The Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Participant’s Affiliation ratified the phrases of a brand new collective bargaining settlement Monday, calling it “transformational” and “larger than basketball.”
The brand new CBA begins this season and runs via 2032.
When requested her opinion of a very powerful consequence from the deal, WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike had two phrases: “Financial institution accounts.”
“With the ability to have your value tied principally in your wage is all that we have been combating for, and it is what we have been capable of obtain,” Ogwumike informed CNBC Sport in an interview.
The deal will increase the common participant wage to $583,000 in 2026, with the potential to extend to greater than $1 million by 2032. The utmost wage for gamers will now be $1.4 million in 2026 and will develop to greater than $2.4 million by 2032, primarily based on present WNBA monetary projections.
Ogwumike acknowledged the wage will increase could change gamers’ plans for a way they spend the offseason.
The typical WNBA wage was $120,000 in 2025, spurring many gamers to play overseas or in different leagues, resembling 3-on-3 league Unmatched, for extra cash.
“Prioritizing the place you need to play goes to look rather a lot totally different now that we have been capable of negotiate a construction, a wage construction, that’s tied to the income of the enterprise,” Ogwumike stated.
A number of WNBA gamers, together with five-time WNBA All-Star Napheesa Collier, have expressed a lack of confidence in WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in current months, criticizing her empathy and communication with gamers. Ogwumike expressed optimism that gamers will be capable to work in tandem with Engelbert beneath the brand new CBA construction.
“I informed her that we’re standing right here with you, Cathy,” Ogwumike stated. “We have been capable of come to this deal and undergo the method of this deal, nevertheless bumpy or clean it was, we bought right here. It is necessary for her to grasp that we as gamers are on the desk along with her and all WNBA management to have achieved one thing that is extremely historic. So, I really feel like there in all probability is not a greater method to signify us settling our variations and shifting ahead in a league that all of us care about then by signing this deal.”
Watch CNBC Sport’s full interview with WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike.
— CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report.
