Breanna Stewart will start her ninth WNBA season in a few days. The New York Liberty All-Star and WNBA champ has been around the league long enough to watch her peers fight for visibility. She's seen only a small uptick in player salaries over the years amid the WNBA's meteoric rise in popularity.
Stewart has been a part of negotiations for two collective bargaining agreements as a member of the WNBA's players union. A third round of negotiations is ongoing, perhaps the most important of Stewart's career. By the end, she hopes to see player salaries grow to unprecedented numbers.
"It's been going up incrementally," Stewart said. "But hopefully with the new TV deal that's coming, it'll really kind of boost itself into a category of its own."
That's what WNBA players were hoping for when they opted out of the current CBA two years before its expiration. The WNBA is bringing in more money than ever from sponsors and ticket sales, and will bring in much more from its 11-year media rights deal , worth around 200 million per year starting in 2026.
With its expanding reach, the WNBA's progress has come in a few areas: More teams are being added to the league, meaning more roster spots. Full-time charter flights were added last season after years of players lobbying for better travel.