At the beginning of this week, the WNBA and WNBA Players Association had an in-person meeting to discuss the new collective bargaining agreement. It was the first in-person meeting between the two sides in months.Per reporting by ESPN and Front Office Sports, about 40 players and more than a half dozen team owners and executives were present at the meeting. On Friday, CBS Sports spoke exclusively to one of the players who attended the meeting via Zoom: Elizabeth Williams, the secretary of the WNBPA.Williams is currently in Europe, where she is playing for Galatasaray of the Turkish Women’s Basketball Super League during the WNBA offseason. The 32-year-old center was the fourth overall pick in the 2015 draft and has been a longtime member of the WNBPA executive committee. She most recently played for the Chicago Sky, but like all but two veterans in the WNBA, is currently a free agent.
Despite the ongoing stalemate, the WNBA released its 2026 schedule in late January. At the time, a WNBA spokesperson told CBS Sports that the schedule release was “a key step as we prepare for the WNBA’s 30th season and allows teams, partners, broadcasters and fans to begin the essential planning for the year ahead.” Training camps are supposed to open on April 19, and the first game is scheduled for May 8, just over three months away. The league still needs to hold free agency, the college draft and, perhaps most importantly, expansion drafts for the two newest WNBA franchises, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo.The main point of contention between the league and players is the revenue-sharing model and salary structure. In the league’s most recent proposal, players would get about 70% of net revenue, which is the revenue remaining when league-specified operating expenses are removed from the pot. The union countered that offer with a proposal that would see the players get about 30% of gross revenue, which is all team and league revenue, before expenses.The WNBPA sent its latest proposal to the league in late December, but the league still had not formally responded to it heading into Monday’s meeting, and players were frustrated that the league did not begin Monday’s meeting with a proposal. When this interview was conducted on the morning of Friday, Feb. 6, the union was still waiting on a response from the league. However, late Friday night, the WNBA did submit a new proposal.
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2026-02-07 03:58:28
