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

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

In the new CBA proposal, the players’ union is asking players to receive 26% of gross revenue (defined as revenue before expenses are deducted) over the lifetime of the agreement, with the salary cap (about $9.5 million) in Year 1 of the deal unchanged from its previous proposal.

As proposed in the WNBPA’s February 17 resolution, the revenue share split is reduced to 27.5% of gross revenues, with one source saying the change is equivalent to a roughly $100 million cut on revenue share.

The new proposal also includes changes to the union’s housing offerings: previously, players had asked that teams continue to provide housing to players in the first several years of a new deal, but in subsequent years, teams would not be obligated to provide it for players earning at least 80% of the maximum salary on multi-year deals and receive full salary protection.

In the new proposal, the union struck out the multi-year component and reduced the salary cap to 75%, at which point players would no longer be obligated to receive team-provided housing.

The two sides are still negotiating the years of service limit for developmental players – with a new feature of this CBA each team is now expected to have two developmental player slots. The union is now proposing a six-year service limit after originally asking for no experience limit for those players, a source said, while the league’s latest proposal suggests a four- or five-year service limit based on minutes played.

The WNBPA’s counterproposal comes a week after the league submitted a counterproposal of its own. The league proposal of February 20 guaranteed housing for all players through 2026 before being phased out in the later years of the deal. Players at their applicable minimum salary and with zero years of service will be provided with one-bedroom apartments only in 2027 and 2028, and developmental players will be provided with studio apartments for the entire duration of the deal.

But the two sides are still far apart on the issue of revenue sharing, including proposing different revenue sharing systems: the WNBA has stuck to its proposals, offering players an average of more than 70% of net revenue (revenue after deducting expenses), which would amount to less than 15% of gross revenue. The 2026 salary cap will be $5.65 million (up from $1.5 million in 2025) and will increase in line with revenue growth in subsequent years.

The league’s proposal includes a maximum salary, including revenue sharing payments, that is projected to reach approximately $1.3 million in 2026 and $2 million in 2031. The Supermax came in 2025 for $249,000. The average player salary, including revenue sharing, is projected 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 as “unrealistic” and “reasonable”.[ing] Our teams lost millions of dollars.” A source familiar with the negotiations told ESPN that the league estimated it would lose $460 million over the lifetime of the agreement as a result of the February 17 plan. Although the union maintained its revenue sharing model, the league would still be placed in an “advantageous position,” another source said.

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