The WNBA season over. But the showdown is just beginning.
It's not personal. It's business. (For real this time.)
The biggest compliment I can give the WNBA Finals between the Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty, which ended nine days ago in overtime of Game 5 with the Liberty winning its first championship in franchise history, is that while watching the series, I became so enamored by the on-court drama that I temporarily forgot the stakes.
During the Finals, it felt that all that mattered was Napheesa Collier’s emergence as a superstar, Sabrina Ionescu’s unfinished business, Breanna Stewart’s revenge tour, Jonquel Jones’ Ghosts of WNBA Finals Past, Courtney Williams’ Birkin, and Alanna Smith’s grit. I only thought about Williams’ shot to force OT in Game 1; Stewie’s monstrous second-half in Game 3, capped off by Sab’s instantly-iconic logo game winner; and Nayara Sabally’s heroics in Game 5. My focus was on Spike Lee sitting on the floor at Barclays, his back turned to Stewie as she shot her crucial free throws; Teresa Weatherspoon sobbing as she celebrated the title she came so close to winning so many times as a player; and JJ getting the Finals MVP trophy.
It was all about the basketball, the fans, players, their individual stories. It was how it should be.
But it didn’t take long for me to be snapped out of my trance, to be reminded that we are not yet to the point where female athletes have the luxury of just playing for themselves and their own legacies.
Last Monday, less than 24 hours after the finals, the WNBA players opted out of the current CBA early. That means the current CBA will expire on October 31, 2025, and negotiations for a new deal will begin immediately.
This edition of Power Plays is sponsored by the Working Family Party’s “Basketball House,” which throws events that seek to build political power for the multiracial working class by creating community in our fandoms and making collective civic engagement convenient, accessible, and fun.
TONIGHT, Tuesday, October 29 at 6:30pm ET in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the WFP and TOGETHXR are hosting a screening and discussion of TOGETHXR's film, “Power of the Dream,” which chronicles the true story of how a group of professional women's basketball players took on a WNBA team owner, who happened to be a U.S. Senator, and in turn, played a crucial role in flipping a Georgia Senate seat in the 2020 election.
Philly’s own Kahleah Copper will be part of a discussion panel! Click here for more information and to RSVP.
“This isn’t some sudden wake-up call—it’s the culmination of what we’ve been driving for over the last several seasons,” said Kelsey Plum, the WNBPA first vice president. “We’ve played a key role in the league’s historic growth, and now we’re breaking free from the current system to demand full transparency and an equitable stake in the business we’ve helped build.”
Last week, I spoke to WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike about the decision to opt out. Today, let’s look at what the players are asking for, the messaging behind the ask, why they might be successful, and, of course, why they might fall short.
What are the players asking for?
The WNBPA last opted out of a CBA in 2018. They negotiated the current CBA during the 2019 season, and signed it in early 2020. It was scheduled to expire after the 2027 season, but included an opt-out clause that allowed the players to end it two years early, provided the clause was triggered by October 31, 2024.
And, well, consider it triggered. Now, why do players want to head back to the negotiating table? Well, the short answer is: They want more money.
This season, the maximum salary allowed was $241,948, while the minimum was $64,154. More importantly, there was a hard cap of $1.463 million, meaning owners who wanted to spend more on their teams were completely prohibited from doing so. (In contrast, a league like the NBA has a soft cap, where owners can go over the salary cap, they just have to pay a tax penalty if they do so.) Players, rightfully, feel like they deserve bigger paychecks.
“We're looking to share in the growth that we have created,” Ogwumike told Power Plays.
But it’s not *just* about salaries. Here, directly from their press release, is a list of the main priorities the WNBPA has going into these negotiations:
New Economic Model: Transforming the current system, which imposes arbitrary and restrictive caps on the value and benefits players receive, by introducing an equity-based model that grows and evolves in step with the league's business success.
Player Salaries: Establishing clear distinctions between salary and bonuses, ensuring players receive wages that properly reflect their value and contributions to the league’s growing business.
Minimum Professional Standards: Implementing consistent minimum standards that align with other leading professional sports leagues, maintaining professional and safe environments across the league, including practice and game facilities, as well as travel accommodations.
Retirement Benefits: Expanding retirement benefits to provide greater financial security and health benefits to the Players for their life after basketball.
Pregnancy and Family Planning Benefits: Fair and accessible family planning support for all players, including retirement benefits that provide long-term security for their families.
