For much of the WNBA’s existence, the conversation surrounding the WNBA has revolved around its goals. No have.
No dunks, no media attention, no booming viewership. There are no charter flights or five-star hotel accommodations. Even in some cases, there is no actual playing field.
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The salary figures are ridiculous. Many entry-level corporate jobs pay more than a generational talent like Caitlin Clark made during her career. The team is small. Adding a third assistant coach, as long as there’s someone on the coaching staff who has been there before, is a big deal in 2020.
The tentative collective bargaining agreement (CBA) announced Friday by the WNBA and the WNBA Players Association corrects all that. It brings the league into a new era, backing up what WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said when the two sides reached a verbal agreement earlier this week.
“I’m very excited about the players coming into this league for the first time, and there’s not a sense of lack,” Ogwumike told four reporters in midtown Manhattan after eight days and more than 100 hours of negotiations.
Or, in other words, she was happy to stop talking about something they didn’t have.
According to a joint release, CBA negotiations centered around a revenue-sharing structure, with players successfully negotiating the first “comprehensive” revenue-sharing model in the history of women’s professional sports. A person familiar with the matter confirmed to Yahoo Sports that throughout the deal, the average revenue share was about 20% of total revenue.
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The official announcement of the league’s first million-dollar player will begin once the free-agent signing period begins next month. Sources confirmed the supermax salary is $1.4 million, including a guaranteed base salary and revenue share. The revenue share component does count toward the salary cap of $7 million, nearly five times what it was last season.
The comparisons between the deals are incredible. By 2026, the lowest-paid full-season player will earn $270,000, more than $20,000 more than last year’s supermax player. Even more clear: The 12th player off the bench will make more than the Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell will make in 2025.
This fall’s WNBA champion will net each player $60,000, a bonus that’s nearly equal to last year’s minimum bonus of $66,000 for players with less than three years of experience. All performance bonuses and award bonuses were significantly increased, a direct response to embarrassing headlines such as outside entities stepping in to pay bonuses that were 21 times higher than previous All-Star winners’ bonuses.
But there’s more to it than the gaudy numbers of this deal that professionalizes a league accustomed to being left behind or outright ignored.
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When the UConn Huskies entered the WNBA over the past few decades, they took a big step away from the lavish life of charter flights, marketing, catering and department support. The same goes for stars like Tennessee’s Candace Parker, who caused a stir in the sports world by claiming she never had her own locker room before ending her career in Las Vegas.
This is not surprising. MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas left the league’s perennially proletarian state of Connecticut a year ago for the newly crowned proletarian kings of Phoenix, whose state-of-the-art training facility gleams in the desert sun. No more training time cut short because your kid’s birthday party takes up the other half of the community gym.
The facility arms race that has gripped the league since Aces owner Mark Davis took over with his CBA holeshot is now an official requirement. The CBA will include “new facility standards that require teams to provide enhanced training and treatment resources.” Regardless, most teams are moving toward opening up. There is no way around this now, even if they don’t want to. Or if they feel like they can’t do it.
Teams are now required to meet certain staffing levels, including “access to additional physicians, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, physical and massage therapists and nutritionists.” They have to have a full 12-man roster instead of 11 to get more money under the salary cap for higher salaries.
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There are no shortcuts here.
Each team will also have two development slots that will not count against the salary cap. It’s not quite the roster expansion that players have been craving, but it’s an initial answer that can be built upon.
Management can apply for a season-ending injury exception, which would give them the flexibility to replace injured players and thus gain additional salary cap flexibility. The 2025 Indiana Fever, while a unique story, should never have experienced the situation its difficult contract revolving door created.
As Breanna Stewart said this week on Yahoo Sports’ Hoops 360, it’s crazy that the league is no longer 144 players. The league will have close to 210 players, another number worth celebrating with 15 teams competing in 2026. Three more teams are coming soon.
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This trade forces every team to care for their players in every aspect, both physical and mental. That’s what it takes to win – just look at Kings Dynasty – and that’s what it takes to make the league more than a meager sisterhood to begin with.
Owning a professional sports team should be managed like a professional sports team, and the “poor people” will soon be the ones talking about what they have.
