The WNBA Players Got What They Wanted

Over the past 17 months, WNBA fans have been well justified in worrying that the league is in big trouble. As the WNBA and its players have attempted to hash out a new collective-bargaining agreement—which, among many things, dictates player compensation—negotiations have at times seemed irreparably contentious. While warming up before last year’s WNBA All-Star game, players wore Pay Us What You Owe Us T-shirts, and when the WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, presented Napheesa Collier with the game’s MVP trophy, fans could be heard screaming, “Pay them!” Not long after, Collier publicly accused the league of exhibiting “the worst leadership in the world.” If the two sides couldn’t come together in time for the new season, which typically begins in May, then the league’s tremendous momentum over the past few years would be erased—maybe for good.

But last Wednesday, following a week’s worth of marathon negotiations, the two sides verbally agreed on a deal. Yesterday, WNBA players announced that they had ratified the terms of a seven-year agreement, with more than 90 percent of players participating. Under the terms of the deal, WNBA players are in line for a significant salary boost and will receive a share of the league’s revenue that is nearly double the previous amount. Other noteworthy details of the agreement include an increase in bonus amounts for players who win the WNBA championship and postseason awards, and onetime bonuses to WNBA veterans and retired players based on years of service.

In short: The next generation of WNBA players is set to be the richest in history. The average salary will increase to $583,000, up from $120,000 last year; the most elite players will make more than $1 million a season. It took 30 years, six collective-bargaining negotiations, and lots of horror stories about shoddy accommodations, but the new agreement represents a historic moment for the league—and helps further the narrative that women’s athletes, including those not just in the WNBA, deserve better financial conditions.

Although players pre-authorized a strike, going the nuclear route would have dealt the league a devastating blow at a crucial moment. In 2024, the WNBA welcomed its most transformative draft class, headlined by the college rivals Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese; that same year, the WNBA signed a record $2.2 billion media-rights deal with Disney, NBC, and Amazon. Last season, records were set for attendance and television viewership.

The league’s explosive popularity went beyond more eyeballs; it translated into actual investment from owners. Last year, the WNBA welcomed the Golden State Valkyries, its first new franchise since 2008; it also gave new WNBA franchises to Toronto, Portland, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Cleveland that will be added from now through 2030. According to Front Office Sports, this has allowed the league to generate $1 billion in expansion fees since 2023. With all of that in mind, the players came to the negotiating table this time with more leverage than in the past, when interest in the WNBA wasn’t as stable.

And because of that growth, the players have new ways to get paid. Historically, many WNBA athletes have played overseas during the offseason because their American compensation is so inadequate. (Famously, the WNBA player Brittney Griner wound up detained in a Russian prison after traveling to the country to play for the club team UMMC Ekaterinburg, which reportedly paid her more than $1 million annually.) Playing so far from home isn’t something many athletes look forward to—and in 2023, the WNBA stars Collier and Breanna Stewart created the three-on-three league Unrivaled, based in the United States, which was able to attract players by offering an average salary of $220,000 for 10 weeks of play. Paige Bueckers signed a three-year deal with Unrivaled; the salary she made during her first year was more than her entire four-year WNBA rookie contract.

[Read: The WNBA has a good problem on its hands]

On top of that, an international women’s league that will supposedly offer players seven-figure salaries is looking to start later this year. Because of those emerging competitors, WNBA officials and owners were faced with a choice: Either get serious or risk eroding the foundation of a product that has slowly built up over the past three decades. Given the overall boom in women’s sports, there was increased pressure on the WNBA to meet the moment. According to a 2025 study, women’s sports grew four and a half times faster than men’s sports from 2022 to 2024. One of the best current examples is the meteoric rise of the National Women’s Soccer League, which has doubled the number of teams since 2013 and saw a 61 percent viewership increase on ESPN in 2025. The Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, the husband of the tennis legend Serena Williams, started the women’s track venture Athlos, which for the past two years has held a star-studded meet in New York City. Last year’s competition drew millions of viewers across multiple platforms; the $663,000 prize purse was the largest ever offered for a women’s-only track event.

Although it’s appropriate to characterize the WNBA’s new agreement as a landmark deal, the players are still operating at a disadvantage. It’s easy for the league to look like a hero when salaries were so low for such a long time. And if the league’s popularity continues on the same trajectory, the deal will quickly wind up being an absolute bargain for the owners.

But for all of its growing pains, the WNBA is still the most visible women’s professional-sports league in America. The progress that the league has made in the past 30 years has been far from linear, and a significant gap remains between men’s and women’s sports in almost every category: revenue, investment, salary, attention. Considering the head start that men’s sports have, closing that gap will take years (for perspective: It took the NBA several decades to become profitable).

For now, both sides can share credit for striking a deal and pushing women’s sports in the right direction. As WNBA Players Association President Nneka Ogwumike wrote on social media, “We always told you we were going to stand on business, and that’s what this looks like.”