WNBA gamers are anticipated to make significantly more cash starting with the 2026 season when their new 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal begins together with a renegotiated Collective Bargaining Settlement. Gamers can select to decide out of their current CBA by November of this 12 months, which might then terminate on the finish of the 2025 season.
The WNBA at the moment makes roughly $60 million per 12 months from their media rights offers, in order that quantity will enhance to $200 million in 2026. The WNBA wage cap is $1,463,200 per crew, which is merely $17.5 million of spending on participant salaries throughout all the league. The league takes in solely about 40 % of its personal income after the NBA and out of doors traders get their share, and fewer than 10 % of the whole income truly finds its approach into gamers’ salaries beneath the present CBA, which is a significant departure from the roughly 50-50 splits that unions within the NFL and NBA have negotiated.Â
The WNBA’s highest paid participant, Jackie Younger, at the moment makes $252,450 per season. The smallest wage outlined within the present CBA was the minimal contract in 2020, value $57,000 yearly. That class will enhance to $66,079 within the assumed remaining 12 months of the CBA in 2025. If salaries triple or quadruple starting in 2026, some gamers may attain greater than $1 million per season and the minimal wage could possibly be near the present highest wage.
