The WNBA’s labor talks have stretched into their final hours before the looming CBA’s Friday deadline, with both sides digging in on pay and revenue splits.
Players point to record crowds and a $2.2 billion media deal as proof they deserve a bigger cut, while the league pushes for raises that won’t risk its bottom line.
As free agency and next season’s draft hang in the balance, voices from inside the game are weighing in on what’s next. Chiney Ogwumike, who traded her Sparks jersey for an ESPN mic after eight WNBA seasons, sees a path to peace.
Chiney Ogwumike Points To Key Reason That Could Bar WNBA Lockout
In case someone isn’t following the entire saga, a lot has happened this past week. After both parties kept reeling over their side of the story, WNBPA legal advisor Erin D. Drake dropped a bombshell on the CBA deadline.
Now, Ogwumike believes the shared drive to play keeps a shutdown off the table, even if talks spill past the buzzer. She laid it out plain during a Bloomberg interview on Wednesday.
According to the WNBA star turned analyst, “One thing I do know for sure is that everyone wants to keep the product on the floor.”
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ESPN’s Vibe Check hosts, including former LA Sparks forward Chiney Ogwumike, tell Bloomberg why a WNBA lockout looks unlikely – and why the league can’t risk losing momentum during one of the biggest moments in women’s sports
— JacintoDiaz (@JacintoDiazPaez) October 30, 2025
She’s not wrong, though. Ogwumike thinks that “right now, it’s crunch time and hopefully all parties — which I believe they are — are working toward reconciliation and moving forward because this is the momentum that women’s sports have been dreaming of.”
Although she has repeated the same thing since the opt-out last fall, earlier, she told ESPN no one is rooting for history’s first WNBA work stoppage. At stake is a season that could draw even bigger numbers, with attendance up 34% this year to over 3 million fans and viewership hitting records.
WNBA-CBA Negotiation Heading To Nowhere
That hope for continuity now rests on a 30-day lifeline the league tossed Tuesday. Sources told ESPN the WNBA proposed pushing the deadline to November 30, a move Engelbert floated during the Finals as a way to “get a deal done” without drama.
It mirrors the 60-day extension that sealed the 2020 pact after its own deadline slip. Without it, the CBA expires Friday, flipping to a “status quo” hold where either side could call a strike or lockout at any time.
Players aren’t sold yet. A union source called the offer open to review “under the right circumstances,” but those aren’t in place three days out.