WNBA sees urgent need to reach new CBA by Monday to not impact season - ESPN

NEW YORK — WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters on Friday that there's urgency to get a new collective bargaining agreement done by Monday to avoid disruptions to the preseason calendar, including training camp and preseason games.

«We have to get it done by Monday. I should say, we have to get it done without disrupting some part of the fact that we've got to run this two-team expansion [draft],» Engelbert said. «We've got to get expansion going. We've got to get free agency going. We've got to get the college draft, which is now a month from today.»

The league and union have bargained for double-digit hours each of the past four days, starting Tuesday, the initial target date the league gave the union for the completion of a term sheet to avoid scheduling impacts on the 2026 season.

Training camp is supposed to begin April 19 and the first preseason games are slated for April 25.

Women's National Basketball Players Association executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson spoke before Engelbert so wasn't asked directly about Engelbert's push to complete a deal by Monday, but did share more generally that she thought the league's deadlines have often felt «quite arbitrary.»

Nonetheless, both Engelbert and Jackson agreed Friday there's been progress this week, particularly in negotiating the ancillary issues the past two days.

Jackson said «movement is still the word» as the sides proceed in their fourth day of intense negotiations, though, as Engelbert said, both sides «still have a lot of items to get done.»

«I think the league, and particularly the commissioner and her team, have heard that transformational remains the goal,» Jackson told reporters. «As long as movement keeps us going in a forward direction,