Welcome back to another edition of Swish Happens Here, powered by Fearless SC. It has been quite the week so far in the WNBA. As we inch closer to March Madness without a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the pressure is only increasing on all parties. Let’s dive right into it with a quick rundown.
Earlier this week, the WNBA informed the WNBPA and teams around the league that a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) would have to materialize by March 10 to avoid a delay to the start of the 2026 WNBA season, according to ESPN’s Alexa Phillipou.
There hasn’t necessarily been a hard date set until now. It’s important to note how jam-packed this short offseason period will actually be. There’s the expansion draft for the incoming Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, the collegiate draft, and a free agency period, which will see 80 percent of the league open to negotiating under the new CBA.
Philippou also reported that the WNBA and the WNBPA held a bargaining session on Monday morning with the players. More than 50 of them joined virtually, with the league’s party featuring staff, various owners, and the labor relations committee.
Over 50 WNBA players met today with league staff, its labor relations committee & owners for a continued dialogue over their positions amid the now 16-month-long CBA talk
WNBPA leadership will meet to discuss next steps, including a response to the WNBA’s proposal from Friday https://t.co/W9hdtCWuY3
— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) February 23, 2026
A team executive previously told The IX Sports’ Howard Megdal, “We’re prepared to do it all in three weeks.”
Last week, Megdal also reported, “[T]he players were told they only have two weeks until ESPN begins to re-evaluate the television windows given to the WNBA in 2026.” While a few things may be clear at this point in negotiating, what isn’t clear is whether the date was set due to pressure from ESPN.
As you most likely already know, very few WNBA teams own their home arena. If the 2026 season is delayed and games are missed, the chance of rescheduling those games is slim to none. Money is lost on several fronts, which only hurts both sides of the table. This is the key reason why the pace of play has increased significantly, because everyone knows what’s at stake, and no one wins.
One thing we didn’t learn from the meeting between the league and the WNBPA is whether revenue sharing was officially revisited after the bombshell report from ESPN’s Katie Barnes that the WNBA generated enough revenue to trigger revenue sharing with players, a provision of the 2020 CBA.
For the first time in league history, the WNBA generated enough revenue in 2025 to trigger revenue sharing with players. Players will receive $8 million.
The union will also pay out $9.25 million from revenue generated from its group licensing program.https://t.co/OcHbZLbYNL
— Katie Barnes (@katie_barnes3) February 23, 2026
Barnes elaborated further:
“In 2025, the players’ portion of shared revenue amounted to about $16 million, according to the union. Of that, $8 million will be paid to players who were active in 2025, the union said. As mandated by the CBA, the other half ($8 million) will be allocated to league marketing agreements, which are offseason initiatives offered to some players to promote the league and its partners.
Once again, the main issue at hand is clarity. Barnes went on to inform that the union and league “repeatedly declined to specify the amount of revenue needed to trigger the sharing.”
Philippou also stated that WNBPA leadership plans to meet to hash out the league’s most recent counterproposal, among other issues. The union is also working through the disbursement of $9.25 million from licensing revenue—jerseys, trading cards, video games, and other merchandise—that has been generated since 2020. Over $2.5 million was generated in 2024, with revenue exceeding $10 million in 2025, according to the WNBPA.
“This shows our value and how what we’re fighting for makes sense and how we should keep fighting,” WNBPA treasurer Brianna Turner told ESPN.
On Tuesday, members of the WNBPA held a virtual meeting after Monday’s session with the league and owners.
Front Office Sports’ Annie Costabile was first on the meeting, narrowing in on the main point of tension as “the approach to a potential strike.” Costabile explained, “Players authorized a potential strike in a near-unanimous vote in mid-December, but some players have changed their mind since.”
According to Costabile, the WNBPA executive committee’s ability to call a strike when necessary was ultimately reasserted by more than half of the union leadership.
The WNBPA held a virtual meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the state of CBA negotiations, the tone of which became tense almost immediately.
Among the reasons for that tension, according to multiple sources, is the approach to negotiations and a potential strike.…
— Annie Costabile (@AnnieCostabile) February 26, 2026
When speaking to Front Office Sports, Lexie Brown, the primary player representative for the Seattle Storm, said:
We all want to play. We all want a fair CBA, but fair looks different to different people. So how do we get to a place where fair looks good to everybody: to the majority, to the minority, to the max players, to the role players, the rookies. How do we get to a place where fair looks the same?
As far as negotiations and the active reporting around them, one thing that continued to fall to the wayside was the career of a non-superstar player. Brown’s point is a rather simple one. Everyone wants to benefit from the new deal instead of the few at the top of the pyramid.
If that wasn’t enough, a group of agents representing players of all statuses sent a letter of their own to Jackson, requesting “transparency and coordinated communication” from the union as CBA negotiations continue.
According to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, “The nearly dozen agents who signed the letter also asked for the ability to review the league’s current proposal for a new CBA, subject to signed nondisclosure agreements.”
While is may seem harmless and it is, it is clear that all side of the table understand what’s at stake. From agents representing superstars to those fighting for athletes making a name for themselves, the cost of a delayed season isn’t one anyone wants to pay for.
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Born and raised in Chicago, Christan Braswell is a women’s sports journalist with a focus on the WNBA and women’s college basketball. He’s an avid fan of elevator screens and stuffed-crust pizza. Outside of sports, he’s an avid cook and lover of the great outdoors.
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