Storm’s Nneka Ogwumike Spearheading Tense WNBA CBA Negotiations Now in 11th Hour
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Storm forward and WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said revenue sharing and housing are the main items still needing to be worked out as WNBA CBA negotiations continue Saturday. Credit: John Mac [/caption]
As more deadlines continue to be dealt out by the WNBA, it seems the league and its players union are getting closer to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Monday is the new deadline the league set to avoid any impacts on the 2026 season, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, and Seattle Storm forward and WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike is at the forefront of the negotiations as they enter their 11th hour.
“We have to get it done by Monday. I should say, we have to get it done without disrupting some part of the fact that we’ve got to run this two-team expansion [draft],” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said, per ESPN. “We’ve got to get expansion going. We’ve got to get free agency going. We’ve got to get the college draft, which is now a month from today.”
Ogwumike said Saturday that revenue sharing and team-funded housing were among the major items that are still being worked on, per Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press. Negotiations have been especially hot this week to try to meet the league’s original March 10 deadline to not impact the season.
A deal obviously wasn’t complete by that date, but it does seem the two sides are inching towards an agreement.
“It’s very important for us to nail those two things down, which is, I think, the biggest thing on the agenda today,” Ogwumike said in between bargaining sessions, per Feinberg. “So we want to make sure that we can get that.”
The housing issue is understandably important when WNBA player salaries are lower than in many other professional sports leagues. However, once salaries are higher, it’s also understandable from the league’s perspective to begin dropping those requirements.
The WNBPA entered Tuesday wanting the league to pay for housing in the first few years of the new CBA before dropping them in later years for players making near the maximum salary, per Feinberg. The league wanted to pay for housing in 2026 before only paying for rookies and minimum-salaried players.
On revenue sharing, the players’ main goal is to get the WNBA to pay based on gross revenue and not net revenue, per Feinberg. The players have dropped their original 40% gross revenue proposal down to 26%.
“We’ve talked a lot about revenue share, which that’s obviously going to be, I don’t even really like calling it the elephant in the room. Like it’s there, you know, like we’re going to talk about it,” Ogwumike said, per Feinberg. “But housing is big, you know, and housing is really big. And I think that perhaps people understanding this negotiation or like learning about it has really shown like how meaningful something like a housing benefit is, especially for the women in the W.”
With the WNBA preseason set to begin on April 25 and the regular season set for May 8, the timeline is rapidly shrinking. The league still has to get through the college draft, free agency and two expansion drafts for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo.
Teams around the league will enter hyperdrive trying to complete their offseason in under two months. It’s possible, but it certainly isn’t ideal.
The Storm are in as tough a place as any, with just four players under contract for the 2026 season. Dominique Malonga is heading into her second season as the face of the franchise and Seattle has a few promising young players returning, but their veteran core is all free agents.
Ogwumike is one of those Storm free agents, and she was the best player all season long for the Storm in 2025. She will turn 36 during this upcoming season, putting the Storm in a tough place on whether to go full rebuild under new head coach Sonia Raman.
Once the CBA is finalized, the next steps will become much clearer. However, when that deal will be reached remains very much up in the air despite the deadlines.
