WNBA fans, star players are big winners in CBA. But Cathy Englebert is among the losers
WNBA fans, star players are big winners in CBA. But Cathy Englebert is among the losers
Cydney Henderson, Nancy Armour and Meghan L. Hall, USA TODAYWed, March 18, 2026 at 10:34 PM UTC
0
WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said the new collective bargaining agreement the players' union and the WNBA agreed to in principle on Wednesday "redefines what it means to be a professional in this league."
"We always told you we were going to stand on business, and that’s what this looks like," Ogwumike wrote on social media, adding: "For the first time, player salaries are tied to a truly meaningful share of league revenue, driving exponential growth in the salary cap, increasing average compensation beyond half a million dollars."
The deal is expected to increase player salaries nearly fourfold from last season, according to ESPN, with the new salary cap expected to be $7 million. The average player salary is expected to be in range of $600,000 for the 2026 season, which is set to tip off on May 8.
Big-name players and incoming college stars who will greatly benefit from the deal, highlight USA TODAY's list of winners, while expansion teams round out of our list of losers due to the league's expedited timeline.
1 / 0Ranking the top 10 women athletes of 2025
1. A'ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces Las Vegas Aces star A'ja Wilson had one of the best seasons in WNBA history and earned the top spot on our list. Wilson led the Aces to their third title in four years after sweeping nearly every major award in the calendar year. She earned her second WNBA scoring title, third Defensive Player of the Year award, an unprecedented fourth MVP and her second Finals MVP, becoming the first player in WNBA or NBA history to accomplish it all in a single season. Becky Hammon said it best: Wilson is "Everest. There is no one else around." Wilson isn't ready to be in the GOAT conversation just yet. "I still got a little bit more winning to do before you put me in that conversation. When you're compared to greats, when you're compared to legends, that means you're doing something right and I'm so grateful," she said after sweeping the Phoenix Mercury in the 2025 WNBA Finals.
WinnersWNBA fans
As the league skyrockets in popularity with record viewership, attendance and merchandise sales, it was in everyone's best interests to strike a deal to capitalize on the growing momentum in women's sports. But as the CBA negotiations between the league and players' union stretched across 17 months, one question emerged: Will there be a 2026 season? That uncertainty grew as players voted in December to authorize the WNBPA's executive committee to "call a strike when necessary." But we finally have an answer. We will have a 2026 WNBA season and fans can officially rejoice.
Big-name players
Almost everyone who is anyone is a free agent and they are about to have piles of cash being thrown at them.
Once free agency is open, the race will be on to snap up the likes of three-time MVP A’ja Wilson, who reportedly is staying in Las Vegas, and three-time WNBA champion Breanna Stewart, along with Napheesa Collier, Alyssa Thomas, Sabrina Ionescu, Jackie Young … you get the picture. While the top teams will likely be able to keep their top free agents with the salary cap jumping to $7 million, that’s not going to stop other teams from doing their best ATM impressions.
And because free agency is being compressed, these deals will have to get done quickly. That means stars and the next tier of players are going to be seeing a lot of dollar signs soon.
Breanna Stewart will be sought-after free agent after helping teams to three titles.Incoming college stars
Olivia Miles was projected to be a top pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, but she ultimately decided to enter the transfer portal due to the "volatility" of the league amid upcoming CBA negotiations. Her decision panned out. Not only is Miles projected to be the No. 2 overall pick of the 2026 WNBA Draft following a sensational season at TCU, Miles and fellow incoming rookies, including UConn's Azzi Fudd, UCLA's Lauren Betts, South Carolina's Ta'Niya Latson and LSU's Flau'jae Johnson, will benefit greatly from the new CBA.
The minimum salary is expected to be above $300,000 this season, up from $66,079. In comparison, WNBA rookie scale contracts paid out Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers $78,066 and $78,831, respectively, last season.
2026 WNBA MOCK DRAFT: Players to watch during Women's March Madness
TCU's Olivia Miles will benefit from waiting a year to enter the WNBA draft.WNBA players' ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us’ shirts
At the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis, some of the league's biggest stars, including names like Caitlin Clark and A'ja Wilson wore black pregame T-shirts that read, "Pay Us What You Owe Us."
