US tennis star Coco Gauff continues to win off the court, with the 2025 French Open champion topping Sportico's list of the 15 Highest-Paid Female Athletes for the third consecutive year.
Fueled by $23 million in off-court endorsements, the $31 million earned by the 21-year-old world No. 3 WTA player edged out the $30 million total income that fellow tennis star and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka garnered in 2025.
Unsurprisingly, a full 10 athletes on the Sportico Top 15 list are tennis stars, a direct result of the fact that all four Grand Slams and the Masters 1000 tournaments boast equal prize money between the men's and women's competitions — a shift that began with the 1973 US Open.
That established expectation of gender equity in prize money has tennis far outpacing salaries in most other women's sports.
Also making the Top 15 are two LPGA golfers — world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul (No. 15 on the Highest-Paid Female Athletes list) and US star No. 2 Nelly Korda (No. 7) — as well as popular Olympic skiier Eileen Gu (No. 4), WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark (No. 6), and USA gymnastics legend Simone Biles (No. 11).
Notably, Gu, Clark, and Biles as well as Venus Williams (No. 14) all proved the power of endorsements on this year's list, with nearly all of the quartet's earnings coming from sponsorship deals.
As WNBA CBA negotiations rage on, revenue sharing continues to be a wedge issue for both sides of the table, with the league office and the WNBPA eyeing the terms of the most recent proposal from differing viewpoints.
The Athletic reported on Wednesday that the WNBA believes it has offered the revenue-sharing salary model that the players have pushed for throughout the CBA talks, leaving athletes to claim 50% of the "sharable" portion of league revenue.
How the WNBA will determine the "sharable" cut is uncertain, though sources claim the compensation structure on offer will result in players taking home less than 15% of the league's total earnings.
That percentage is likely to take a further hit over the lifetime of a new CBA, according to the league's multi-year earning projections.
"I don't feel like there's any cultivation of a culture of trust [in the CBA talks]," WNBPA president and Seattle Storm star Nneka Ogwumike told The Athletic. "I feel like we've been heard, but not listened to, and I'm hoping that that changes in this 40-day extension, because what we want to do is get a good deal done."
Parental leave, draft combine, and more enters the WNBA CBA talks
Along with the issue of revenue sharing, the latest WNBA offer also reportedly outlined other proposals, such as the institution of a required offseason draft combine, the elimination of team housing, and the possible extension of the competition calendar by starting earlier and/or finishing the season later.
As for the WNBPA's Tuesday counteroffer, the players union is seeking to eliminate the core designation and shorten the current four-year rookie contract to three years.
The WNBPA is also asking to add non-birthing parental leave, retirement benefits, and reimbursements for mental healthcare.
The WNBA and WNBPA will meet again to negotiate sometime this week, with talks racing toward the second-extension deadline of January 9th, 2026.
The Washington Spirit's quest to retain their biggest star has hit another snag, as multiple reports on Wednesday revealed that NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman vetoed a proposed multi-million dollar deal to keep USWNT standout Trinity Rodman in the top-flight domestic league.
Per The Athletic, the offer included a four-year scaling contract that would see Rodman's compensation increase in the deal's final two years, with Washington banking on a new NWSL media rights contract in 2028 to help with the 23-year-old free agent's salary bump.
Rodman was reportedly on board to accept the offer, which averaged over $1 million per year, but according to Bloomberg, Berman blocked the deal due to its structure violating "the spirit of the rules."
Per the current NWSL CBA, there is no maximum salary for any individual player, and the competition manual does not ban year-to-year contractual salary increases so long as they do not exceed the team's salary cap — a figure that is currently on track to grow to $5.1 million by 2030.
As such, the NWSLPA has filed a grievance on Rodman's behalf, asserting that the vetoed contract offer does not violate any standing league rules.
Amid the ongoing negotiations to retain Rodman, the Spirit have also shored up their front office, hiring of former Orlando Pride sporting director Haley Carter as Washington's new president of soccer operations on Wednesday.
One of Carter's first goals is to re-sign Rodman.
"Trinity should be a cornerstone of what we're building in Washington," Carter told The Athletic. "We're committed, from a talent retention standpoint, from a league standpoint, to making that happen. It's just a matter of working with the league to see what the potential solutions are."
