Basketball's biggest stars aren't holding back on criticizing the league's CBA proposal after the WNBA Player's Association (WNBPA) rejected last week's opening offer.
With the parties set to engage in CBA negotiations during next week's 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend, Phoenix Mercury forward and WNBPA representative Satou Sabally called the league's initial offer "a slap in the face."
Also weighing in was WNBPA vice president and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, who echoed Sabally's sentiment by confirming her frustration with the league to reporters.
"Anytime you go back-and-forth, you're not expecting to hear that 'yes' on the first [proposal], but you're expecting to have a conversation," she added. "They kind of just ignored everything we said."
The WNBA's current CBA expires at the end of this season, with players upping their demands in light of the league's recent popularity boom and planned expansion.
"It's been made clear that [there's] this perception that the players don't understand the business," WNBPA president and Seattle forward Nneka Ogwumike told reporters on Saturday. "We want to have a growing portion of the revenue share. We want this league to be exactly what it is today and more. So I'm hoping that something positive [and] progressive yields from this meeting that we'll have in Indy."
The WNBPA will enter face-to-face CBA negotiations with the WNBA in Indianapolis later this month, with the union tapping Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin to assist in what Stewart predicts will be a "spicy" meeting.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham turned heads on Tuesday, criticizing the latest WNBA expansion plans in light of ongoing WNBPA CBA negotiations.
Cunningham drew ire from some fans after expressing skepticism about the WNBA awarding expansion teams to Detroit and Cleveland over other possible cities, while also suggesting that the league might be growing too quickly.
"You want to listen to your players, too. Where do they want to play?" she told reporters ahead of Indiana's Commissioner's Cup win. "I'm not so sure what the thought process is there, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you're not expanding our league too fast."
"It's kind of a hard decision-making situation. But man, I don't know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]."
Elsewhere, Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally also voiced her expansion concerns on Tuesday, calling on the WNBA to keep player support at the forefront when adding expansion teams.
"We really have to put an emphasis on the players that are in our league right now," she told reporters. "Maybe focus on the teams that find excuses continuously to lack investment in their players before we focus on adding more to the grain of people that can't really be sustained."
Big-name NWSL stars could be on the move next season, with the league releasing its list of 2026 free agents on Tuesday.
Two of the USWNT's 2024 Olympic gold medal-winning Triple Espresso frontline — the Washington Spirit's Trinity Rodman and the Portland Thorns' Sophia Wilson — headline the 2026 slate.
Other NWSL standouts like Gotham FC forward Midge Purce, Kansas City Current midfielder Lo'eau LaBonta, and North Carolina Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy are also eligible to negotiate new contracts — and potentially suit up for other clubs next year.
As per the players' most recent CBA with the league, all athletes whose contracts expire at the end of this season are now 2026 free agents, regardless of the number of years they've competed in the NWSL.
The 2026 free agency period officially began on Tuesday, opening the door for both teams and eligible players to initiate contract discussions and term negotiations for next season.
Even more, 2025 clubs face additional competition in the race to sign their most-wished for players, as new NWSL expansion teams Denver and Boston Legacy FC enter the free agency fray ahead of their 2026 season debuts.
Notably, landing on the free agent list doesn't prohibit a player from simply re-signing with their original club, but it does indicate that any previous deal negotiations have extended beyond the NWSL's July 1st contract extension deadline.
Though the NWSL hit the pause button this week, players worldwide are still on the move, as both European and US soccer teams use the midseason break to sharpen their lineups with international signings.
The NWSL has already seen one major departure, with the San Diego Wave announcing Monday that forward María Sánchez will return to her former Liga MX club UANL Tigres after nearly five years in the NWSL, with the Wave set to receive an undisclosed transfer fee in return.
"When the opportunity came to return to Tigres, I had to do a lot of inner searching, and I ultimately decided that returning to Liga MX Femenil and Tigres specifically was the best course of action for my career," the 29-year-old dual citizen and Mexico international player said in the Wave's release.
NWSL clubs are also setting their sights on European free agents, with the Washington Spirit bringing in Juventus forward Sofia Cantore last week — the first Italian signing in league history.
Also hopping aboard the player transaction carousel is new WSL side London City, with the top-flight debutantes inking OL Lyonnes midfielder and Dutch international Daniëlle van de Donk on Friday.
Meanwhile, van de Donk's wife and club teammate Ellie Carpenter is also potentially WSL-bound, with the defender reportedly nearing a deal that would see the Australian join Chelsea FC in return for the Blues sending Canadian international Ashley Lawrence to OL Lyonnes.
For their part, OL Lyonnes picked up defender Ingrid Engen from Barcelona as a free agent last week, adding the Norwegian international after snagging French forward and PSG's all-time leading scorer Marie-Antoinette Katoto earlier this month.
With the most recent NWSL CBA abolishing traditional trade windows, expect even more international signings and roster reshufflings before the league resumes play on August 1st.
The NWSL outlined new rules for expansion roster building and intra-league loans on Thursday, as two new franchises prepare to enter the league in 2026 without the benefit of an expansion draft.
