INDIANAPOLIS — From Thursday’s parade of glamorously attired players strolling the Orange Carpet to a madcap 72-hour Twitch livestream hosted by Minnesota Lynx teammates Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, the self-proclaimed “Stud Budz,” the WNBA enjoyed a weekend to remember.

On Friday night, New York’s Sabrina Ionescu reclaimed the Three-Point Contest crown with a near-historic shooting performance while Liberty teammate Natasha Cloud ran away with the Skills Challenge trophy.

Even though the league’s most popular player Caitlin Clark was sidelined with a groin injury, the 21st All-Star Game on Saturday and the assortment of celebrity-laden festivities delivered a treasure trove of social media viral moments for fans to digest long after the parties leave Indianapolis.

And yet, the most significant event occurred behind closed doors when 40 WNBA players sat down with two WNBA owners and commissioner Cathy Engelbert for a two-hour meeting to decide the league’s future on Thursday.

“My proudest moment was the CBA meeting for sure, and the representation of the players there — All-Stars (and) not All-Stars,” Storm guard Skylar Diggins said. “Every team was represented. It was great to see the players be unified. In my 13 years in the league, that was the most players I’ve ever seen represented in the CBA meeting.

“And so, I thought that was extremely important to see.”

The largest in-person player turnout in Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) history was a sight to see, but according to many in attendance, it was also a “wasted opportunity.”

The players’ frustration stems from what they believe was a slow response from the league on a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) proposal given to owners in February, and a subsequent counterproposal that players felt was disrespectful.

“The meeting was good for the fact that we could be in the same room as the league and the board of governors and that type of thing, but I think, to be frank, it was a wasted opportunity,” Liberty and former Storm forward Breanna Stewart said. “We could have really gotten into a deeper dive of everything, but there was a lot of fluff that we couldn’t get past, and it sucks because situations like that aren’t going to happen again because players are playing for different teams and different leagues and this is the only time to have a group together like this.”

Meanwhile, Engelbert told The Associated Press: “It was very constructive dialogue. I think, you know, obviously part of the process is to go back and forth and listen to the players, they listen to us and the owners who represent the board of governors. I still feel really optimistic that we can get something transformational done by the end. But it’s a process.”

The WNBA players began this process last October when they opted out of the current CBA, which now expires on Oct. 31. If a new deal isn’t in place before then, the league will undergo its first work stoppage since it started in 1997.

“If a lockout is what it comes to, I think we’re prepared for that,” said Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas who described the league’s CBA proposal as a “slap in the face.”

Several issues separate the two sides, including prioritization.

“It’s very clear they want to remove all these other leagues,” Storm forward Gabby Williams said in reference to the new 3×3 league Unrivaled, Athletes Unlimited and international leagues. “Maybe not remove them, but keep us far from them without paying us more than these leagues pay us.

“I just think there’s a little bit of delusion in the W.”

Williams, who plays with Turkish basketball club Fenerbahçe, and the Mercury’s Satou Sabally have been outspoken critics of the WNBA’s expansion of the season to 44 games and its insistence that players arrive for the start of training camp.

Still, as Stewart put it, “we’ve exchanged ideas about certain things, but we’re not even talking the same language” when the topic shifts to player salaries and revenue sharing.

By most accounts, the league is willing to improve the economic model from the current CBA that was ratified in 2020 while players are pushing for a “transformational” financial structure.

“We want a piece of the entire pie, not a piece of part of the pie,” Los Angeles Sparks and former Washington Huskies star Kelsey Plum said. “So, right now that’s probably the hardest part. We’re a very resilient group. This group flipped an election. We know the unity it takes to come out with the outcome desired.”

In 2020, WNBA players embraced the Black Lives Matter movement after Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were killed by police and later that year supported Raphael Warnock, who beat Dream owner Kelly Loeffler in Georgia’s election for a U.S. Senate seat.

During its existence, the WNBA has been closely tied to social activism and players are bringing that same energy to the bargaining table.

“Cathy has an opportunity to make a transformational decision not just for our league, but for women in the workforce,” Plum said. “It’s a symbol and that matters, right? It’s profound. You start a whole tsunami wave. This is historic.”

Compared to their NBA counterparts, who receive about 50% of the league’s revenue or “basketball-related income,” WNBA players receive 25% of revenue sharing profits if the league reaches its “cumulative revenue target” in the current CBA.

“Just in the past few years, we’ve seen tremendous growth in attendance, media rights (deal), TV and social media ratings, expansion fees, team valuations and ticket sales,” said Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike, who has been the WNBA players union president since 2016.

“So, the owners are making money and that’s great. And there’s no cap on any of that. So, why is there a cap on player salaries?”

Thanks in large part to Clark’s enormous appeal, TV ratings for WNBA games have surged since she entered the league last year. In 2026, the league begins an 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC that’ll bring in about $200 million per season.

Next year, the WNBA welcomes expansion teams in Portland and Toronto, each of whom paid $50 million to join the league. And between 2028 and 2030, the WNBA is adding teams in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, which collectively paid $750 million in expansion fees.

Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell is the league’s highest paid player at $249,244, according to Her Hoop Stats, and industry analysts believe the WNBA could be handing out million-dollar salaries next season.

Still, it must be noted that the WNBA reportedly lost $40 million last year, and WNBA teams own 42% of the league while the NBA owns 42% and the other 16% is owned by investors.

“I’ve been in the league a long time and the time that we’re in right now is a natural evolution of a professional sports league,” said Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve who led Team Collier at the All-Star Game. “The league has been around for so long so these young players are growing up at a different time and they’re understanding their worth in ways that we couldn’t early on. We might have believed in ourselves, but we didn’t have what exists today.

“Someone like Nneka has been around a long time and she’s been a part of negotiations and she understood maybe where they fell short before, maybe not necessarily where they weren’t valuing themselves but a different emphasis. There’s just so much more at stake financially. They’re going to work harder to get what they think they’re worth.”

The clock is ticking, and the deadline is just 3 2/3 months away.

And despite viral images of Engelbert dancing with Williams and Hiedeman at an All-Star party, angst among WNBA players is escalating.

“We all want this to be better, including the league, including the front offices and including Cathy, so it is going to be a collaborative effort moving forward,” Cloud said. “But with that being said, we’re not on the same team when it comes to negotiating the CBA.

“We’re not going to be holding hands through the CBA (negotiation). We’re fighting for what we’re due, what we’re worth and our value. And they’re going to be fighting for what they think protects the business. And our job is to find the common ground, but that doesn’t mean we keep taking the crumbs of the pie.”

© 2025 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.