The two sides are finally sort of happy.
The world of professional women’s basketball has been saved from the abyss. The Women’s National Basketball Association’s owners and the league’s players apparently have a new collective bargaining agreement. The league will be able to open training camps on April 19th, six days after the college draft which is scheduled for April 13th. The regular season will start on May 8th. The league will be able to hold its expansion draft to stock the Portland and Toronto franchises. The stumbling block was money and how to divide up the revenue that is taken in by the league and distribute it to the players. The two sides passed three absolute deadlines to get an agreement, November 30th, 2025, January 9th, 2026 and March 10th, 2026. Deadlines mean nothing until the real crunch time which would have been in April.
The players didn’t want a salary cap while the owners were trying to suppress salaries. Players do have options other than the WNBA. A handful of players will play in Project B, a women’s basketball startup league that will begin play in Europe, Asia and Latin America in November and last through April 2027. Project B plans to host seven two-week tournaments in locations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. Project B will offer players an equity stake in the league and promises to pay more than the WNBA owners are willing to pay for players. Unrivaled, another league is available as well. The three players on three players league is a short season circuit based in South Florida and had success in attracting big crowds in Philadelphia and Brooklyn for its product earlier this year. The world of women’s basketball is financially expanding and the players know that. For now, the WNBA’s two sides have figured out how to split the money pie.
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