The 2026 WNBA season could be a historic one, but it won’t tip off on time, or at all, if a new collective bargaining agreement isn’t agreed upon between the league and players. The WNBA established a March 10 deadline to agree to a new pact during its most recent meeting with the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association (WNBPA), as to not disrupt the beginning of the 2026 season, which begins on May 8. But there’s been failure to reach a framework for a deal that both sides agree on, which has been the case for quite some time. Breanna Stewart, the WNBA superstar who plays for the New York Liberty and serves as a vice president of the WNBPA, knows both sides want the season to happen. But she’s not sure a deal will be done by the proposed deadline. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM”I don’t know,” Stewart told Fox News Digital after a long, thoughtful pause. “I don’t know if a deal gets done by March 10. Part of me wants to say yes, but part of me is like, ‘Negotiations have been really slow going back and forth.’ There needs to be some serious movement within the next week. Literally, I don’t know.”The latest move was the WNBA sending a counterproposal to the players’ union where good things, like paying for housing for all players for the upcoming season, are in play. However, Stewart revealed the biggest roadblock in negotiations, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the tension between the league and players this past season. CAITLIN CLARK: CBA NEGOTIATION IS ‘BIGGEST MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WNBA’”The one thing is what we really can’t agree on, and that’s the revenue-sharing model,” Stewart said. Revenue sharing and increased player salaries are the two biggest areas surrounding these negotiations. While Stewart didn’t go into specific dollar amounts, she did say why both sides don’t see eye to eye right now about how revenue sharing is being negotiated. “The PA is asking for gross and the league, the WNBA, is asking to deal in an SBI, which is a shared basketball income, where you negotiate how much money goes into that pot and that’s shared to players,” she explained. “That’s the sticking point, that’s the part where any time we get to those conversations, we never are on the same side.”In its offer to the league last week, the players’ union offered an average 27.5% of the WNBA’s gross revenue, which is revenue before expenses, over the course of the CBA. The union had previously asked for more than 30% of revenue. But the league said that model would cause “hundreds of millions of dollars of losses for our teams.”To Stewart’s point, the WNBA’s proposal would give players more than 70% of net revenue – the profits after expenses being key. And those expenses would be upgraded facilities, charter flights, five-star hotels and more for the teams. It’s been clear since last year that the players want what they feel they deserve, even going
Breanna Stewart reveals what WNBA, players’ union ‘really can’t agree on’ in midst of crucial CBA negotiations
