NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA is set to tip off its 30th season Friday night with excitement building around the league.
A new, transformational collective bargaining agreement has raised the maximum salary more than five times the limit in the old CBA. The Las Vegas Aces will be looking to win their fourth championship in five seasons and are riding a 16-game regular-season winning streak into their opener Saturday against Phoenix.
Caitlin Clark is healthy
after playing in just 13 games last season because of a variety of injuries.
Here are a few other things to look for this season:
The new WNBA labor deal greatly increased salaries, giving the league its first million-dollar players. The salary cap jumped to $7 million in the first year, with player minimums at $270,000. The top supermax salary is $1.4 million for players who re-signed with their teams. A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas, Napheesa Collier of Minnesota and Kelsey Mitchell of Indiana are all earning the supermax this year. They are three of 31 players making $1 million or more this season.
There are five new coaches this season, with New York making the biggest move by parting with Sandy Brondello and replacing her with former Golden State Warriors assistant Chris DeMarco. He inherited a talented squad that is a year removed from its first WNBA championship.
Brondello went to the expansion Toronto Tempo. Other hires include former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Alex Sarama leading Portland, and Sonia Raman taking over in Seattle after serving as a Liberty assistant. Longtime South Florida coach Jose Fernandez is now in charge of Dallas.
The league expanded to 15 teams this season with the addition of the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire. The Golden State Valkyries set a high bar for new clubs last season when they became the first expansion franchise to make the playoffs. Both of this season's new teams might be hard-pressed to duplicate that success.
Toronto has an established backcourt with Marina Mabrey and Brittney Sykes, while Portland went for a younger squad with many international players. The Fire made Iyana Martín Carrión their top pick in the draft this year, but she isn't expected to play this season while preparing for the World Cup in September with Spain.
A record 216 WNBA regular-season games and events will be available on multiple broadcast platforms throughout the year. The league will have games on ABC/ESPN, CBS, Amazon Prime Video, ION, NBC, USA Sports and NBA TV.
Clark wasn't the only significant player to miss a lot of time last season. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was a huge part of New York's success during its run to the 2024 title. She missed last season while recovering from an acute meniscus tear in her left knee for which she had surgery in March 2025. She's back this year and raring to go.
Courtney Vandersloot tore her ACL last June and has been working her way back for Chicago. The veteran point guard is running sprints, but is still a ways away from returning.
Collier, the runner-up in MVP voting last season, will be out of the Lynx lineup until at least early June while she recovers from ankle surgery in March. Collier also had surgery on her right ankle in early January.
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