The WNBA CBA Negotiations and What it means for the Toronto Tempo

In the world of women’s sports, all eyes are currently on the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), the union for WNBA players, opted out of the collective bargaining agreement in October of last year. A collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in the context of sports refers to a contract between the players’ union and the professional sports league, outlining the terms and conditions of employment for all players in that league. The opt out last year meant that the current CBA would expire at the end of the 2025 WNBA season. What this means is that a new CBA would have to be negotiated before the 2026 WNBA season starts.

The WNBA announced last year that Canada would get its first-ever WNBA team, known as the Toronto Tempo. The Tempo will start its first WNBA season in 2026, but the current CBA negotiations can drastically impact the Tempo’s first season. There are three important ways the current CBA negotiations can affect the Toronto Tempo:

1. The Expansion Draft

The Toronto Tempo must undergo what is called an “expansion draft” to build a team for the upcoming WNBA season. The new rules surrounding the expansion draft must be negotiated when drafting a new CBA, which means the new rules could hinder the Tempo or benefit the Tempo. An expansion draft refers to the process where the expansion team, in this case the Tempo, acquires player contracts from other WNBA teams. The current CBA outlines the guidelines for an expansion draft in Article XXXIII, Section 2.

If an expansion draft still sounds confusing, consider the following example: Nexus Law School is a new law school in Ontario, and they need to hire professors to teach at Nexus. The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) created an expansion draft, which permits Nexus to freely take two professors from each Ontario law school, including Queen’s, Western, Osgoode, UofT, Windsor, Lakehead, and Lincoln Alexander. Using our law school example to demonstrate the expansion draft, imagine there is a rule where each law school can “protect” five of their professors from Nexus, ensuring that law schools can protect their best five professors. A rule like that hinders Nexus because it restricts the quality of professors they can obtain from other law schools. But if the rule was such that each law school can only protect two of their professors, that benefits Nexus much more because there are more options for obtainable professors.

Similarly, rule changes can affect the quality of players that the Tempo can select, and the quality of the players can affect the performance in the upcoming season. Therefore, the expansion draft rules in the next CBA are vital for the Tempo.

2. Player Salaries and Team Salary Cap

Player salaries are almost certainly expected to significantly increase from the current CBA salary levels, which may benefit the Toronto Tempo, assuming the Tempo is willing to spend. Similar to the other professional sports leagues, not all owners spend equally. Some owners are high spenders, which usually leads to better performing teams, whereas other owners are low spenders, which usually leads to weaker performing teams.

According to Article V, Section 7 of the current CBA, a WNBA rookie cannot earn less than $64,154 in the 2024 season. The highest possible salary a WNBA player could earn in 2024 was $241,984. According to ESPN on November 18th, 2025, the WNBA proposed a maximum salary of more than $1.1 million, and a minimum salary of more than $220,000, with the average salary being more than $460,000. Consequently, if player salaries rise, the salary cap must rise. Article VII, Section 1 of the current CBA states that the salary cap in 2024 is $1,463,200. While there is no proposed salary cap mentioned as of this writing, the salary cap will likely increase by a significant amount as well.

The higher the salary cap, the more likely that owners will vary in terms of how they spend. In Article VII, Section 1, the current CBA demands that the minimum team salary (called a floor) is $1,224,630. With a likely increase in the salary cap, there will be a likely increase in the floor. More likely than not, we will see more teams be closer to the floor because the cost to maintain a WNBA team will rise. Some owners, like Joe Tsai of the New York Liberty, will be unaffected because of their vast wealth, but owners like the Mohegan Tribe of the Connecticut Sun will struggle more, given how close they are to the floor already.

With an increased obligation to spend, the Tempo can put themselves ahead of other teams by presenting themselves as a team that is willing to spend, which makes the team an attractive destination for WNBA free agents. To expect the Tempo to spend a lot in their first year is premature, but as the team continues to grow, the salary cap situation may provide the Tempo with the opportunity to flex their financial muscle over less wealthy teams in the future.

3. The season starts on time

A delayed start to the season might damage the momentum and excitement for the WNBA, and specifically, the Toronto Tempo. If there is no agreement reached on a new CBA, the 2026 WNBA season cannot start. If the 2026 WNBA season does not start, the Toronto Tempo cannot make its inaugural WNBA debut. If the season begins later in the year, that delayed start affects numerous things. For example, broadcasters typically plan ahead of time what sports to televise and when, and each sport tries to play at different times to avoid conflicting with each other whenever they can. That way, fans can watch a Raptors game and then tune into a Maple Leafs game. However, if the WNBA is delayed, that affects the number of viewers watching WNBA games, which affects revenue for teams and the league overall.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the most-watched sporting event in the world, starts on June 11th, 2026. The last five years indicate that the WNBA season begins in May. If the season is delayed for a month, the WNBA faces a major problem because its season debut will have drastically lower numbers due to the World Cup.

What are your thoughts on the current CBA negotiations? Leave a comment down below!