The WNBA can't afford a lockout
The WNBA's best players want to make $1 million annually but the league's (unique) ownership structure makes that unlikely. Today's newsletter includes a breakdown of the numbers.
The 2025 WNBA regular season doesn’t start for another two months but some of the league’s most vocal players are already making headlines. With the WNBA Players Association opting out of its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) last year, a new CBA must be negotiated between the league and its players before the 2026 season.
This is standard practice. Besides the UFC, nearly every major U.S. professional sports league has a union representing its players. These unions are in charge of negotiating things like revenue sharing agreements, salary cap percentages, licensing contracts, merchandise royalties, and retirement benefits with the league office.
The only problem? If a sports league can’t agree with its union on a new CBA, there is a lockout. This has happened six times in the NFL, four times in the NBA, four times in MLB, and four times in the NHL. And despite the league’s immense growth over the last twelve months, the WNBA might see its first-ever lockout later this year.
Here is what Angel Reese recently had to say about the issue on her podcast:
“Yeah, the CBA is coming up. We deserve more. Everybody, everybody. But we have to face the consequences? The women coming in next year are probably gonna be making more than us. I gotta get in the meetings. Because I’m hearing… If y’all don’t give us what we want, we sitting out.”
Reese’s guest on the podcast, WNBA player Dijonai Carrington, then agreed with Reese, saying the players have “leverage” because women’s basketball is “going crazy.”
“Yeah, that’s a possibility. For real, it was kind of a possibility on the last one. But now, just with the leverage that we have right now. It’s just a time where women’s basketball is going crazy. It’s gonna be a time next year. But we deserve it.”
This type of commentary isn’t a surprise. I actually mentioned the possibility of a WNBA lockout a few months ago during a podcast with Ethan Strauss, and while many people thought I was joking, I was dead serious. If you had to ask me today, I believe there is a 50/50 chance that the WNBA will end up in lockout later this year.