The first half of the 2025 WNBA season has once again produced its fair share of storylines.
The Minnesota Lynx being on a revenge tour. The Phoenix Mercury emerging as real championship contenders.
The Las Vegas Aces and Indiana Fever underperforming at the halfway point.
What the Golden State Valkyries have done in its inaugural season.
The re-emergence of the Washington Mystics as playoff contenders.
Dismal seasons thus far for the Dallas Wings and Connecticut Sun.
But one storyline looms large in the background as we inch closer and closer to All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis – the WNBA’s talks with the WNBPA on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Players are becoming more and more vocal about these conversations after a previous proposal that was extended the WNBPA’s way by Cathy Engelbert and owners was rejected by the players.
Satou Sabally of the Phoenix Mercury was very upfront about the proposal, referring to the W’s offer as a “slap in the face.”
Regardless of the sport, money is typically at the heart of every CBA battle there is between league and players. This one is no different – but it occurs at a time when the WNBA has, arguably, never been at a bigger boom period than what it is experiencing.
The players are doing everything they can to ensure they get a fair share of that money – and they have a lot of leverage in these talks.
One of the biggest items of leverage the players have in this CBA brouhaha with the league is the franchise valuations of the various teams. It was reported not too long ago that the franchise valuation for the Golden State Valkyries reached a record $500 million. The Valkyries have not even played half a season yet as a WNBA team and already its franchise valuation is half a billion (with a B) dollars.
Let us cite two more examples – the New York Liberty, defending WNBA champions and the team that plays in its flagship market. Per reports, the Liberty sold shares of the team that put the valuation of the franchise at $450 million. The Lib has also placed plenty of emphasis on expanding its brand across the Tri-State area and recently announced a new practice facility in Brooklyn.
Clara Wu Tsai even went as far as to mention to Bloomberg that the Liberty could become the first women’s sports franchise to reach $1 billion – even though given what the Valks are currently valued at, Golden State could beat New York to the punch in that regard.
Then, we must mention the Indiana Fever, seen as the epicenter of the WNBA’s rapid growth because of the Caitlin Clark effect (both good and bad). According to Yahoo Sports, the Fever are worth $335 million – a near 300% increase from its previous valuation.
Players understand that there are a greater number of zeroes that it and the owners are battling over and want to ensure that a healthy amount of those zeroes are going their way. After all, there is no WNBA without its signature product – which is the players.
Another reason as to why the players have leverage is because of what Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier managed to build with Unrivaled. The success of Unrivaled’s business model actually allows players the opportunity to remain home during the W’s offseason as opposed to having to play overseas.
Unrivaled emphasizes every player having an equity stake in the league. With a pool of over $8 million, its average salary surpasses $220,000 per player. One major reason why Unrivaled has been such a success is because of how the league is presented via its television deal with a major broadcaster like TNT. The top-notch amenities that players enjoyed during the two months of Unrivaled was also another huge reason why it was such a big hit with players and fans alike. The Miami location helped as well.
In addition, Unrivaled reportedly plans on taking its act to the road in 2026 to cities without WNBA teams – as well as college towns. One can guess that campuses such as UConn, South Carolina, Tennessee, LSU, Stanford, Iowa and NC State are likely on Unrivaled’s short list.
The players also have plenty of leverage in these CBA talks because of the emergence of new teams. The 2025 season is the first one with an expansion franchise since 2008 when we saw the debut of the Atlanta Dream. In 2026, the WNBA is set to welcome two new franchises into the league, growing that number to 15. One of those franchises will be in Portland and it will reveal its name and insignia next week before All-Star weekend.
The second of those franchises is the Toronto Tempo which will give the WNBA a presence in Canada via a team for the first time in its history. The Tempo have even mentioned how it intends to play select home games in other Canadian cities.
And it was not that long ago that the WNBA announced that by 2030 it will have 18 teams. In 2028, the W will return to Cleveland and it shall return to Detroit in 2029. In 2030, Philadelphia will be welcomed to the W.
The skyrocketing franchise valuations were one thing – but all of these new teams entering the WNBA’s ranks means more money flowing into the coffers of the incumbent franchises. Also, it is likely not lost among Terri Jackson, Nneka Ogwumike and others within the union that NBA ownership groups are behind the Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia efforts.