The business of the league is booming. (More on that in a minute.) But currently, the players are not benefiting from that. That’s why they want an economic model that encourages owners to invest, rather than penalizes them for it. They want facilities to be professionalized, so that some teams aren’t practicing in new, state-of-the-art buildings, while others are practicing in public recreation centers. They want to expand pregnancy and family planning benefits, so that players can access them earlier in their careers, and so that pregnant players don’t have a drastic negative impact on a team’s cap space. They want more retirement benefits for players post career, and for the success of the league today to funnel down to the legendary players who laid its foundation.
Essentially, they want more of everything, and don’t want to have to wait two years to get it.
How are they asking for it?
I thought the messaging of this move was very interesting. Back in 2018, the WNBPA announced its decision to opt out through an essay in the Players Tribune by Ogwumike entitled with the now-ubiquitous phrase, “Bet on Women.” Ogwumike opened that piece with the line, “This is not just about business. This is deeply personal. This is about the kind of world we want to live in.”
Conversely, the go-to line in this campaign is, quite literally, “It’s business.”
Why does this matter? Well, because the framing itself is a sign of progress.
“I think it's reflective of our evolution as a Players Association,” Ogwumike said. “We're looking to share in the growth that we have created.”
In 2018 and 2019, the players were asking for owners to provide more investment in the league itself to make the growth we have seen in the past couple of years possible. Now, they want to make sure that growth doesn’t economically leave them behind. This round, it’s less about betting on women, and more about ensuring they’re paid their fair share of the winnings. That’s a powerful shift.
Why might they get what they’re asking for?
There are so many reasons to believe the WNBPA will make massive, game-changing strides forward with this CBA.
Overall, it be the sixth WNBPA CBA. The first CBA, which was implemented in 1999 after just two seasons of play, primarily focused on setting salary minimums and integrating players from the American Basketball League, which ran from 1996-1998. The second CBA, which was signed in 2003, was negotiated as two franchises (the Miami Sol and Portland Fire) folded and then-NBA commissioner David Stern was publicly threatening to shut down the league. The third, in 2008, was signed under even more dire circumstances — the country was in an economic collapse; the Cleveland Rockers and Charlotte Sting, two original franchises, had gone kaput; and the iconic four-time champion Houston Rockets were on the chopping block. The fourth, in 2014, was in negotiations when the Los Angeles Sparks were abruptly put for sale, with the then-owner publicly lamenting how much money she lost with the venture. While negotiating the fifth and current CBA, James Dolan put the Liberty for sale and moved them to a 2,000-seat public gymnasium in Westchester.
It’s easy to pan the CBA the players have right now, but it’s important to note that they were always negotiating under arduous conditions. While each CBA did achieve some progress, they also offered security and survival, which were paramount priorities during those years.
The landscape is different now. This year, the WNBA broke viewership records on a weekly basis, averaging 1.2 million viewers per game on ESPN platforms during the regular season, a 170% increase over 2023. The Caitlin Clark effect helped those numbers, of course, but all games saw an uptick. The Finals averaged 1.6 million viewers per game, the most in 25 years. Attendance across the league was up almost 50% from 2023. The league signed an 11-year television contract worth about $200 million a year, which will kick in before the 2026 season. And franchises are no longer on fragile footing. No team has completely folded in 15 years, when the Sacramento Monarchs shut their doors, and the league hasn’t even had a team relocate since 2018, when the San Antonio Stars moved to Las Vegas and were rebranded as the Aces. That’s unprecedented stability.
Most importantly, WNBA franchise valuations are literally rising by the week. In June, Sportico released its first ranking of WNBA valuations. In aggregate, the teams were worth about $1.2 billion, with the Las Vegas Aces being the most valuable team at $140 million. But in August, the Dallas Wings, who Sportico ranked second-to-last in franchise valuations at $75 million, sold a one percent stake in the team for $2.08 million, giving it a $208 million valuation. (To put those numbers into context, Mark Davis reportedly paid only $2 million for the Aces back in 2021.)
And expansion is on the horizon! In 2025, the WNBA will debut its first expansion franchise since 2008, the Golden State Valkyries. In 2026, Portland and Toronto are joining the party. And that’s not all. Engelbert has stated plans to add a 16th franchise by 2028 at the latest, and noted during her finals press conference that there are about a dozen cities who are in the running, including Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Charlotte. Expansion fees are on the rise, too. Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, who also run the Golden State Warriors, reportedly paid a $50 million expansion fee for the Valkyries. The group behind the Toronto team, led by Larry Tanenbaum, reportedly paid a $115 million expansion feel, though that included the cost of a new practice facility. Sports Business Journal reports that bids for the 16th team could top $200 million.