"With the introduction of free agency and the elimination of the NWSL Draft and Expansion Draft, it was important for us to establish alternative player acquisition assets that support incoming teams while maintaining competitive balance across the league," said NWSL VP of player affairs Stephanie Lee in a league announcement.
Incoming clubs Boston Legacy FC and NWSL Denver will each have access to over $1 million in allocation funds to spend on players beginning on July 1st through the end of 2027.
Both teams can also sign players without being held to a salary cap until the secondary transfer window in 2025, providing players can be loaned out, put on Season Ending Injury designation, or acquired with allocation money used toward the salary cap.
Once the secondary transfer window opens this year, both Boston and Denver will have a $250,000 cap under which they can ink college athletes or international players not under contract.
In addition, the NWSL declared open season on intra-league loans on Thursday, allowing all teams to add athletes to their rosters from other league entities — provided both the player and the league approve the loan.
Each team can have no more than 12 players either in or out on loan at a time, and clubs can only bring in or send out a maximum of three athletes to/from any other single squad.
Overall, the NWSL intends these moves to bolster competition for both its current and future clubs.
"The introduction of intra-league loans — available to all teams — adds greater flexibility and opportunity for player development and strategic roster management league-wide," noted Lee.
With injuries mounting across the WNBA, several teams have started stocking up on recently waived free agents, bolstering their depleted rosters with hardship signings as they head into a busy stretch of the 2025 regular season.
With both guard Kahleah Copper and forward Alyssa Thomas sidelined, the Phoenix Mercury signed former Atlanta Dream guard and 2023 first-round draft pick Haley Jones to a rest-of-season hardship contract on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Fever picked up ex-LA Sparks guard and 2021 first-rounder Aari McDonald on Sunday, with Indiana looking to boost their backcourt depth in light of injuries to guards Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and Sydney Colson.
These hardship signings come in clutch to keep benches stocked and WNBA teams in action.
However, the longevity of these early-season additions remains uncertain as teams attempt to balance league-maximum 12-player lineups with restrictive salary caps.
Hardship contracts allow teams to temporarily expand the salary cap, but when injured players return, so do tough roster calls — much to the dismay of front office decision-makers.
"More bodies would be good," Fever president Kelly Krauskopf told reporters with a wry laugh ahead of McDonald's signing.
Roster limitations will likely be a key issue when CBA negotiations rev up, with this week's emergency signings only adding fuel to the fire.
The NWSL Players Association released their most recent collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to the public on Tuesday, offering up all of the contractual details and league rules governing compensation, player trades, and other deciding factors through 2030.
Ratified in August 2024, the CBA includes several previously announced and already implemented bold strokes like establishing league-wide unrestricted free agency and a pathway towards revenue sharing, as well as the abolishment of the draft.
Tuesday's unedited document takes contract transparency a step further, outlining additional details such as protections for player data, including usage and privacy rights, and regulations and compensation surrounding name, image, and likeness usage.
In a boost to athletes' paydays, the NWSL's minimum salary will grow from $48,500 to $82,500 (plus bonuses) by 2030 under the new CBA, though an additional clause dictates that a revenue surge could see those terms renegotiated before the contract’s end.
The agreement also codifies financial benefits for family-building and increases support for players with children, plus connects housing stipends to the actual costs of living in each NWSL market.
Notably, the new CBA also bolstered the league's mental health leave, a resource that's already assisting NWSL stars like Angel City's Sydney Leroux and Racing Louisville's Bethany Balcer.
UConn guard Azzi Fudd is again delaying her WNBA aspirations to return to the Huskies for the 2025/26 NCAA basketball season, the 22-year-old announced in a social media post on Tuesday — just one day after the No. 2-seed squad booked their Sweet 16 spot in this year's March Madness tournament.
In an interview with ESPN, Fudd explained that her decision to declare for the 2026 WNBA Draft and exhaust her NCAA eligibility will allow her to "work on everything I need to work on" before turning pro.
Fudd also noted that her choice became clear after UConn head coach Geno Auriemma told her that while he supports whatever decision she makes, she has yet to max out at the collegiate level.
"He [told me], 'I would say 10 games, maybe, you've played to your full potential of who Azzi Fudd really is,'" Fudd recounts. "'You wouldn't do yourself justice leaving. You would leave here not doing what you could in a UConn uniform.' I was like, 'Yeah, he has a point.'"
Already a standout, Fudd chases greatness
Entering the NCAA as the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2021, Fudd has been a highly-touted professional prospect for years, with the Husky originally expected to be chosen in the first round of next month's 2025 WNBA Draft.
However, Fudd's college career has been dampened by injury, with the talented shooter playing in just 72 games across her four years at UConn.
Making her competitive return in November after suffering an ACL and meniscus tear one year prior, Fudd hit her stride, earning a career-high 30 appearances for the Huskies this season — 26 of them as a starter.
A season-high 28-point performance in UConn's 87-58 February beatdown of defending national champs South Carolina further boosted Fudd's momentum, with the guard putting up a March Madness career-high 27 points in UConn's first-round victory over No. 15-seed Arkansas State on Saturday.
