The 2025 WNBA season has officially come to an end, but that doesn’t mean the hard work is over. Throughout the year, one of the main points of discussion has been about the league’s CBA. The players and owners are currently at a standstill, with no signs of anything changing anytime soon. WNBA legend Sue Bird knows the experience far too well.
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As things stand, the CBA is due on October 31 and if negotiations continue to progress as they are, the WNBA could be looking at a potential lockout situation. That isn’t an outcome that either party wants, but it seems inevitable that the players will receive what they feel like they deserve.
Times have changed since the last CBA was finalized in 2020. The WNBA was in a completely different state as a league, and without the power of 2025’s stars. That said, even back then, the players made sure to hold their ground in negotiations.
Bird was a member of the WNBPA, which meant she was involved in plenty of calls on the matter. Looking back at those times, she remembers one call standing out, thanks to Nneka Ogwumike.
“[The calls] were on Zoom because it was during the pandemic,” Bird said on Bird’s Eye View. “Someone was basically saying, ‘Well, if we ask for X, what if they give it to us?’ And Nneka went off mute and went, ‘Then you get what you want!'”
Of course, this was back when the pandemic was at its height. On top of that, the public murder of George Floyd had consumed the hearts of people worldwide. Before the WNBA players agreed to play in a bubble, they had a few demands to check off.
“They’re like, ‘We want to dedicate the season to say his name and Black Lives Matter. And we want 100% of our pay,” Nneka Ogwumike said.
These seemed like lofty goals, but Ogwumike and Bird wouldn’t let that stop them. In their major CBA call with the team owners, their requests were taken into careful consideration, ultimately leading to a response which they didn’t expect.
“We had to present that whole thing to the board of governors,” Ogwumike said. “After we went through our whole spiel, they were like, ‘Okay.'”
Ogwumike and Bird couldn’t believe what they heard. Shortly after, the CBA took effect and became ground breaking for the WNBA and now five years later, it serves as a reminder that players’ just demands will need to be met without exception.
Unlike Bird, Ogwumike is still playing in the WNBA. So, the Seattle Storm star revealed what it is the players are fighting for this time around.
“Now, the growth is here. The business is growing. The only part of the business that doesn’t grow is that which represents the value of the players and, so, what we’re seeking is simply a salary structure that resembles a portion that the players get that grows with the business,” Ogwumike proclaimed.
The main goal is for players to receive a larger piece of the pie of the league’s revenue splits. Players currently receive 9-10% of the league’s total revenue, that pales in comparison to the NBA, which gives its players roughly 50% of their revenue.
Asking for what NBA players receive may seem like a bit of a reach at this point, but these players certainly deserve more. Hopefully in the coming weeks a new agreement came come to a close swiftly as it did in 2020.
