The Women’s National Basketball Players Association on Friday night received the WNBA’s counter-proposal, which contained few changes to the league’s previous proposal, sources confirmed to The Post Saturday.
The WNBA’s response, which came six weeks after the WNBPA submitted its latest proposal over Christmas, did not include a significant update on revenue sharing, according to multiple sources.
Although the players negotiate 30 percent of the total revenue, the league still provides about 70 percent of the net revenue share, which equates to about 15 percent of the total league and team revenue.
The WNBA has proposed raising the salary to $5.65 million by 2026, sources with knowledge of the situation said, although that is still well below the $10.5 million salary cap proposed by the WNBPA.
The league has also come up with clear policies to ensure that houses will be allocated to certain groups of players.
Under the league’s latest proposal, club-sponsored studios will be offered to two new developing players.
First-year players and players on short contracts will also be given one-bedroom apartments, sources said.
The division also agreed to the union’s proposal to consolidate club facilities, although the exact details of the new facility standards were not immediately known.
The WNBA declined to comment, and the WNBPA did not immediately return The Post’s inquiry.
CBA negotiations have been stalled for the past few weeks as the union waits for the league’s response.
Several members of the union’s executive committee, including the president of the WNBPA, Nneka Ogwumike, attended a face-to-face meeting with league officials on Monday in hopes of resuming play as ongoing negotiations threaten the start of the 2026 WNBA season.
League officials spent part of the three-hour meeting sharing slides detailing the improvements and benefits the league had already agreed to offer in the new deal.
Some of those proposed changes include a supermax base salary of $1.1 million in 2026 that could rise to $1.8 million in 2030.
Next season’s average base salary is expected to jump to $465,000 – up from about $102,000 in 2025.
Other proposed improvements from the league include guaranteed contracts, two places for development players per team, an increase in performance bonuses and the introduction of salary caps for pregnant players and those injured at the end of the season, among other things.
Friday’s proposal, however, outlines some of the changes the WNBA is willing to make, but time is running out for the two sides to agree on a new contract.
Multiple sources said that if a new CBA cannot be agreed upon in the next two weeks or so, then a delay in the season is inevitable.
Negotiations have been an arduous process, in part, because the two sides’ initial proposals began at a distance.
If the new deal is on the 50-yard line, the WNBA started with a very smart proposal that would have put them on the 40-yard line.
Meanwhile, the players’ union started outside the stadium.
Of course, the players have more leverage than ever in this round of CBA negotiations, so it’s no surprise that they’re headed up from the jump.
But as negotiations continue, there is a feeling among some that the players have agreed to more than the league, sources said.
The WNBA’s original budget model did not include team money, but the league has included it in recent proposals.
The ball is now in the court of the union to consider how to proceed.
The players voted in December to allow the WNBPA to call a strike “if necessary.”
The WNBA has never had a work stoppage in league history, and the vote is just one step in a multi-stage process.
And although no team wants to delay the start of the next season, it seems that the players are determined to hold on to get what they believe they deserve, even if it means closing the league for a while.