US Soccer officially launched the Kang Women's Institute on Tuesday, creating a new platform dedicated to "advancing health, performance, and development for women and girls across the sport" funded by $55 million from multi-team owner Michele Kang.
"For far too long, women and girls have trained under systems and standards built for men, and the Kang Women's Institute is an essential first step in changing that," US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said in a federation statement. "By grounding our work in real research and evidence, we can finally give female players the support, care, and understanding they deserve.
"This is the beginning of a much larger effort, and Michele has helped us take a huge leap forward in reshaping the future of the women's game for generations to come."
After adding a $25 million investment last April to her original $30 million pledge to US Soccer in 2024, Kang is going all in on addressing the stark lack of sports medicine and exercise science research into women athletes — and female physiology at-large.
"This Institute will put female athletes at the center of US Soccer's scientific research and build the evidence, systems, and standards that will allow women and girls to reach their full potential," promised Kang.
The Institute also outlined its early initiatives in Tuesday's press release, with injury prevention and workload management, developmental best practices, and physical and mental player well-being headlining the projects.
"This is not just about closing a research gap," said Kang. "It's about creating a future where every player has the knowledge, care, and opportunity to thrive."
The PWHL is rapidly looking to ramp up expansion, with EVP of business operations Amy Scheer saying this week that the third-year pro hockey league could welcome "two to four" new teams as soon as next year.
"If I was a betting woman, I'd say it'd be four teams. And then I think we'll hold at 12 for a bit," she told CNBC Sport, noting the league's immediate success with 2025/26 expansion sides the Vancouver Goldeneyes and the Seattle Torrent — the latter of which shattered the US women's hockey attendance record in their Friday home opener.
Accordingly, the PWHL will continue testing possible new markets using the league's historically packed Takeover Tour, with this season's 11-city route expanding to feature seven new host venues.
"What does the support of women's sports look like there?" Scheer said, outlining the league's criteria for assessing potential markets. "If there's an NHL team, what does that look like? Or from the building, is there government support there? How does it impact travel? So there's a lot of factors."
As for the league's notably speedy expansion pace, Scheer told Front Office Sports that the PWHL has "proven that time is overrated."
"The more our numbers grow, the more value we have as a league, the more value we have against our partnerships we sell, the more merchandise we sell," Scheer explained. "Those two things — growth and profitability — are not separate."
Women's sports stars stepped into the business spotlight this week, as standout athletes like 2025 French Open champ Coco Gauff, current WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers, and USWNT star Trinity Rodman landed on the 2026 edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30 List.
Texas Tech pitcher NiJaree Canady, Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston, and Olympic rock climber Brooke Raboutou also made the cut for the US, with Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier named as one of the list's All-Star Alumni.
"Even though I love winning, it took me a while to realize that your life is still going to be your life regardless if you win or lose, and at that point you play freer," Gauff told the publication.
Designed to honor rising talents leading transformative change across business, culture, and entrepreneurship, the featured athletes on the 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 list are making waves both on and off the field of play.
At 21 years old, Gauff is climbing the WTA's career prize money rankings while also topping Sportico's highest-paid women's sports athletes list, with fellow 30 Under 30s like 23-year-old Boston are investing in NWSL expansion teams.
Elsewhere, 22-year-old Canady signed two consecutive million-dollar NIL deals with Texas Tech, 24-year-old Bueckers has a stake in offseason venture Unrivaled, and 23-year-old Rodman teamed up with Adidas while also negotiating a new playing contract as a free agent.
The WNBA and WNBPA agreed to a second CBA extension late Sunday night, officially pushing the contract's deadline to January 9th, 2026, to allow for 40 more days of negotiations.
Like the original CBA extension from October 31st to December 1st, either the WNBA or WNBPA now has the option to terminate the agreement with 48 hours of notice.
"We expect substantive movement from the league within this window," the players union told Front Office Sports, while the WNBA issued a statement saying both parties are "continuing to work toward a new agreement."
While total annual compensation offers have reportedly crossed the million-dollar mark for players earning the league's maximum, the WNBA's salary model — particularly in regards to revenue sharing — remains a core issue.
