JUST OUTSIDE THE LANGHAM HOTEL, NEW YORK — Welcome to Basketball Insider, powered by The BIG EAST Conference. I’m Jackie Powell, the host of The IX Sports Podcast women’s basketball edition alongside Howard Megdal and New York Liberty beat reporter for The IX Basketball. The last 24 hours in negotiations between the WNBA and the WNBPA were fascinating and potentially productive. I was there for most of it.
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Tuesday, March 10 was the day of the deadline that the WNBA set for the season to start without delay. Much of the evening, and well into the early morning hours of March 11, the two sides bargained. That work continued on Wednesday afternoon.
If you have social media you probably saw that my face was all over the internet as one of the few reporters — along with Alexa Philippou, Annie Costabile and Doug Feinberg — waiting outside the Langham Hotel on Fifth Avenue while the WNBA and the WNBPA met for roughly 12 hours.
Before I arrived on the scene, the trio had been waiting in the hotel lobby, only to be kicked out because they weren’t hotel guests. So we reconvened just outside the hotel doors.
But once I arrived, the 60°F air of what we call in New York “fool’s spring” initially gave me hope. The meeting commenced at 5 PM, and most of us figured we’d be home before midnight.
We figured wrong.
As the evening stretched on, multiple people with knowledge of the negotiations began sympathizing with the work we were doing. Snacks, meals and toiletries were all delivered to us right on the street.
Finally, my editor got lawn chairs delivered to us. (Editor’s note: The IX Sports has “lawn chair for staff and colleagues money”, but not yet “four rooms at the Langham” money.)
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As we sat there, indulging in some Insomnia Cookies, what did we learn? Well, to start: March 10 is not a hard deadline, as both sides continued speaking well into the morning of March 11. Multiple reports from my colleagues who were with me on the ground on Tuesday into Wednesday morning confirmed this.
Right when March 10 became “a thing” on February 23, it’s critical to remember that the reporting around it wasn’t the league is cancelling the season or else, but instead if both sides didn’t hit around that target date then it’s quite possible that the intended length of the season will be impacted based on not only how long it takes for lawyers to craft an official CBA document, followed by to the enormous amount of “off-season” league business required before tipoff on May 8.
This includes a double expansion draft for both the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, a full-fledged free agency period for roughly 80 percent of the league and the 2026 WNBA Draft for college and international prospects.
Still, that deadline confused many. A WNBA fan who was livestreaming some of our stakeout asked the gathered reporters questions. I explained as the clock struck midnight that the WNBA wasn’t Cinderella. She wasn’t going to turn into a pumpkin or cease to exist.
But meeting so publicly and so long helped ensure that neither side would be blamed for the passing of the deadline day without a deal. I can confirm multiple who work within the WNBA ecosystem also believed that March 10 was do-or-die. Now we know that isn’t the case.
Still: it was disappointing that at 2:48 AM, the players in attendance — WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike, Treasurer Brianna Turner, Vice President Alysha Clark and Vice President Breanna Stewart — exited out the side door of the hotel and didn’t even acknowledge reporters who’d stayed all night to talk to them. New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai, the only league owner present in the room during the negotiations Tuesday/Wednesday, did the same thing.
This flies in the face of common practice from other leagues such as the NBA. There is no precedent for the WNBA, really — it is the first time public interest in CBA negotiations generated this level of media response. It behooves both sides of this growing league to recognize that change in meetings to come — not just for those of us covering, but because we reflect a public eager to hear from both sides in this negotiation.
To their credit, both WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and WNBPA Executive Director Terri Jackson spoke to us and offered updates that helped illuminate the state of negotiations for our readers. First Jackson joined us around 3:30 AM. Her tone differed from previous conversations throughout this process, notes of optimism.
“I would describe the last 10 or 11 hours as a lot of conversation going in the right direction, and just it’s ongoing and continuing,” she told us. “And I guess that’s just what it needs to be right now.”
Jackson continued for a few minutes more to answer some questions about if this marathon meeting was more positive than previous ones and if meeting in person has an impact on the progress of the negotiations.
“I think every meeting is a good meeting, whether we’re doing it face-to-face or whether we’re doing it via zoom,” she said. “We can’t limit the conversations or the discussions that are necessary for these negotiations. We can’t limit them to one form over the other. We have to be open to all forms, and we’re all adults. We’ve done this before. We know how to meet. We know how to negotiate. Whether we’re doing it via Zoom or whether we’re in person, we’re going to get the work done.”
Gone is the discussion of striking, at least for now, and instead, signaling the intention to get the deal done.
A little after 5 AM, Engelbert joined us. She noted to Feinberg that six years ago, there wasn’t this level of coverage or interest in the WNBA CBA.
Engelbert sounded similar notes to Jackson.
“It’s complex, but we’re working towards a win-win deal, like we’ve been saying, a transformational deal for these players, that balances all the things we’ve been trying to balance with continued investment by our owners, etc,” she told reporters. “So we’re working hard towards that, and we still have work to do.”
While both sides didn’t comment in that moment on what exactly comes next and when the next meetings are, let alone when a term sheet might get signed, they agreed that they are going to keep going, are working hard but still have more work to do.
“We’ve gotta get this deal done,” Engelbert said. “We’ve gotta get it done soon.”
While covering these negotiations has been exhausting, it’s been intellectually one of the most rewarding parts of my seven years covering the WNBA. These negotiations are a direct reminder that the economic growth of this league, and the power of the players within it, are a fundamental part of the reason this league matters so much to so many.
Camping outside all night gave me ample time to consider this larger context as I bit into a Rainbow Dream Cookies ‘N Cream cookie in the warm, spring-like night. There were moments of high frustration that I felt alongside my colleagues. But at the same time, we felt a sense of community and a duty to fans and league employees that have been following our work. The dawn approached, but we stayed. Because we all understood: this matters.
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
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