The WNBA will be playing the 2025 season with the shadow of its upcoming CBA negotiations looming over everything, and the player union head is already setting expectations.
Women's National Basketball Players Association executive director Terri Jackson discussed the upcoming talks with reporters on Thursday, including Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports, saying she hopes to have an agreement by Halloween, the final day of the current CBA.
She also did not rule out a potential work stoppage should the situation come to that.
Via FOS:
"We've been aggressive in terms of our discussions, our proposals—plural—and our meeting schedule," Jackson said. "It's a group project. We're doing our part of it, and we're just hopeful that the league sees the opportunity to have those milestones in place, work towards significant progress—it's not just a catchphrase—by the halfway point, and work towards completion by October 31."
Jackson said players have made it clear they are willing to sit at the table for "as long as it takes"—not ruling out a potential work stoppage—in order to have their expectations met.
Those comments mirror what's been coming from the players. WNBPA vice president Napheesa Collier declined to rule out a walkout and said the players had to stand firm, while Angel Reese and DiJonai Carrington both said they heard a work stoppage was a possibility.
The WNBPA opted out of the current CBA, previously set to expire in 2027, last fall, setting up the current fight. At the heart of the issue is the WNBA's explosion in popularity last year, catalyzed by Caitlin Clark. The league had been making progress for years without her, but Clark arrived as a ratings behemoth. Before 2024, the league hadn't seen a game draw more than a million viewers since 2008. It recorded 23 such games last year, and Clark played in 20 of them. Of course, progress was made in games without Clark as well.
Amid all that, the league hammered out $2.2 billion in television deals last summer, of which the players are naturally going to want a cut.
The short of it is the league and union are negotiating in an environment vastly different from their previous talks, with increased TV money, new expansion teams and other revenue streams for players, such as Unrivaled and NIL money in college.
Jackson said the union is prepared to use the leverage at hand, via FOS:
"There are so many players that got my attention—I believe they got the league and team's attention too—who decided to take that fifth year," Jackson said. "That strengthens the union side and the player side of things, because that means the pipeline is that much longer and stronger. But the moment is now… So are we seizing on every level? Absolutely."