According to sources, the WNBA's proposal offers players a revenue-sharing option only after reaching certain minimums, while the WNBPA continues to advocate for a bigger cut of the exponentially growing league.
The players union is also reportedly advocating for a salary cap that increases with the league's income, rather than at an arbitrarily fixed growth rate.
With important offseason processes like the planned two-team expansion draft to stock incoming 2026 WNBA franchises the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo now delayed until a new CBA is in place, the pressure is approaching new highs on both sides of the negotiating table.
The 2025 NWSL Championship claimed a major viewership milestone on Saturday, as Gotham FC's 1-0 title win over the Washington Spirit became the first-ever league match to record an average of more than one million viewers.
The CBS evening broadcast averaged an impressive 1.184 million fans and peaked at 1.55 million viewers, making it the most-watched NWSL match of all time.
The 2025 final marked a 22% viewership increase over the 967,900 fans who watched 2024's Orlando Pride victory — the previous NWSL viewership record-holder — and a 45% ratings gain over Gotham's 2023 championship win, which averaged 816,800 viewers.
Saturday's gains both matched the 22% viewership increase the NWSL regular season saw this year and also far exceeded the 2025 postseason's pre-final year-over-year increase of 5%.
Calling the one-million viewer mark "an extraordinary achievement" in Tuesday's league statement, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman also noted that the "record-setting audience demonstrates the deepening connection fans have with our players, our clubs, and the world-class competition on the field, and it underscores the growing demand for women's soccer on the biggest stages."
"We're incredibly proud of what this moment represents for the NWSL and for everyone who continues to invest in and believe in the future of our game," Berman added.
Despite a slight dip in attendance, the NWSL has continued to see steady gains from its TV audience this year, posting a league-wide 22% viewership growth during the 2025 regular season.
Prior to last Saturday's title game, the NWSL reported that postseason viewership had risen 5% from the 2024 Playoffs, when the Orlando Pride completed a league-double Shield and championship win.
Even more, ABC and ESPN platforms saw their largest percentage hike for NWSL regular-season matches in history, with the audience growing an impressive 61% year-over-year — though CBS still touts the league's highest viewership average at 479,000 fans tuning in per 2025 match.
Three of ABC/ESPN's top matchups featured the Washington Spirit, with the Portland Thorns also making two appearances in the Top-5 most-watched games of the 2025 season on the platform.
Additionally, CBS's 2025 semifinal between Washington and Portland drew 548,000 viewers while the other NWSL semifinal between Orlando and reigning champs Gotham FC averaged 328,000 viewers on ABC.
Broadcast partner ION, which carries the most linear games each NWSL season, also claimed a 5% increase in overall viewership from 2024.
Ultimately, the NWSL remains competitive with other North American soccer leagues in finding an audience on TV, with the league now aiming to retain its star power in order to encourage even more growth.
Founding WNBA franchise Phoenix will have a new look entering the 2026 season, as the Mercury announced its first-ever rebrand on Monday to celebrate the team's upcoming 30th anniversary campaign.
"The new branding represents the Mercury's championship legacy, devoted fanbase, and the new era that began with a record-breaking season and memorable [2025] Finals run," said Phoenix CEO Josh Bartelstein in a statement.
In honor of the franchise's 1997 inaugural season, the new primary Phoenix logo positions the Mercury "M" at an angle of 19.97 degrees, while the team's redesigned global logo centers the primary emblem on top of four rings — mirroring the planetary rings on the Mercury's original design.
The team is also debuting a first-ever secondary logo, featuring the outline of the state of Arizona with the seams of a basketball, while also officially introducing the popular "Merc" nickname into the WNBA squad's branding lexicon.
In celebration of the rebrand, Phoenix is currently running a first-of-its-kind community giveback called the Merc Merch Swap, in which fans can trade old team merchandise — which will be donated to Goodwill — for a newly branded Mercury T-shirt.
How to purchase or swap for new Phoenix Mercury merch
To take part in the Merc Merch Swap, fans can bring any Phoenix, WNBA, or WNBA team item to the Mercury Team Shop at Mortgage Matchup Center to swap for a new logo T-shirt as well as a single-item 20% voucher through through Friday, December 5th.
Phoenix's rebranded items are also now available for purchase at the team's online shop.