Why the WNBA CBA negotiations may be taking so long: Legal experts weigh in
· Yahoo Sports
After 16 months, the CBA negotiations between the WNBA and its players' union are still going.
The WNBA set a March 10 deadline for a new term sheet to be signed to avoid delays to the 2026 season. However, the deadline has come and gone, and so has a later preferred deadline of March 16, set by WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
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As of March 17, the WNBA and WNBPA are on day eight of marathon negotiations, tackling items like revenue share and housing. "Progress" and "movement" are words both sides have used to describe the current state of talks, but "big issues remain." With this in mind, USA TODAY Sports interviewed multiple experts familiar with sports law and labor negotiations to try to understand what might delay a new CBA.
Among the experts is one of the world’s leading antitrust, sports law and trial lawyers, Jeffrey Kessler of Winston & Strawn, and American University's N. Jeremi Duru, professor of law, director of sport and society initiative. "I believe that this is, without question, the most substantial labor dispute going on in sports right now," Duru told USA TODAY Sports of the ongoing WNBA CBA negotiations.
Kessler, Duru and several experts within their respective fields tackled common questions that have developed as negotiations continue, providing expert opinion and analysis based on their experiences.
Here are five questions answered by the experts about the lingering CBA talks:
What are the sticking points that have delayed a new WNBA CBA?
Revenue share and housing have been the central items on the negotiation agenda for months, but have received considerable attention since April 14. One legal expert told USA Today at this point the devil is in details ― like percentages ― the smaller or finer points.
In terms of revenue share, the WNBA has maintained its stance that it would offer more than 70% of league and team net revenue to players. The WNBPA has requested 25% of gross revenue in the first year, increasing over the life of the agreement to an average of roughly 26%.
The WNBA has historically provided housing for players since the first CBA in 1999. However, in the current CBA negotiations, the two sides have traded proposals on everything from guaranteed housing for first-year players to team-provided housing that would later be phased out based on how much a player made.
A legal expert shared with USA TODAY it's important to hammer out the details because even a percentage point could be a difference in hundreds of millions of dollars. The source maintains it's not surprising the WNBA and WNBPA have waited until now to work through a larger portion of the "hard stuff" because of the gravity of what's being discussed.
Have lawyers actively been involved in these CBA negotiations?
Many, many lawyers are part of the negotiations.
"Lawyers are always involved," Duru said. "Often, it's the case that the commissioner of a league, head of a union are themselves lawyers. ... You'll have lawyers [brought in] from the very beginning, in terms of thinking through what are the potential outcomes? What are the stakes? What are our probabilities of getting this or getting that?"
Every players' union has inside (internal) and outside (external) counsel. Inside counsel is always present, and at times, there may be additional staff brought in. For example, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) has a separate economist. Per the MLBPA's site, Craig Edwards is a senior analyst for the MLBPA who specializes in economics and collective bargaining and has an active role in negotiations.
"When you’re thinking about things that are the best for the game in terms of competition, pace of play, how the best way to move forward for the game, a lot of those things might align with what the Players Association is trying to do, particularly in the next collective bargaining agreement," Edwards said about advocating on behalf of the players. "Everybody wants to keep baseball the great, incredible game that it is, but they also want to grow it and make sure it doesn’t lose the magic."
What do lawyers advise their clients on in CBA negotiations?
The lawyers are able to give a 20,000-foot view.
"They're two kind of pieces to it. You got the overall, kind of macro questions and concerns and ways to strategize in negotiating to maximize the wins for their side," Duru said.
In the context of current WNBA CBA negotiations, the macro priorities since the league opted out of the current agreement in October 2024 have been a new economic model for better wages that reflect the WNBA's growth, player salaries, better professional standards across the league and player benefits such as retirement and family planning.
"Then you've got the word-by-word, line edit, wordsmithing function," Duru said, to ensure that there's clarity, no ambiguity and nothing is given away.
In relation to the ongoing CBA negotiations, the marathon meetings that began on March 10 fall more in line with the "line edit" Duru shared with USA TODAY. For instance, at one point during the hourslong meetings, the WNBPA and WNBA exchanged multiple proposals, including a league proposal that included an increase of the salary cap in Year 1 of the deal from $5.7M to $6.2M.
If a new CBA is agreed to, what’s the timeline for ratification?
According to Kessler, it's all about how the union wants to operate. In his experience, agreeing to sign just the term sheet is a process that could happen "as quickly as a couple of weeks." If the union decides it wants to have the entire CBA agreement ratified, that could take longer. Kessler estimated it could take as long as four weeks for full CBA ratification.
"The real question is whether the union will ratify on a term sheet or whether you need the whole formal agreement," Kessler said.
Another legal expert USA TODAY spoke to had a different viewpoint. "I don’t think it should take weeks … it should be more seamless than that," the source said. According to the person, the player membership would vote and proceed on how to move forward afterward. At the stage of ratification, the source explained there's more urgency to get the deal done and ratification likely shouldn't cause issues.
"If each party recognizes the other's operating in good faith and you have enough of a term sheet that everybody agrees with as a foundation, then you can move forward in a positive direction as you get more formalized," Duru told USA TODAY. "I think ultimately, that's what we're gonna see.
"Someone once told me when it comes to these, you want to get a win-win, but it's generally a capital W-I-N [and] lower case w-i-n. And so, ultimately, I think we're going to get a 'W-I-N-w-i-n' out of this. Nothing's ever really down the middle. So one part may be more of a win than the other, but I think both parties recognize an outcome of that is superior to shifting the season, limiting the season or worse."
What are the takeaways as negotiations draw closer to ending?
A source with knowledge of the 2020 WNBA negotiations says that one of the biggest lessons from the 2026 CBA talks is that the league "underestimated" the players' abilities to understand the negotiations. The source told USA TODAY the players are "sophisticated women who understand their value." WNBPA outside counsel Deb Willig, who has been active in these negotiations, seemed to echo the same sentiment.
“This has been an extraordinarily unusual set of labor negotiations, and I’ve been doing this for over 50 years,” said Willig. “The why, frankly, is because the league underestimated, seriously, the resolve of the players and what they sought to achieve.”
The source with knowledge of the 2020 CBA talks said the league and players negotiating now have to build back trust. According to the person, both sides have described wanting a "transformational" deal, but the person seemingly wasn't convinced that transformation has always been the league's priority.
“They have asked for transformation. What they’ve shown is [evolutionary]," the source said, noting how, from their lens, the league has operated differently in negotiations. The source pointed to what they felt was only incremental movement on key items during talks that didn't align with the WNBA's stance of wanting a transformational deal. According to the person, that could contribute to a lack of trust between the players and the league."If someone hands you a spreadsheet, it only matters if you trust the person who handed you the spreadsheet," the source said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WNBA CBA negotiations continue to drag on? What's the hold up?