Engelbert even left the door open to a 19th team by way of Houston at her introductory press conference announcing Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. There appears to be no shortage of revenue sources for the W nowadays.
Another of those revenue sources appears to coming through in the form of new media partners – one in particular that is also returning to the WNBA sphere. An element of a new NBA deal with NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime is that both will also become WNBA broadcasters as well.
That deal is so lucrative that the WNBA is rotating the Finals (similar to what the NFL does with its Super Bowl between CBS, Fox and NBC). Next year’s Finals will air on NBC/Peacock – as will the 2030 and 2034 Finals. The 2028 and 2032 Finals will air via Amazon Prime Video with ESPN/ABC having the Finals during all odd-numbered years of the new pact.
In stock market terms, the WNBA has never experienced more of a bull market than it is experiencing right now – and futures are looking very bullish as well. If the W was a stock, the time to buy was when the W was emerging from the pandemic. That stock price is more expensive than what it was back then and it will be even more pricy in the years to come.
And amidst all the talk of league expansion, there is becoming less and less of an argument against roster expansion with all of this money and growth the WNBA is experiencing.
League expansion is something that can happen at anytime as long as there are ownership groups who want to pay the cost of expansion. Roster expansion is something that has to be collectively bargained. We already knew there was a talent argument for expanded rosters as the talent pool in women’s basketball has never been deeper – both domestically and internationally.
Now, there is a fiduciary argument as well for expanding the rosters of all teams from 12 to 15. Look at these skyrocketing franchise valuations not to mention the money coming from the new television/streaming deals and the incoming ownership groups. Three more salaries to pay ought to be a drop in the bucket for a WNBA owner given where team valuations are today – as long as those owners are not being cheap with their money.
But, perhaps the biggest reason why the players have leverage and the owners should realize this reality is because this growth has been directly driven by the players.
This is to be expected in a sport such as basketball which is, arguably, the most individualized of the major team sports. The reason as to why NFL owners come out on top almost every time in its CBA talks with the NFLPA is because those owners understand the sport itself is a draw.
A great deal of the WNBA’s growth has occurred because of how its stars of the present – and its stars of the future – have established robust social media presences. Names such as Paige Bueckers, Cameron Brink, Rickea Jackson, Kamilla Cardoso and Hailey Van Lith (as well as the big, big, big kahunas that are Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark) have marketed themselves brilliantly on social media and the W has reaped the benefits on a leaguewide scale.
The WNBA will not only be adding new teams the next several seasons. It will add new stars that will be faces of the league for the next 15 to 20 years – such as Flau’Jae Johnson next year when she gets drafted and JuJu Watkins when she headlines the 2027 WNBA Draft.
The fortunate aspect of this from a league and a player perspective is the WNBA still enjoys a long offseason – meaning one would not think that an extended labor spat would have an effect on the 2026 season.
But even Terrika Foster-Brasby on CBS Sports made remarks recently indicating that the WNBA would want its season to extend into November given the influx of new teams. Let us also remember the W also has to work around FIBA World Cup and Olympic schedules every few years even though the next Summer Olympiad will be contested on American soil in Los Angeles in 2028.
If that worst-case scenario were to happen – which we are still a long way away from, the WNBA needs to look at how an extended lockout of players severely hurt the National Hockey League for several years in the mid-2000s.
And of course, there was the infamous Major League Baseball players’ strike in 1994 which cancelled the World Series. It took Cal Ripken, Jr.’s consecutive games played streak and the 1998 home run chase of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to rescue that sport from the lows of 1994.
By the way, even though those two events saved MLB as a whole, 1994 still left a permanent scar for fans in one city – Montréal. Its Expos likely would have won the World Series that year. Instead, no Fall Classic was played that season and the team relocated to Washington, D.C. prior to the start of the 2005 season.
Today’s WNBA owners need to understand that today’s players are no longer simply happy that there is a WNBA. Some like Tsai in New York, Mark Davis in Las Vegas and Mat Ishbia in Phoenix appear to get this as evidenced by their investment in state-of-the-art practice facilities. Others – such as the Los Angeles and Chicago groups – are playing catch-up.
The last thing WNBA owners should want is for all of the momentum this league is enjoying to be bogged down by the muck of a labor dispute. The W has been winning more often than not lately and heeding the wishes of its players is the best way to remain in the win column.
