WNBA's Engelbert: Progress in
negotiations and a deal needed by Monday to avoid season disruption
[March 14, 2026]
By DOUG FEINBERG
NEW YORK (AP) — WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Friday night
that progress is being made toward a new collective bargaining
agreement with the players' union and there's an urgency to get a
deal done by Monday to avoid disruptions to the upcoming season.
“I’ve never been a betting woman in my life and I’m not going to
start now. But we have to get a deal done by Monday,” Engelbert said
during a break in in-person negotiations. “We have to get it done
without disrupting some part of the fact that we’ve got to run this
two team expansion (draft). We have to get expansion going. We got
to get free agency going. We gotta get the college draft.”
The union concurred that there has been movement towards a new CBA
and there seems to be a sense of urgency on both sides since the
start of in-person meetings.
“We have been there committed round the clock and speaking very
passionately and factually,” players’ union executive director Terri
Carmichael Jackson said. “As long as movement keeps us going in a
forward direction, then I think we’re good.”
The two sides have spent approximately 50 hours discussing a new CBA
since first getting together in person on Tuesday — the day the
league had originally said there would need to be at least a
handshake agreement for the season to start on time.
“It’s day four and there’s been movement, I think the league and
particularly the commissioner and her team have heard that
transformational remains the goal,” Jackson said. “Salaries would be
tied to revenue in a meaningful way is the players’ top priority or
one of their top priorities.”
There's still a lot of work to get done. Revenue sharing has been
the biggest difference for the two sides.
“We’re trying to put a package together, salaries and benefits and
all the other things the players want and deserve, and I want for
them to,” Engelbert said. “I said, I want all these things for the
players. ... make it a package that meets our objectives of a
transformational deal.”
While league proposals have always been using net revenue — revenue
after expenses — and union ones have talked about gross revenue —
revenue before expenses — Jackson feels they have been on similar
pages.
“Conversations have helped us kind of chip away at what the concerns
are for both sides and how we meet them and how we address them,”
Jackson said.
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The union started asking for 40% of gross revenue
and had come down to 26% before the marathon in-person bargaining
sessions. The league had been offering over 70% net revenue for the
players.
“I think we both always understood each other,”
Jackson said. “Now we have to continue to do the dance and see where
that nets out.”
Jackson said the sides have been addressing some of the other issues
as well over the last two days. Thursday’s negotiating session
lasted 16 hours, ending at 3 a.m. EDT. They were back at it on
Friday seven hours later and finished for the day just after
midnight. The sides planned to meet again Saturday.
“I think we must have reached agreement on some things,” Jackson
said on other CBA items without offering specifics.
Jackson said the pace has sped up a bit over the last few days with
a sense of urgency by both sides. There have been many more small
group conversations over the last couple days which has helped
facilitate things. Jackson said that was key to getting the previous
CBA done.
Besides revenue sharing, other key items have included housing,
franchise tags for players and retirement benefits for players.
Union executive committee vice president Napheesa Collier arrived
Friday night to join the negotiations in person. She joined with
union president Nneka Oguwmike and vice president Breanna Stewart.
Other executive committee members Alysha Clark and Brianna Turner
left earlier in the day.
When a deal is reached in principle, the league has said it would
need a few weeks to finish off the CBA. There’s a lot that needs to
be done after that. In a timetable obtained by the AP that was
attached to getting a deal done by last Tuesday, the expansion draft
for new franchises in Portland and Toronto would be held sometime
between April 1-6.
Free agent qualifying offers, including franchise player tags, would
be sent out April 7-8. Teams would then have three days to negotiate
with the more than 80% of players who are free agents. The signing
period would take place from April 12-18.
Training camps would open the next day and the season would be able
to start on May 8.
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