After adding another 17 points in the Huskies' second-round win over No. 10-seed South Dakota State on Monday, Fudd's 16.4 postseason points per game trails only iconic teammate Paige Bueckers' scoring rate on the UConn stat sheet.
It's those top-tier performances that Fudd will be chasing next season, hoping to add some lengthy consistency and confidence to her basketball resume.
"Having someone of Azzi's ability and the way she can just control a game, she just hasn't had an opportunity, at this point, to fully show who she is, what she can do, what impact she can have on our program and on college basketball," Auriemma told ESPN. "Can we get a full year out of that? I'm as excited as anybody, our fans, anybody to see what can happen."
Delaying WNBA debuts could result in higher rookie salaries
Though Fudd is adamant that her decision to play one more year in college is purely based in on-court considerations, there are also other major financial implications at play.
With the WNBPA currently negotiating a new CBA set to begin in the 2026 WNBA season, rookies who enter under those new terms will likely begin their professional careers at a higher salary than the $78,831 that this April's No. 1 draft pick will earn.
Even Auriemma acknowledged the potential financial benefits Fudd would reap by staying in Storrs.
"If [Fudd] stays one more year, she'll make more money next year when she goes into the draft because they have a new collective bargaining agreement coming up that should pay them more money than if she goes at the end of this year," Auriemma told reporters earlier this month.
Even more, an extra year at the NCAA level will allow Fudd to grow her already flush NIL portfolio, which includes deals with brands like Bose, Chipotle, Buick, and DoorDash.
With the business side of basketball booming, top college players are recognizing the long-term impacts of kicking off their pro careers with stacked athletic and brand-building resumes — and Fudd just bought herself another year to raise her WNBA and financial stock.
The NWSL dropped its updated 2025 Competition Manual on Tuesday, with the most significant changes impacting the upcoming season’s finances.
Each 22- to 26-player team’s salary cap has increased 20% from $2.75 million in 2024 to $3.3 million for the 2025 season. This does not include the league’s new revenue sharing system, which offers additional benefits to ultimately bring each club's total maximum roster spend to $3.5 million.
Salary cap exceptions will aid NWSL club accounts
With the newly negotiated CBA eliminating the waiver wire and trade windows as well as allowing all out-of-contract players to negotiate as free agents, teams can further supplement their salary cap with any remaining allocation money.
Additionally, to address absences due to injuries, mental health, parental leave, or national team call-ups, clubs can sign athletes to short-term roster relief or salary cap exempt contracts. So long as those deals extend no further than the end of the calendar year, teams will not have to account for those roster additions in their salary cap.
Bonuses will count toward a club's cap, though some will be delayed to a subsequent season.
Individual player performance bonuses will count toward the following season’s cap, regardless of whether or not the team retains that player. On the other hand, one-time boosts like signing bonuses are applicable to a club's current season salary cap.
Official tournament prize money as well as postseason and award bonuses funded directly by the NWSL will not count toward a team's salary cap.
Per the aforementioned new CBA, league-wide caps will continue to grow year-over-year to at least $5.1 million by 2030, with minimum base salaries rising from $48,500 in 2025 to $82,500 over that same timeframe.
In a global economy where record transfer fees and other benefits are luring top contenders away from the NWSL, salary caps will continue to constrain certain elements of the way US clubs do business — but the positive long-term changes ushered in by the NWSL CBA are sure to make their mark far beyond this offseason.
WNBA stars and two-time league champions Jewell Loyd and Kelsey Plum are on the move, with ESPN reporting Sunday that the Storm, Aces, and Sparks have finalized a huge three-team trade.
According to the report, Seattle is honoring Loyd's trade request by sending the six-time All-Star to Las Vegas. Plum is subsequently LA-bound on a one-year deal after the Aces cored her for a sign-and-trade.
The Aces also receive LA's No. 13 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft in the deal. Meanwhile, Seattle's No. 9 pick in 2025 plus their second-round pick in the 2026 draft now belong to the Sparks.
The Storm walk away with Sparks center Li Yueru, plus two massive draft selections. Seattle now owns valuable assets in the form of LA's No. 2 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft and Las Vegas' first-round pick in 2026.
However, should they hang onto their chips, Seattle now has a shot at righting a disappointing 2024 run by snagging a top NCAA select like No. 3 Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles or No. 4 USC forward Kiki Iriafen.
Loyd, Plum trade makes WNBA history
Though the news won't be official until the free agency signing window opens on February 1st, the deal is the first in WNBA history to include multiple No. 1 overall draft picks.
Top-picks Loyd (2015) and Plum (2017) have only played for the franchises that originally drafted them. Plum relocated to Las Vegas as part of the San Antonio team that originally selected her out of the University of Washington.
Plum has reportedly indicated her intention to remain with the Sparks past the 2025 season, despite inking a one-year contract.
While the terms of Loyd's agreement remain unclear, both athletes will likely become free agents in 2026. They'll join the majority of WNBA players in doing so, as athletes hope to take advantage of a new CBA that's expected to significantly impact salary caps and other contract stipulations.