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The WNBA has proposed a seven-figure base max salary as part of a new collective bargaining agreement, but it’s coming at a cost.
The league has removed team housing from proposals submitted to the Women’s National Basketball Players Association—including the most recent—several league sources told Front Office Sports.
Teams have been required to provide players with in-season housing for years.
The league has also proposed lengthening the season, including an earlier start date that is expected to interfere with the NCAA tournament and potentially other leagues, such as Project B.
The start date for training camp could be as early as mid-March, sources indicated. The current 44-game regular season runs from mid-May to early September. The 2025 WNBA Finals ended Oct. 10.
“It doesn’t make logistical sense,” one source told FOS.
The WNBA declined to comment.
The league’s latest proposal—reported Monday—was highlighted by salary increases. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the league’s proposal includes a max base salary of $1 million, with potential earnings from revenue-sharing increasing that number to $1.2 million. Multiple players per team would be eligible to sign for this supermax base in 2026.
The average salary is projected to exceed $500,000, with a minimum of more than $225,000. The salary cap, currently $1.5 million per team, would increase to $5 million. Under the league’s most recent proposal, the salary cap would grow with league and team revenue regardless of targets, a source familiar with negotiations said—closer to what players have been asking for.
Under the current CBA, players have multiple options during the regular season and the playoffs for housing. Players can either stay in housing provided by the team or receive a monthly stipend, which varies by city; players with children under the age of 13 receive a two-bedroom unit. The monthly stipend for players who opt not to live in team-provided housing ranges between $1,177 in Las Vegas to $2,647 in New York.
The players most affected would be those under temporary contracts, who will, in many cases, be in WNBA markets for only a short period of time.
The league is mandated under the current CBA to “use reasonable efforts to secure 30 job opportunities” during the offseason, whether with sponsors or teams in leagues other than the WNBA. These employers are permitted to provide offseason housing to players as part of their employment terms. Players signed to team and league marketing agreements are also eligible to receive housing assistance in the offseason.
The current CBA would allow the WNBA to move the start of training camp up to April 1 at the earliest; it cannot be moved up more than 30 days before the first day of the regular season. The season is currently permitted to run through Oct. 31. In recent years, training camp has begun at the end of April, weeks after the conclusion of the NCAA tournament and the WNBA draft. Last October, commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the league’s decision to increase the regular season to a 44-game slate. The schedule change included the WNBA Finals switching to a 7-game format.
Multiple sources have interpreted the WNBA’s latest proposal as directly interfering with the timeline of the NCAA tournament and would have rookies arriving weeks into the season.
Prioritization—which was introduced in the last CBA and requires players to be in market by the start of training camp or face suspension—has been a divisive topic between owners and players. It has had a significant impact on international players who place significant importance on playing for their federations and in the EuroLeague. Since the WNBA was founded, it signed on to FIBA’s “letter of clearance” system that permits players to sign contracts in multiple leagues. It’s unclear at this point how the WNBA’s further interference with the FIBA calendar would impact the league’s relationship with global competitors.
The league and players’ union failed to reach an agreement on a new CBA by the previous extended date of Nov. 30. On Sunday, both sides agreed to a second extension with a deadline of Jan. 9, 2026.