For the first time in league history, the WNBPA is heading into a negotiation with economic headwinds moving swiftly in the right direction. And the group feels equipped to take advantage.
While Ogwumike notes that the small WNBPA staff is still “remarkably pulling way more than they should,” the union’s full-time staff has increased from about two to 10 in the past few years, and the group at the helm, including WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson, already has one major contract negotiation under their belt. A lot of the organizational work that needed to be done prior to the 2020 CBA is already done.
“Now that we've reached what I feel is like a standard of engagement, a standard of leadership across our union, we can really just get down to business,” Ogwumike said. “I really do feel like this time around, we can focus less on whether or not players are going to respond, and more about their experiences, and increasingly so diverse experiences across the league. There's a diverse type of athlete that is currently playing in the WNBA, and we want to get everyone's opinions and feedback across the board.”
Why might they NOT get what they’re asking for?
Now, those are A LOT of reasons to be optimistic. But as you might have figured out by now, optimism is not my default state. As someone who has done extensive research and reporting on the history of WNBPA labor negotiations, I know better than to think that the path ahead is an easy one for the union.
A big reason for that? NBA owners. You see, early in its existence, the WNBA shifted to a model where the NBA owns 50% of the league and WNBA franchise owners own the other 50%. In 2022, Engelbert sold 16% equity in the league to various investors for $75 million, which diluted the NBA and WNBA’s shares of the league as a whole to 42% each. (I’m so, so sorry about the math.)
This means that NBA owners have a big say in these negotiations. (Even bigger than 42%, because some NBA owners also own WNBA teams and/or participated in the fundraising round — it gets super messy.) Unfortunately, many NBA owners have always resented the WNBA because of how long the NBA has been supporting it without seeing much return. Now that money is starting to flow in, these salty NBA owners feel like they deserve to be paid back before the players receive their fair share.
This article from the New York Post, which dropped during the WNBA Finals, was extremely telling about what the messaging is going to be from loud swaths of the NBA side. The title? “WNBA will lose $40 million this season and its NBA investors are growing impatient.”
Some NBA owners want more transparency from NBA commissioner Adam Silver about when they will get to see some return from the suddenly popular WNBA.
New York Knicks owner James Dolan has been pushing Silver behind the scenes, sources said.
“There’s a bunch of owners who see Dolan as their hero for pressing Silver on these questions but Silver is not giving us any answers,” the NBA team executive said.
Dolan declined comment.
Now look, the fact that Dolan is clearly a source for the story is extremely rich, considering he sold the Liberty for pennies after intentionally tanking their value, only to see Joseph and Clara Tsai, owners of the Brooklyn Nets, buy the Liberty and turn them into a money-making, championship-winning machine one borough over. But do I think there are more Dolans out there who will never see the league as more than a burden on their bottom line no matter how successful it gets? Absolutely. And those owners will be trying to set the public narrative at every turn. It’s going to get ugly.
But let’s return to hope, shall we? Because the NBA owners are not all Dolans. (Thank God.) Over the past few years, the WNBA has seen an influx of billionaire owners such as Mark Davis in Vegas, the Tsais in Brooklyn, and Matt Ishbia in Phoenix. And these billionaires, some whom also own NBA teams, have been publicly frustrated by the way the CBA limits their spending and prevents them from paying players. Some of them have actively worked to find ways to circumvent the cap.
That is an energy that has never been present during CBA negotiations in the past, at least to my knowledge. And that could — perhaps even should — be a huge asset to players.
“I understand that in these types of environments, we're on quote, unquote, different sides of the table, but I also don't want to be in a league where we restrict too many of the freedoms of owners that want the best for their players,” Ogwumike said. “I look forward to seeing how discussions evolve from that, especially with what players feel need to be included in this next CBA.”
Buckle up, friends. In the fight for gender equity in sports, there is no offseason.
I wish there were more women buying teams, but I'm glad at least the new billionaire white guy owners want to invest in their businesses. I'm afraid the cheapskate Sky owner is going to ruin the infinite possibilities and $$$ he could make having Kamilla and Angel. The new practice facility is not in the greatest area, which shows he's not willing to spend money to get a good location. I can't see any players living near there.