Details of WNBA proposal to players’ association revealed with time ticking on negotiations

The Women’s National Basketball Players Association on Friday night obtained the WNBA’s counterproposal, which featured some marginal changes from the league’s previous offer, sources confirmed to The Post Saturday.

The WNBA’s response, which came six weeks after the WNBPA submitted its most recent proposal around Christmas, did not feature a significant update on the revenue-share front, according to multiple sources.

While players are bargaining for 30 percent of gross revenue, the league is still offering around 70 percent of the net revenue share, which equates to roughly 15 percent of the gross league and team revenue share. 

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks during a press conference announcing a WNBA franchise in Cleveland on September 16, 2025 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. NBAE via Getty Images

The WNBA did propose a salary cap increase to $5.65 million in 2026, sources with knowledge of the situation said, though that’s still far below the $10.5 million salary cap the WNBPA proposed.

The league also outlined clearer policies to ensure housing would be covered for certain cohorts of players.

Under the league’s latest proposal, team-funded studios would be provided for each of the two new developmental players.

First-year players and players on minimum contracts would also be provided one-bedroom apartments, sources said.

The league also agreed to the union’s proposal to codify team facilities, though the exact details of new facility standards weren’t immediately known.

The WNBA declined comment, and the WNBPA didn’t immediately return The Post’s inquiry. 

CBA talks had stalled out in recent weeks as the union waited for the league’s reply.

Several members of the union’s executive committee, including WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike, attended an in-person meeting with league officials on Monday in hopes of getting the ball rolling again as ongoing negotiations pose a threat to the scheduled start of the 2026 WNBA season. 

League officials spent part of the three-hour meeting sharing slides that detail some of the improvements and benefits the league had already agreed to offer in the new deal.

Some of those proposed changes included a supermax base salary of $1.1 million in 2026 that could swell to $1.8 million by 2030.

The average base salary for the upcoming season is projected to jump to $465,000 — up from roughly $102,000 in 2025. 

Other proposed improvements from the league include more guaranteed contracts, two developmental player spots per team, increased performance bonuses and the introduction of salary cap exceptions for pregnant players and those who suffer season-ending injury, among other items. 

An overall view of the PHX Arena during the game between Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury on October 10, 2025 at PHX Arena. NBAE via Getty Images

Friday’s proposal, though, put into writing some of the changes that the WNBA is willing to make, but time is ticking for the two sides to agree to a new deal.

Multiple sources have said that if a new CBA is not agreed to within the next two or so weeks, then a delay to the season would be all but inevitable. 

Negotiations have been such a grueling process, in part, because both sides’ initial proposals started far apart from one another.

If the new deal is at a metaphorical 50-yard line, then the WNBA started with a more prudent proposal that would have put them around the 40-yard line.

Meanwhile, the players’ union started outside the stadium. 

Of course, players have more leverage than ever before in this round of CBA negotiations, so it’s no surprise that they aimed high from the jump.

But as negotiations have continued on, there’s a feeling amongst some that the players have conceded more than the league, sources said.

The WNBA’s initial revenue share model didn’t include team revenue, but the league has included that in recent proposals. 

The ball is now in the union’s court to determine how to proceed.

Players voted in December to allow the WNBPA to call a strike “when necessary.”

The WNBA has not had a work stoppage in league history, and the vote is only one step in the multiphase process. 

And while neither side wants to delay the start of next season, it appears players are willing to hold out to get what they believe they deserve, even if it means temporarily shutting down the league.