The recently announced CBA deal has gotten praise from the likes of Diana Taurasi. With the players’ union holding more than one physical meeting with the authorities, they agreed upon some stellar clauses. While the WNBA revenue share was agreed upon at 20%, the salary jumps, too, were significant.
Currently, the salary cap for the players in the new season is $7 million. Along with that, the average salary also hits $600k, with a supermax contract reaching $1.4 million. Following such encouraging numbers, personalities like Dawn Staley have poured in their encouragement for the players. Ironically, this same contract might soon become a headache for the 2024 champions, the New York Liberty.
New York Liberty Struggling With The Supermax Numbers
The Liberty is looking all set for the new season. Only recently, the franchise joined hands with Alipay+. But when it comes to retaining their team’s core, the front office might be in for some real headaches.
Previously, with the league facing lockout scares, Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb seemed quite confident. He assured fans that the New York Liberty will retain their ‘Big 3’: Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, and Sabrina Ionescu.
Unfortunately, with the new deal offering some huge numbers, the promised path is suddenly looking complicated. As a matter of fact, all three athletes are eligible for a supermax salary contract. Now then, historically, the WNBA always had a strained salary cap for the teams.
And one of the least talked about problems that the new contract has is the supermax clause. Compared to the overall salary cap, the supermax numbers have gone up significantly. Thus, for teams like New York, accommodating three players with a $1.4 million salary might be a bit of an issue.
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Following such a dilemma, the teams would want to work around an alternative to make things work. They also need to be pretty tactful in how they are spending their dollars.
Is There An Alternative To How New York Liberty Can Keep Their Big 3?
While the road definitely looks complicated, it is not impossible. One thing that the team can opt to do is offer the likes of Stewart and Jones a long-term contract. In fact, there has been some news about some top names seeking stability through multi-year contracts.
Previously, the supermax comprised roughly 16.5% of a team’s overall spending ability. But with the new numbers being amped up recently, a total of 20% of the salary cap has to be kept aside. Add to that the new league rules. Each team should now have 12 players in their roster. And this does not include the two developmental players. Thus, the Liberty front office will surely have some maths to do before the new season gets underway.
How Much Of A Hit Will The New York Liberty Take?
Going by the numbers, Stewart had a $208,400 contract last year. This figure alone was almost 13.8% of the total salary cap. Presuming that the star player gets an identical raise, she will be eligible to earn $967,951. Ideally, this looks like quite a deal. But there’s a big problem with it.
In 2025, Stewart’s contract was $40,844 less than the supermax. However, going by the same percentage would mean that the star player will be down by $432,049 from the supermax numbers.
Now, such a scenario will not justify the star power of Stewart. Having led the team to a championship run back in 2024, the 31-year-old also impressed last year. Thus, she must be getting a million-dollar contract. But so are the other two.
And providing three of the stars with a million-dollar will snap out almost 43% of the team’s salary cap. Surely, this looks like a huge problem. However, there is still a silver lining. Considering the fact that Leonie Fiebich is just a couple of years into her rookie contract, the team might agree to spend 55 to 60% of their total budget for their starting five.
Thus, with things looking complicated, fans will be eager to see how New York combats the problem.