This conversation aired in the February 26, 2026 episode of Crosscurrents.
KALW’s BOUNCE host Erin Lim speaks to Crosscurrents host Hana Baba about WNBA ongoing contract negotiations between the players and the league owners.
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Interview Transcript:
HANA: So Erin, you hosted and reported the podcast Bounce last year. you were following the Bay Area’s newest women’s basketball team, the Valkyries as they played their first season at the Chase Center.
ERIN: Yeah! It was a historic season to watch and be a part of. The Valkyries proved that women’s basketball is exciting and extremely popular. They sold out every home game and had the highest WNBA season attendance in history. The 2026 season should be just as exciting when they start league games in May.
HANA: So what’s been happening in the off season?
ERIN: Well, first I’ll start with the players.
ERIN: Veronica Burton, voted the leagues most improved player, played for team USA during the Americup - it’s a training camp for WNBA players - and won gold. She’s also one of five Valkyries players that are playing in Unrivaled - a three on three off season league created by a couple of WNBA players.
Valk’s players Temi Fagbenle, Kate Martin, and Monique Billings all started on separate teams. In fact, Unrivaled broke attendance records while on the road in Philadelphia - their league brought in over 21 thousand fans to a game.
Tiffany Hayes played overseas and is also playing in Unrivaled.
A lot of the Valkyries players spent their off season on teams in other countries.
HANA: Sounds like they’re all keeping busy on the court even if it’s not for the WNBA.
ERIN: Yeah, but the big off season news I’ve been following is the contract negotiations between the WNBA and the players association. They were supposed to be done last fall but it’s the end of February and, as of this recording, the negotiations are at a standstill.
HANA: Tell me more, what is the backstory here?
ERIN: So the owners and the players union have not negotiated a new contract in over six years. And this time around, players are focusing on pay and revenue sharing.
- This topic bubbled to the surface during last summer’s WNBA All Star weekend.
- Players took to the court wearing t-shirts that said “Pay Us What You Owe Us”
- And by the end of the season it seemed like the contract bargaining agreement was all fans and players were talking about. I saw fans bring their own Pay Them What You Owe Them signs to games.
- I think there were high hopes that this latest contract would be sorted out by the end of October because of the popularity and growth of the WNBA in the 2025 season.
HANA: What are the players asking for? What are they getting paid??
ERIN: The players want bigger salaries from the top to the bottom of the roster. Currently the minimum salary is sixty-six thousand dollars a season and the maximum is around two hundred fifty thousand.
And just for context…the minimum salary for a rookie draft pick in the NBA could be a little over two million dollars for their first year.
HANA: That is a huge difference. And I remember in season one of Bounce that your team reported on these dependencies. Between the NBA and the WNBA, in terms of branding, right?
ERIN: Yeah, branding and salaries.
ERIN: It's a lot to unpack, Hana.
ERIN: The players are also asking for improved playing facilities as well as better benefits for retired players. But the biggest stumbling block seems to be the discussion about shared revenue.
HANA: Ok shared revenue. Why is this so controversial?
ERIN: Professional athletes often get shared league revenue in addition to their salaries. And for the players, it’s a numbers game. The players want a bigger piece of the total revenue pie. Right now, the WNBA earns the least amount of shared revenue in any professional league. For example, the NBA players receive around 50% of their leagues shared revenue.
And, As of now, it’s been reported that WNBA players receive around 9% although I’ve heard as low as 7%. In one of the recent rounds of negotiations, the players were asking for around 30%.
HANA: And what is the league proposing?
ERIN: The league is currently proposing 70% net revenue.
HANA: Wait - that sounds like more than what the players asking for.
ERIN: The key word here is net…. Players are asking for the gross revenue from the league. They want to be paid before the owners have to pay their other expenses which the league has said are facility fees, security, flights for players – basically operating costs.
The players union says that if they accepted the 70%, it would equate to 15% gross revenue. But to be honest, Hana, these numbers aren’t fixed- it’s hard to know what the players would be ending up with.
HANA: Got it….
ERIN: and, there was another owner move that was holding up the negotiations.
HANA: Which is what?
ERIN: Housing. In the first proposal from the league, they removed team-provided housing which has been in players' contracts since 1999.
Some teams had stipends, some teams provided team housing. And the players were pretty upset that the league had taken out that longstanding agreement.
The latest offer by owners, sent over on February 6, does include supported player housing. This comes after an in person meeting between players and owners that happened earlier this month.
HANA: BUT that didn’t solve everything. Do you know when an agreement needs to be made? Aren't training camps and trade deadlines coming up soon?
ERIN: Training camps are supposed to start in April. The league has already missed an expansion draft deadline for two new teams debuting this season. There’s another trade deadline coming up on April 13. And the first league game is scheduled for May 8.
Their contract was supposed to be sorted by October, but then that date got extended to November, and then early January.
And now it’s almost March and they are still negotiating. Both sides - the players and the league - have been working under the current contract bargaining agreement from 2020, and continue to negotiate in good faith. And that could mean either side can enact a work stoppage at any time.
HANA: Work stoppage? What would that look like?
ERIN: There’s never been one in the WNBA, but there have been some in other professional leagues. It’s essentially a strike if the players call it. If the league calls it, it’s called a lockout. And either way, there would naturally be delays or a shortened, altered season if this happened.
HANA: With all of this back and forth, what’s your take on what will happen next?
ERIN: Well just last week, the players sent in a new proposal where they conceded a bit on their shared revenue ask - from 30% down to 27%. And they’re also negotiating a bit on housing to leverage this bigger ask.
The owners have come out and said that the players are being unrealistic with their latest proposal and that what they’re asking for will cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars. The owners see it as a loss.
HANA: It sounds like the players are going to have to make some hard decisions, right?
ERIN: Yeah, I know, if they end up striking this will be the first time W players have ever done this. And if they don’t strike, what are they going to compromise on to play this season? And, will the fans support their decisions?
The players have acknowledged that they understand that this round of negotiations impacts retired players as well as future players so the weight of it all is heavy.
HANA: Well, please come back when you hear more. If there’s no strike, we’re excited for another season of Valkyries basketball in the Bay.