In October 2024, the New York Liberty won their first Women’s National Basketball Association title against the Minnesota Lynx. That same month the WNBA player union, which supports all league players, announced that it was backing out from the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
WNBPA president Nneka Ogumike said, “If we stay in the current agreement, we fall behind. This is a new era and we are ready to lead transformational change.”
At that moment, the need for a new CBA that the WNBPA would agree to was present but not urgent. However, once the 2025 season came to a close a year later, the WNBA and WNBPA needed to come to an agreement before the 2026 season could begin.
After months of negotiations between the two groups, a unanimous decision by the WNBA’s governor board was reached and a new CBA was approved on March 24. Despite the length of time that the agreement took to be written, agreed upon and approved, sophomore Elise Nelson doesn’t see it as overdue.
“The league has grown significantly within the past five years and [the WNBA] … wasn’t getting the viewership that they are now,” Nelson said.
The WNBA’s viewership increased by 48% in 2024, according to a press release from that year.
Junior Eliana Moser, who has been a fan of basketball for many years, also noticed this increase in attention.
“The WNBA hasn’t been around for that long and I think we’re … finally starting to see that it’s gaining … more, or as much, traction as the NBA,” she said.
The league’s growth is a key component to the new agreement. According to the 2026 official release from the WNBA, the first “comprehensive revenue-sharing model in women’s sports history” is included in it. That means that as the league gets bigger, and more successful, the players will be getting paid to account for that. As the WNBA expands, its success and growth is often compared to the National Basketball Association’s achievement.
“Compared to the men’s game and how [the NBA is] being treated … it puts more value on the WNBA,” Nelson said.
This new agreement, set to span seven years, will also allow for players to have their salaries raised up to $7 million, which is a large increase from the previous $1.5 million. The CBA will also contain benefits for rookies, raising their salaries by a great deal, even for pre-playing rookies. Finally, there will be retirement benefits, expansions of player 401(k)s and related plans, as well as veteran pay and recognition.
“[The CBA is] overall, making the league more professional, or as professional as the men’s league … I think that can help women’s sports, in general, be taken more seriously,” Moser said. “Especially with trailblazers like Catlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Angle Reese .. all these players that have been in the media … for good or bad, it’s bringing attention to women’s sports in a way that we haven’t seen before.”
While the agreement’s benefits for the players are widely agreed upon, not everyone concurs on how it could affect fans. Considering the high number of players who watched the last two WNBA seasons, this year is expected to be well-attended. “It’s more fun to watch athletes that are given the resources they deserve,” Moser said. “The players are more fun to watch when they’re doing better outside the game.”
Ninth-grader Liv Cole disagrees on how it will affect fans. “There’s nothing in [the CBA] that really affects [fans],” they said. “The only way the fans will be affected is that the players will have better incentive to play well and have more fun because they don’t have to worry about money.”
As the WNBA gets closer to its first tip-off of the 2026 season, the new CBA is also ready to go. If the agreement’s purpose is realized, it will enhance players’ lives, build stronger teams and create a more well-rounded league. The passing of the new CBA offers lessons of care, equity and a bright future in all sports. To quote the iconic warm up shirt worn by players at the 2025 All-Star Games, “Pay Us What You Owe Us.”
