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October 29, 2025

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The WNBA has proposed a 30-day extension to continue CBA negotiations with the players’ union as Friday’s deadline looms. With no deal yet in sight, both sides remain far apart, raising the risk of a work stoppage.

— Annie Costabile [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

WNBA Proposes 30-Day Extension on CBA Negotiations [[link removed]]

Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

The WNBA has proposed a 30-day extension to the Women’s National Basketball Players Association to continue negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, multiple sources confirmed to Front Office Sports.

This comes as the Oct. 31 deadline approaches and after a week of heated exchanges [[link removed]] between both parties.

According to one source with direct knowledge of the players’ stance, under the right circumstances the players might be willing to consider an extension.

“Those circumstances do not yet exist,” the source said.

In 2019 the WNBA and WNBPA agreed to a 60-day extension that led to the ratification of a new CBA in the new year, just in time for free agency. This time around, if both sides could reach an agreement within the next 30 days, it would put the league in a position to execute the expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire in December similar to last year’s draft for the Golden State Valkyries.

If both sides do not agree to an extension, negotiations can continue in good faith without a CBA in place. However, this would open the door for a potential work stoppage in the form of a lockout initiated by the owners or a strike initiated by the players.

The league’s proposal comes after WNBPA senior adviser and legal counsel Erin D. Drake said no deal would be reached by Friday [[link removed]] on The Athletic podcast No Offseason. Drake also characterized the league as lacking urgency.

In a statement to FOS in response to Drake’s claim, a league spokesperson said a proposal was made on Oct. 1 and the WNBPA responded to it on Monday.

Multiple sources told FOS the league’s most recent proposal included a supermax near $850,000 [[link removed]] and a veteran minimum around $300,000. The proposed revenue sharing model would be similar to the current structure, which is only triggered if certain cumulative targets are hit. The revenue shared would only include league office revenue and not team revenue.

WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson told FOS last week that under the league’s proposed “fixed salary system,” the players would only get a “piece of a piece of the pie [[link removed]].”

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Why Alexis Ohanian Has Gone All In on Women’s Sports

In Season 2, Episode 6 [[link removed]] of Portfolio Players, presented by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian shares how his belief in women’s sports led to early investments in Angel City FC and Chelsea FC Women—and how his approach to ownership has evolved along the way.

He discusses Athlos, his digital-first track and field event designed to capture fan attention, and how that same mindset extends to his investment in TGL. Ohanian also reflects on what he’s learned after bringing a start-up mentality into sports.

Watch the full episode of Portfolio Players here. [[link removed]]

World Series Games 1–2 TV Ratings Are Up With U.S., Canada Combined [[link removed]]

Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

LOS ANGELES — U.S. viewership of the World Series so far is expectedly down, but not as much as feared, and the event is showing substantial growth from last year, when also combined with record-setting Canadian audiences [[link removed]].

Fox said late Wednesday that it averaged 13.3 million viewers from Game 1 on Friday, down 13% from last year [[link removed]], while 11.6 million on average watched Game 2 on Saturday, down 16%. The declines were almost inevitable given the lack of two U.S.-based, Nielsen-rated markets in the World Series matchup between the Blue Jays and Dodgers, as well as the tough comparison from last year’s event with the Yankees and Dodgers that drew a seven-year high [[link removed]].

The presence of the Blue Jays and the rabid fandom for the team across Canada, however, mandates viewing this year’s World Series through a fundamentally different lens [[link removed]]. When combined with the 7 million that Sportsnet averaged in Canada for Game 1—a figure that set a new record for a Blue Jays game there—the World Series opener generated an average of 20.3 million across the two countries, 34% higher than last year’s Game 1 in the U.S. French-language coverage of Game 1 in Canada on TVA Sports added yet another 502,000 viewers on average.

The same dynamic unfolded for this year’s Game 2. A Canadian average of 6.6 million on Sportsnet for that game, along with the 11.8 million on Fox, adds up to 18.4 million, beating the U.S. average of 13.8 million for last year’s Game 2 by 27%.

While the World Series is a major national, and now international, event, viewership from the home markets of the two competing teams drives a meaningful chunk of the overall audience. Last year, with the Blue Jays not in the World Series, Sportsnet simply carried the MLB international feed and did not have a native production for Canadian audiences.

Just in the U.S., Game 1 of the World Series had the highest viewership, aside from last year, since 2018. The second contest, meanwhile, was the most-watched Game 2 in the U.S., aside from 2024, in six years.

“No expectation that this would match last year’s NYY-LAD matchup,” in the U.S., tweeted [[link removed]] Fox Sports president of analytics and insights Mike Mulvihill.

