Sources: WNBPA offers revenue sharing, housing concessions in latest proposal

The Women’s National Basketball Players Association submitted a new counterproposal to the WNBA Friday evening with some concessions on revenue sharing and housing, a source familiar with the collective negotiations told ESPN.

In the new CBA proposal, the players’ union demands that players receive 26 percent of gross revenues (defined as revenue before expenses are deducted) over the life of the deal, with the salary cap for the first year of the deal (approximately $9.5 million) unchanged from the previous offer.

The revenue share breakdown is down from the 27.5 percent of gross revenues proposed in the WNBPA’s Feb. 17 proposal, a change that one source said equates to nearly $100 million in revenue share reduction.

The new proposal also contains changes to the union’s housing offerings: Previously, players requested that teams continue to provide housing to players during the first years of the new agreement, but that in subsequent years teams will no longer be required to provide it to players earning at least 80 percent of the maximum salary, on multi-year contracts and with full salary protection.

In the new proposal, the union removed the multi-year component and lowered the salary threshold to 75% at which players would no longer be required to receive team-provided housing.

The two sides are still negotiating the service limit for developmental players – a new feature of this collective bargaining agreement, with each team now required to have two developmental player spots. The union is now proposing a limit of six years of service after initially asking for no experience limit for these players, a source said, while the league’s latest proposal suggested a limit of four or five years of service based on minutes played.

The WNBPA’s counterproposal comes a week after the league submitted its own. That February 20 league proposal guaranteed housing for all players in 2026 before being phased out over subsequent years of the deal. Players on their applicable minimum salary and those with no years of service would be offered a one-bedroom apartment in 2027 and 2028 only, and developmental players would receive a studio apartment for the entire deal.

But the two parties are still very far apart on the question of revenue sharing, notably proposing different revenue sharing systems: the WNBA has held firm in its proposals, with players being offered on average more than 70% of net revenues (revenues after deduction of expenses), which would amount to less than 15% of gross revenues. The salary cap for 2026 would be $5.65 million (up from $1.5 million in 2025) and would increase in subsequent years based on revenue growth.

The league’s proposal calls for maximum salaries, including revenue-sharing payments, amounting to nearly $1.3 million in 2026 and expected to approach $2 million in 2031. The supermax in 2025 was $249,000. The average player salary, including revenue sharing, is expected to reach $540,000 in 2026 and $780,000 by 2031, up from $120,000 in 2025.

The WNBA publicly rejected the WNBPA’s previous proposal, calling it “unrealistic” and a “cause[ing] hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for our teams. » A source close to the negotiations told ESPN that the league projected the Feb. 17 plan would result in losses of $460 million over the life of the deal, although the union maintained its revenue-sharing model would still put the league in a “profitable position,” another source said.

Earlier this week, the league gave its teams and the WNBPA a target date of March 10 to complete a list of conditions, otherwise the 2026 season schedule could be impacted.