INDIANAPOLIS -- WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Saturday she's optimistic the league and players will agree to a new collective bargaining agreement that features a "much more lucrative" revenue-sharing model.
The ongoing CBA negotiations have been a massive topic during All-Star festivities here this week. More than 40 players attended a meeting between the union and the league Thursday, with some later describing it as a wasted opportunity to progress talks ahead of the CBA's impending expiration at the end of October.
Two-time MVP Breanna Stewart said Friday that revenue sharing is an area where the players and the league are not seeing eye to eye, and shortly after Engelbert's remarks Saturday, players wore warmup T-shirts ahead of the All-Star Game that read "Pay Us What You Owe Us."
Engelbert said the league is talking about different ways to revenue share and that the WNBA is in a much difference place now than when it determined its current model, when the last CBA was adopted in early 2020.
"We want the same things as the players want," Engelbert said. "We want to significantly increase their salary and benefits while balancing with our owners their ability to have a path to profitability as well as continued investment. You see tens of millions of dollars being invested in practice facilities and other player experience by teams. And we want to strike the right balance between those two so that can continue, because that's helped our hypergrowth. It's helped our free agency. It's helped our players play in places where they're getting a great player experience.
"So that's going to continue, I think, no matter what we do here, but it's a balance between those two. But there is a proposal on both sides around revenue sharing."
WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike, however, said that league's current proposal isn't what players are hoping for.
"Based on what we saw and based on what we're proposing, it's two fundamentally different systems, and one that leans more towards a fixed percentage is what the league is responding to us with," she said. "And we want to have a better share where our salaries grow with the business, and not just a fixed percentage over time."
Engelbert called Thursday's negotiations between the league and the players union "constructive" and reiterated her confidence that both sides can come to a "transformational" agreement.
"I appreciated how many players came to the meeting. I thought that was great," Engelbert said. "Communication is important, and having that meeting, being at the table, was important with that scale of players. .... I really respect the players listening. They're listening to our owners, and we're kind of in the middle as the league, trying to make sure we're setting this league up for success for decades. And that's the goal, to have a fair CBA for all."
Engelbert touched on several other topics:
• The league still is working through rules for a two-team expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, its 14th and 15th teams that are set to begin play in 2026. Engelbert said those rules will be collectively bargained, and that the hope is to have the CBA finished, then hold the expansion draft and free agency in that order.
• Engelbert said the league hears the concerns across the WNBA over inconsistent, and in some cases poor, officiating and said that "it's something we need to continue to work on. And as our game has evolved, so does our officiating. So we're on it. ... All sports deal with it, but we're working hard to make sure we're putting the best product out on the court and our officiating then follows that."
• The league is exploring what the season footprint should be moving forward, taking into consideration the league's "hypergrowth," expansion and the importance of international competitions, primarily the Olympics and FIBA World Cup, that it wants to support. Because of the World Cup next September, the 2026 season likely will leak into early November, but generally Engelbert expects each season to end around mid-October.
• Despite the high-profile injuries this season, including to Caitlin Clark, Engelbert insists the league's data shows there have been no significant increase in injuries through the same number of games as last year.
• The league is looking at different ideas and formats for future All-Star Games, particularly to make Friday's events -- currently the skills challenge and 3-point contest -- more robust.