June 25, 2024; Belmont Park, New York, USA; WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert presents the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship MVP Award to Minnesota Lynx forward Nafisa Collier (24) at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images A meeting between WNBA representatives and the players’ association ended early Wednesday morning without an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, multiple media outlets reported.
The meeting, held at a New York hotel, began at 5pm on Tuesday and ended about 12 hours later, ESPN reported. League officials set a March 10 deadline for a new CBA deal to avoid losing regular season games.
The league and players have been at a standstill for months with revenue sharing and housing issues among the major issues. The regular season is scheduled to begin on May 8.
“It’s a complicated thing,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert told reporters outside the hotel after 5 a.m. “We’re trying to make it a win-win deal that balances everything we’ve tried to balance as a transformational deal for the players, as we said, with the continued investment of the owner. So we’re working hard on that, and there’s still work to be done.”
“The conversation continues and it needs to continue,” Terri Jackson, executive director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, reported ESPN.
“Every meeting is a positive meeting,” Jackson said, according to ESPN. “Seriously, every meeting is a positive meeting. The fact that we plan a meeting and propose a date to schedule a meeting to actually get together goes into the room. I think that’s positive. It takes as long as it takes. But you know, it’s necessary.”
The league did not say whether it would have the flexibility to start the season past the deadline.
The WNBA draft is scheduled for April 13, with training camp scheduled to open six days later. The league must also hold free agency, an expansion draft and preseason games, with the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire scheduled to begin play in the upcoming season.
The players have been without collective bargaining since opting out of their existing contract in October 2024, a year before its Oct. 31, 2025 expiration date, in hopes of a new contract being signed last fall.
–Field level media
