross revenue, but the league has not budged from the 70% net revenue share it is willing to offer, which amounts to less than 15% of gross revenue.

A similar situation exists regarding the salary cap requirements. The league is unwilling to come close to the union’s $9.45 million demand in the first year of the deal, instead offering $5.75 million—a significant increase from last year’s $1.5 million salary cap.

Additionally, new franchises, Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, might have to wait to get their players in due to no player or their agent allowed to negotiate a contract until the CBA deal passes. The projected timeline for these franchises to start their hunt is the first week of April.

Meanwhile, the WNBA Draft, scheduled for April 13, seems to be on hold as well.

The only positive development surrounding the negotiations is that both sides finally met in person, an idea first suggested by Caitlin Clark and later supported by the union’s vice president, Breanna Stewart.

WNBA and The Players' Union Meet for CBA Negotiations

The Langham Hotel in NYC was the place chosen for the WNBA and the players' union to finally start settling their CBA disputes.

According to ESPN, Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike, Bri Turner, and Alysha Clark were the players in attendance in front of WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, head of league operations Bethany Donaphin, and Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai, representing the league’s side.

The negotiations carried out between the hours of 5 pm and 3 am E.T, with the league staff and Engelbert herself leaving the meeting two hours later.

Unfortunately, there is still no deal in place between the two parties, as the commissioner described it as "complex".

“We’re working towards a win-win deal like we’ve been saying, a transformational deal for these players that balances all the things we’ve been trying to balance with continued investment by our owners, et cetera. So we’re working hard towards that, and we still have work to do.”  Engelbert said to the reporters.

"We've got to get it done soon". She added.

Meanwhile, WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson was relieved after the long conversation, "I would describe the last 10 or 11 hours as a lot of conversation going in the right direction."

“The only thing I’m going to say on that is the conversations are continuing,” Jackson said when asked if the deal would finally be reached soon.

So, do you think that the WNBA and the WNBPA will manage to reach a mutual point regarding the CBA negotiations, or do you believe that the 2026 season won't start as per the pre-determined date of May 8?

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Written by

Joy Bassy

Edited by

Souvik Roy