NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA looks promising heading into the offseason after a banner year with record ratings, attendance and a first-time champion in New York.
Soon after the confetti stopped falling on the sellout crowd at Barclays Center following Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, the league and its players turned their attention to 2025.
Less than 24 hours after Sunday night's game and days before the Liberty's championship parade on Thursday, the players' union opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement. The decision was expected with a new 11-year media rights deal worth approximately $200 million per year beginning in 2026. The players are looking for a bigger share of the revenue pie among other things, including pensions and higher salaries.
The current CBA will still be in effect throughout next season, but both sides would like to get a deal done sooner rather than later.
Negotiations are always intense, but those associated with the WNBA have much to be excited about.
The league is expanding and will increase the number of regular season games to 44. The WNBA will hold an expansion draft for Golden State in December. The Valkyries will be the league's 13th franchise. The league will add franchises in Toronto and Portland in 2026, with at least one other team starting in either 2027 or 2028.
Although the WNBA could lose one of its iconic stars if Diana Taurasi announces her retirement, league officials are looking forward to another highly anticipated draft. The draft lottery is next month. It will determine who gets the first pick and potentially Paige Bueckers, who 21 years after Taurasi could become the next UConn guard to be selected No. 1.
Many of the league's top players will remain in the U.S. this winter and play in January in Unrivaled — the 3-on-3 league started by WNBA Finals standouts Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.
The Stewart and Collier championship showdown led to strong ratings, with all five games having more than a million TV viewers. The decisive Game 5 drew an average of 2.2 million viewers, peaking at 3.3 million, which made it the most-watched WNBA game in 25 years.
The league as a whole had its most-watched regular season in 24 years and best attendance in 22 seasons. During the 40-game regular season, 22 telecasts topped at least a million viewers on a host of networks.
The league's rookie class, led by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, was a big part of that success — and all should come back stronger and better next year.
“When Caitlin Clark announced she was going to enter the draft, I remember ... the wave of enthusiasm that came from a player that wasn’t even going to play for the Lynx,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “So there was a lot of excitement and momentum for the WNBA. But to see it actually translate business-wise across the league, whatever the reasons were. There’s one really big reason and a lot of other little reasons why. And I think the movement that we’re in now is exciting.”
Not everything has been positive around the league's growth.
Nearly half of the WNBA franchises have fired coaches in the past month. Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Washington are all looking for new leaders on the sidelines. All of the coaches who were let go had three years or less with their teams.
Off the court, players say they were targets of increasing online racial and homophobic threats, including one to Stewart and her wife during the WNBA Finals.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed the rising number of abusive comments players have dealt with on social media at her state of the league address before the start of the WNBA Finals. She said the league will work with the players’ union to figure out what they can do together to combat it.
The online abuse and the CBA are two of the offseason issues the WNBA and its players must address, but they have arguably the strongest foundation since the league's launch to build on.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (20) reacts after scoring against the Minnesota Lynx during the third quarter of Game 5 of the WNBA basketball final series, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
FILE - WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks at a news conference before Game 1 of basketball's WNBA Finals between the Connecticut Sun and the Washington Mystics, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019, in Washington. The WNBA will expand its Finals next year to a best-of-7 format the league announced on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - The WNBA logo and hoop are seen at a WNBA basketball game at Mohegan Sun Arena, Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Guineans are voting Sunday to elect a new president in the country’s first election since a 2021 coup, as analysts say a weakened opposition will result in a likely win for junta leader Gen. Mamadi Doumbouya.
Sunday’s election is the culmination of a transition process that began four years ago after Doumbouya ousted President Alpha Condé. The junta leader has proceeded to clamp down on the main opposition and dissent, critics say, leaving him with no major opposition among the eight other candidates in the race.
Despite Guinea’s rich mineral resources — including as the world’s biggest exporter of bauxite, used to make aluminum — more than half of its 15 million people are experiencing record levels of poverty and food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.
“This vote is the hope of young people, especially for us unemployed," said Idrissa Camara, an 18-year-old resident of Conakry, who said he has been unemployed since graduating from university five years ago. "I’m forced to do odd jobs to survive. I hope this vote will improve the standard of living and the quality of life in Guinea," he added.
The election is being held under a new constitution that revoked a ban on military leaders running for office and extended the presidential mandate from five to seven years. That constitution was overwhelmingly approved in a September referendum despite opposition parties asking voters to boycott it.
The vote is the latest such election among African countries that have seen a surge in coups in recent years. At least 10 countries in the young continent have experienced soldiers forcefully taking power after accusing elected leaders of failing to provide good governance and security for citizens.
“This election will open a new page in Guinea’s history and mark the country’s return to the league of nations,” said Guinea political analyst Aboubacar Sidiki Diakité. “Doumbouya is undoubtedly the favorite in this presidential election because the main opposition political parties have been sidelined and the General Directorate of Elections, the body that oversees the presidential election, is under the supervision of the government,” he added.
In addition to a weakened opposition, activists and rights groups say Guinea has since the coup seen civil society leaders silenced, critics abducted and the press censored. More than 50 political parties were dissolved last year in a move authorities claimed was to “clean up the political chessboard” despite widespread criticism.
There was heavy security in Conakry and other parts of Guinea with nearly 12,000 police officers among security forces mobilized and checkpoints set up along major roads. Authorities had said on Saturday that security forces “neutralized” an armed group with “subversive intentions threatening national security” after gunshots were heard in Conakry’s Sonfonia neighborhood.
Across polling stations, long queues of mostly young voters waited to cast their ballot while police officers closely monitored the process.
A total of nine candidates are contesting the election, and Doumbouya’s closest challenger is the little-known Yero Baldé of the Democratic Front of Guinea party, who was education minister under Condé.
Two opposition candidates, former Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté and former government minister Ousmane Kaba, were excluded on technical grounds while longtime opposition leaders Cellou Dalein Diallo and Sidya Toure have been forced into exile.
While Baldé has hinged his campaign on promises of governance reforms, anti-corruption efforts and economic growth, Doumbouya has built his around major infrastructure projects and reforms launched since taking power four years ago.
The junta’s most important project has been the Simandou iron ore project, a 75% Chinese-owned mega-mining project at the world’s largest iron ore deposit which began production last month after decades of delays.
Authorities say that a national development plan tied to the Simandou project aims to create tens of thousands of jobs and diversify the economy through investments in agriculture, education, transport, technology and health.
“In four years, he (Doumbouya) has connected Guinean youth to information and communication technologies,” said Mamadama Touré, a high school student wearing a T-shirt with Doumbouya’s image in the capital of Conakry, as he cited digital skills training programs put in place by the authorities.
About 6.7 million registered voters are expected to cast ballots at roughly 24,000 polling stations nationwide, with results expected within 48 hours. There will be a runoff if no candidate wins a majority of the votes.
In Conakry, 22-year-old student Issatou Bah said he is still undecided about whether to vote in the election.
“This is the third time I’ve voted in Guinea, hoping things will change. But nothing has changed,” said Bah, adding that he hopes the election will improve "this country that has everything but struggles to take off.”
FILE - Guinea's junta leader Col. Mamady Doumbouya watches over an independence day military parade in Bamako, Mali on Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
