There’s a lot to look forward to this upcoming WNBA season: Angel Reese’s sophomore campaign, the debut of the Golden State Valkyries, Paige Bueckers’ rookie season, a league bursting with momentum…there’s plenty to celebrate in the present. But there’s a shadow looming over 2025: the once-in-a-generation free agency storm coming in 2026.
In 2026, the WNBA won’t just be entering another typical offseason. It’ll be opening the floodgates to one of the most seismic player movement windows in the history of professional sports.
A staggering 21 of this year’s 24 All-Stars will be free agents. Let that settle in. Over 100 players across the league will hit the open market. No, that’s not a typo. This includes multiple-time MVPs A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart—two of the most decorated and transcendent talents the league has ever seen.
The only current All-Stars not eligible to join the frenzy? Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Aaliyah Boston—all still tethered to rookie deals. Bueckers, the No. 1 overall pick in this week’s WNBA Draft and a generational prospect in her own right, will also be watching from the sidelines as free agency reshapes the league around her. But she’ll be okay this time around; she just signed with Unrivaled for upwards of $350,000.
This tidal wave of talent hitting the market isn’t a coincidence. Indeed, it’s the calculated byproduct of the league’s evolving business model. The WNBA’s current collective bargaining agreement expires in October. That CBA created a contractual bottleneck of sorts, aligning the end dates of dozens of veteran contracts, all while limiting what teams could offer due to a tightly capped financial ecosystem. But change is on the horizon.
A new CBA is expected ahead of the 2026 season, and the whispers around the league are more like roars now: player salaries are poised to leap, the salary cap is likely to expand, and the recruiting battleground will shift around basic dollars and cents.
Teams will have to sell players on a vision. Who you are. What you represent. How you elevate athletes off the court as much as on it. The new economics of the W mean the talent will go where the culture fits—and where the future feels brightest.
The WNBA is in the midst of a popularity explosion. Ratings are up. Attendance is up. The Clark-Reese effect is real, but it’s also part of a larger momentum that’s been building over the past half-decade. Fans are more engaged, more invested, and more hungry than ever for the drama and stakes that only a robust free agency period can offer.
Next season, the WNBA begins a groundbreaking $2 billion media-rights deal, an 11-year agreement that’s expected to triple the league’s current annual revenue from media partners. The new deal ushers in a financial era the league has never seen—an era in which seven-figure salaries for superstars could become reality.
All this at the same time that new landing spots are forming. The Golden State Valkyries, set to debut this season, are bringing WNBA basketball to the Bay with the full might of the Warriors’ infrastructure behind them. And in 2026, the Toronto Tempo will join the fray, giving the league its first international team and unlocking an entirely new market.
There’s no overstating it: 2026 will be a flashpoint. A moment when the WNBA won’t be able to take any incremental evolutionary steps, but will be forced into a major league-wide transformation. A moment where players, finally, will have the leverage their talent deserves and the financial upside to match it. Where teams will be forced to think bigger, act bolder, and recruit like never before.
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