Viewership figures from Monday night’s 18-inning Game 3 thriller, won by the Dodgers after another historic performance from superstar Shohei Ohtani [[link removed]], have not yet been released, but it will bear watching how the 6-hour, 39-minute game impacted audiences. That game, the second-longest by time in MLB postseason history, ended at nearly 3 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

The 2018 World Series also featured an 18-inning marathon Game 3 from Dodger Stadium, and that game averaged 13.25 million viewers. That audience figure was the lowest of the five games in the Red Sox’ win that year, but only slightly. That Game 3 was also played on a Friday night, contrasting sharply with the Monday night slotting for this year’s comparable game.

Big in Japan

Not surprisingly, Japanese viewership of the World Series posted more milestones, thanks in large part to the presence of Ohtani and Dodgers teammates Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, all hailing from the country.

Game 1 averaged 11.8 million viewers on NHK-G, making it the most-watched World Series game ever in Japan aired on a single network, and the No. 3 World Series game there in history. Last year, the Yankees-Dodgers games in Japan aired on multiple over-the-air networks. Game 2, meanwhile, averaged 9.5 million viewers on NHK-BS.

With the time difference from U.S. prime time, the World Series games aired in the late morning in Japan.

Lionel Messi: MLS Can’t Grow Without More Spending Power [[link removed]]

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, who recently signed a contract extension to keep playing for Inter Miami [[link removed]]through 2028, thinks Major League Soccer should relax some of the financial constraints around player acquisitions in order to continue growing.

“Every team should have the opportunity to bring in players and sign whoever each team wants without limitations or rules for players to bring them in,” Messi said in Spanish during an interview with NBC Nightly News [[link removed]] that was released Monday night.

“I don’t think that today all teams in the United States, all clubs, have the power to do that, and I think that if they were given the freedom, many more important players would come and help the growth of the United States,” Messi said.

Inter Miami leads Nashville SC 1–0 in their first-round series of the MLS Cup playoffs, and it can advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a victory Saturday.

Cap Tracker

Currently, MLS allows clubs to sign up to three designated players whose total compensation and acquisition costs exceed the maximum salary budget charge. In 2025, the salary cap was $5.95 million per team for the first 20 senior roster players, with a maximum salary budget charge of $743,750 for any individual player.

Messi’s $20.44 million salary is more than double the second-highest in MLS, $8.77 million for his Miami teammate Sergio Busquets. In total, 190 players are making more [[link removed]] than the $743,750 maximum salary budget charge this season, according to Spotrac.

Messi also makes money from revenue-sharing deals with the league’s media-rights holder, Apple, and apparel provider, Adidas. He’s also a co-owner of Inter Miami, which is opening a new stadium next year. Messi was suspended for one game [[link removed]] this season due to skipping the MLS All-Star Game.

One More Time

Messi said he wants to play for Argentina in next summer’s FIFA men’s World Cup in North America [[link removed]].

“We’re coming off winning the last World Cup, and being able to defend it on the field again is spectacular because it’s always a dream to play with the national team, especially in official competitions, so hopefully God will allow me to do it once again.”

It would be the sixth World Cup for Messi, who will turn 39 during the 2026 tournament.

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Conversation Starters ESPN and Disney’s next animated alternate NFL broadcast will be Monsters, Inc.–themed as the Eagles-Chargers Monday Night Football game on Dec. 8 will be transformed into “Monsters Funday Football” on ESPN2 and Disney Channel. Check it out [[link removed]]. Saudi Arabia wants to build a stadium more than 1,000 feet in the air and play the 2034 FIFA men’s World Cup matches in it. Take a look [[link removed]]. For the final minute of Grizzlies-Warriors, both coaches subbed in their Spencer brother. Pat and Cam went head-to-head in the game’s final seconds [[link removed]]. Editors’ Picks SEC’s Sankey Blasts NCAA Plan to Allow Pro Sports Betting [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]] and Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]NCAA athletes can bet on professional sports starting Nov. 1. [[link removed]] The Trumps Are All In on Prediction Markets [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]Truth Social is launching a platform that will offer sports event contracts. [[link removed]] Colin Cowherd Reflects on Hall of Fame Career and Why His Show Works [[link removed]]by Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]]“Once you’re on television and people have a remote, you’ve got to speed it up.” Question of the Day

Do you think the WNBA and players will reach a new CBA deal before the deadline?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Tuesday’s result: 80% of respondents think Victor Wembanyama could be the face of the NBA.

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Written by Annie Costabile [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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