After more than a year of intense negotiations and back and forths, the WNBA and the WNBPA have finally reached a verbal agreement over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. This comes just 51 days before the start of the WNBA season, with the threat of a strike and season delay all being seen as plausible outcomes of late.
However, per New York Liberty star and two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart, this is only the beginning, as the 31-year-old predicted a ‘marathon’ till the start of the upcoming campaign during her appearance on Hoops 360.
“Once we get this thing hopefully finalized and voted on it’s going to be a marathon till the start of the season and I don’t envy GMs at this moment,” she proclaimed, before claiming that the new agreement will result in ‘generational success’ for players at all levels.
The salary cap is set to rise from $1.5 million in 2025 to approximately $7 million, representing an increase of more than 350%. Further, the average salary is expected to jump from around $120,000 to roughly $600,000, while the minimum salary will exceed $300,000 compared to $66,079 previously.
“This new CBA is going to be historic. It’s going to create generational success between players of all levels and I’m really excited for everyone to kind of reap those benefits. It’s something that we worked really hard to do,” Stewart said.
The deal was finalized following more than 100 hours of in-person meetings in New York, and the agreement still requires a finalized term sheet and formal ratification by both the players and the league’s board of governors.
The supermax salary is projected to increase to about $1.4 million from $249,244, allowing top-tier players to earn more than five times previous limits. Revenue sharing is expected to average nearly 20% across the life of the agreement.
The deal marks the sixth CBA in WNBA history and follows the players opting out of the previous agreement in October 2024, which led to negotiations extending beyond the original October 2025 expiration. Regardless, for now, work is expected to continue, with Stewart herself predicting a tough time for WNBA GMs over the next few weeks.
