WNBA outlook promising, but challenges ahead – Winston-Salem Journal

Soon after the confetti stopped falling on the sold-out Barclays Center crowd following Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, the league and its players turned their attention to 2025.

Less than 24 hours after Sunday night’s game and days before the Liberty’s championship parade on Thursday, the players’ union walked away from the current collective bargaining agreement. The settlement was expected with a new 11-year media rights deal worth roughly $200 million a year starting in 2026. The players are seeking a bigger share of the revenue, among other things, including pensions and higher salaries.

The current CBA will still be in effect next season, but both sides would like to see a deal done sooner rather than later.

Negotiations are always intense, but people connected to the WNBA have a lot to be excited about.

The league is expanding and will increase the number of regular season games to 44. The WNBA will hold the Golden State Expansion Draft in December. The Valkyries will be the 13th franchise in the league. The league will add franchises in Toronto and Portland in 2026, with at least one other team starting in 2027 or 2028.

Although the WNBA could lose one of its iconic stars if Diana Taurasi announces her retirement, league officials are looking forward to another long-awaited project. The draft lottery is next month. That will determine who gets the first pick and potentially Paige Bukers, who 21 years after Taurasi could become the next UConn guard selected No. 1.

Many of the league’s top players will remain in the US this winter and play in January in Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league started by WNBA Finals standouts Breanna Stewart and Nafisa Collier.

The championship battle between Stewart and Collier produced strong ratings, with all five games drawing more than a million television viewers. The decisive Game 5 drew an average of 2.2 million viewers, peaking at 3.3 million, making it the WNBA’s most-watched game in 25 years.

The league as a whole had its most-watched regular season in 24 years and best attendance in 22 seasons. During the 40-game regular season, 22 telecasts topped at least a million viewers on multiple networks.

The league’s rookie class, led by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, was a big part of that success – and they should all come back stronger and better next year.

“When Caitlin Clark announced she was going to enter the draft, I remember … the wave of enthusiasm that came from a player who wasn’t even going to play for the Lynx,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “So there was a lot of excitement and momentum for the WNBA. But let’s see how it actually translates from a business standpoint to the league, whatever the reasons. There’s one really big reason and lots of other little reasons why. And I think the movement we’re in now is exciting.”

Not everything has been positive about the league’s growth.

Nearly half of the WNBA’s franchises have fired coaches in the past month. Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Washington are looking for new leaders on the sidelines. All of the coaches who were let go had three years or less with their teams.

Off the court, players say they have been the target of increasing online racial and homophobic threats, including one directed at Stewart and her wife during the WNBA Finals.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed the growing number of offensive comments players have faced on social media in her state of the league address ahead of the start of the WNBA Finals. She said the league will work with the players’ union to figure out what they can do together to combat it.

Online abuse and the CBA are two of the offseason issues the WNBA and its players have to deal with, but they have perhaps the strongest foundation since the league’s inception to build on.