Why the WNBA's salary deal is being hailed as a historic moment for women's sports

It was a moment of pure, unfiltered joy.

Or the closest possible approximation you could get at 2:30 a.m. after more than a week of marathon negotiations.

"Happy smiles," the WNBA's Nneka Ogwumike said in a video posted to her Instagram account showing the cheering, slightly tearful, champagne-glass-raised moment the league reached a deal in principle with its players that would quadruple their salaries and increase their share of revenues.

If the players looked as relieved and exhausted as they did happy, it might be because the deal was struck in the early hours of Wednesday after more than 100 hours of intense in-person negotiations over eight days.

But it could also be because the win was actually years in the making, the end of an increasingly acrimonious battle over salaries and revenue-sharing that has seen players campaigning to be paid more basically ever since the basketball league's 1997 inception.

"This journey has been well worth it," Ogwumike, president of the Women's National Basketball Player's Association (WNBPA), told Good Morning America on Thursday.

"It's a deal that's changing lives in real time and also for generations to come."

It comes 17 months after the players opted out of their previous collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and five months after the previous deal was set to expire. Training camps are set to open in just a month, on April 19 — six days after the college draft.

The minimum base salary for players in 2025 was $66,079 US. Under the new agreement, the minimum salary would be more like $300,000 US, the average would be $585,000 and the maximum would be $1.4 million, with a team salary cap of $7 million, according to The Associated Press.

Specifics still need to be finalized over the next few weeks as lawyers on both sides work on the new CBA.

The deal that will give the league its first million-dollar players comes after women's basketball experienced a dramatic rise in popularity over the past few years. The emergence of superstars like Caitlin Clark, the WNBA's expansion, and a surge in March Madness viewership certainly haven't hurt.

Salaries had remained a sore point, with top players like Clark having to take a pay cut in order to turn pro after playing in the college-level NCAA.

The WNBA's 2025 No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers was projected to earn just $78,831 US for her rookie year — less than the real median household income in the U.S. 

The No. 1 draft pick for the NBA, by comparison, can expect to earn $13.8 million US in his rookie year, according to sports salary reporting site Spotrac.