On Oct. 21, 2024, WNBA players opted out of their collective bargaining agreement with the league, setting the stage for a labor fight that has dominated the sport since.
Now, 15 months later, Breanna Stewart told Front Office Sports that she is “just starting to see” a possible resolution to the talks.
The Liberty star and Unrivaled co-founder is also a vice president in the WNBA players’ union, which has been pushing for a bigger share of league revenue. Stewart told reporters earlier this month that while WNBA players have the ability to strike “in our back pocket,” no strike was imminent.
In a recent interview with FOS, Stewart said that she had told her wife that “my brain is hurting” from the range and complexity of the talks.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t an economics major or anything like that, but we’re trying to get the best deal possible and we want to negotiate in good faith with the league,” Stewart told FOS. “We’re hoping for some positive kind of change or reinforcement here.”
In December, the WNBA proposed a structure that offers players 70% of the league’s net revenue with a salary cap around $5 million. Later that month, the union sent the league a new CBA proposal that asks for 30% of its gross revenue and a salary cap of roughly $10.5 million.
The WNBA has yet to offer a counter to that proposal, but ESPN reported that the league believes the union’s proposal will result in $700 million in losses over the course of the deal.
The sides agreed to two extensions to the Oct. 31, 2025 deadline before a January deadline passed without a deal. The sides are now operating in a “status quo” period, meaning that much of the old CBA is still in effect but either side could initiate a work stoppage.
Asked if she could see a light at the end of the tunnel to the negotiations, Stewart said, “I feel like kind of. I’m just starting to see it.”
Last week in Berlin, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league hopes to launch a women’s league in Europe after it launches the men’s version it’s currently planning.
“We’d ultimately like to do a women’s league in Europe as well, if we can figure out the correct model,” Silver told reporters.
The WNBA has historically reported losses, but a lack of full transparency around the teams’ and league’s books have been a point of contention in labor talks. Stewart said she heard about Silver’s comments about a potential NBA-backed women’s European league for the first time when talking to FOS.
“I think that while that is exciting … we’re kind of a long way from that,” Stewart told FOS. “We have a lot of things to kind of figure out first—like the WNBA, and how we’re going to really figure out this formula where players are getting valued while also making sure the league is set up for success … Hopefully that’s a little bit later down the line once we get our affairs in order over here.”
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert reports to Silver, who has taken an optimistic tone about the labor talks. Silver said in December before the NBA Cup final that he would go to the bargaining table if needed.
“We’re available to do whatever is necessary to help get a deal done,” Silver said then. “I’m encouraged by the fact they extended the deadline once again into January. Presumably the sides wouldn’t have been willing to do that unless they thought there was a constructive path to getting a deal done.”
“I remain optimistic we’ll get something done,” he added later.
Stewie’s New Gig
Now Stewart is adding another job to her already-full plate: podcast host. Along with Bucks center Myles Turner, she is launching what iHeartPodcasts says is the first podcast to feature an active NBA and WNBA player.
Turner met Stewart through her college teammate Gabby Williams. The podcast is called “Game Recognize Game with Stewie and Myles,” and will be a weekly show that launches Jan. 28.
“I actually didn’t really want to do it at first because it was such a saturated market,” Turner told FOS. “I felt like everybody had their podcast or free form way of getting things out. And when the opportunity came to be with Breanna Stewart, that’s really what I thought was interesting because we could have something that was one-of-a-kind. There hasn’t been a NBA/WNBA crossover. Once they got Stewie involved, I was all in for it.”
Both Stewart and Turner said they expect their show to have a little bit of everything, from X’s and O’s, to pop culture, as well as their personal interests, which in Turner’s case includes Legos.
“Just being able to see the game through our eyes, our lens whether we’re breaking down what’s happening in the WNBA CBA right now or what he’s doing with the Bucks,” Stewart said. “You don’t see the podcasts with the breakdowns right after [games] so I want to do that with Myles.”