Eight months later, it appears the striking visual of players collectively wearing the shirts could be viewed as one of the more pivotal moments of these CBA negotiations. The players communicated with one voice: give us better pay and benefits.
“That’s something we wanted to make well known. In the bubble we always knew how to make a stand with some T-shirts, so we did that today," WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said in July at the All-Star Game. "We look forward to negotiating our fair share and our value.”
Advertisement
Ogwumike is referring to WNBA players wearing "Black Lives Matter" and “Vote Warnock” T-shirts in the WNBA bubble during the 2020 season. Ahead of a game in August 2020, the league came out in support of Rev. Raphael Warnock for U.S. Senate in Georgia. Warnock went on to defeat incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler, who co-owned the Atlanta Dream before selling her stake in the team in February 2021 following controversial comments on the Black Lives Matter movement. Warnock credited the players support and activism with boosting his 2020 Senate runoff victory.
Team Collier forward Angel Reese in the WNBA All-Star's "Pay Us What You Owe Us" shirts.ESPN
That sign of relief you heard coming from the East Coast was ESPN executives in Bristol, Connecticut.
In addition to having the bulk of the WNBA’s regular-season games, ESPN went all in on women’s sports for its summer programming. It kicked “Sunday Night Baseball” to the curb and replaced it with “Women’s Sports Sundays,” planning to show 12 NWSL and WNBA games across nine weekends.
Though the start date hasn’t been announced, you can bet ESPN execs were eyeing the negotiations nervously. With the new CBA done in time to preserve the start of the season, ESPN can go back to its regularly scheduled programming.
LosersExpansion teams
The Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire are set to join the league in 2026 as the 14th and 15th WNBA franchises, but the expansion teams will have less than two months to assemble their rosters before the season tips off on May 8. That's less than ideal for the two new teams that were essentially left in the dark as the rules and format of the expansion draft were negotiated in the new CBA.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert noted in October during negotiations that the expansion draft would be similar to the Golden State Valkyries' expansion draft held on Dec. 6, 2024, but the timeline will be much tighter. The league must squeeze in a two-team expansion draft, free agency that will feature over 100 players and the 2026 WNBA Draft before opening night.
The timeline was much more spaced out for the Valkyries. Golden State's expansion draft rules were released on Sept. 30, 2024 and teams were required to provide the league with a roster list of all their players by Nov 25, 2024, including six protected players that wouldn't be available for selection. Golden State then got to pick one player from each team, nearly two months before team-building continued through free agency in late January.
According to dates provided to ESPN, the entire expansion draft process will be condensed to five days from April 1-6, which would include teams protecting their players, a coin flip between Portland and Toronto and the expansion draft. Free agency would begin the next day on April 7 and last until April 18. The WNBA Draft will be held on April 13 and WNBA training camp is scheduled to begin on April 19.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert
WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert said the new CBA deal agreed to on Wednesday "marks a transformative step forward for players and the league," but she has a lot of work to do to regain players' trust following a tense 17 months of negotiations. Things reached a boiling point in September when Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier openly criticized Engelbert's "tone-deaf and dismissive" leadership in a press conference.
Collier recalled a specific conversation she had with Engelbert in February 2025 about compensating young stars. "Her response was, 'Caitlin (Clark) should be grateful to make $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn't make anything. ... In that same conversation she told me players should be, 'On their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.'" Engelbert said she was "disheartened" by Collier's characterization of their conversation and denied making a comment about Clark, saying there's "a lot of inaccuracy about what I said or what I didn't say."
"I think that the commissioner's reputation is damaged in a real way... when (Napheesa) Collier said what she said, and other players backed her up," American University's N. Jeremi Duru, professor of law, director of sport and society initiative, told USA TODAY Sports. "I think that (Engelbert's) reputation is going to remain a challenge for her going forward."
WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert hands the championship trophy to Las Vegas Aces owner Mark Davis.Role players
They’re still going to get paid. It’s just going to take a while.
Teams are likely to focus on the stars and their own free agents first. When those folks are taken care of, teams will turn their attention to the next tier of players. Only when all of those deals are done will teams fill out their rosters with role players.
This is what the kids call a first-world problem. Under the new CBA, the minimum salary is jumping to above $300,000, from less than $80,000, while the average will be around $600,000.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who won WNBA CBA deal? Why star players, fans come out on top
Source: “AOL Sports”
