SAN FRANCISCO — The Sky are in the middle of a scheduling gauntlet: eight games in 16 days, including back-to-back games and a West Coast trip.
This is what happens when the league adds games without adding days to the season. Since 2022, the number of games has risen by 20% to 44. The length of the season? Pretty much the same. That means less recovery time and more wear and tear.
“It’s tough,” Sky coach Tyler Marsh said before the team’s first back-to-back of the season June 21-22. “The grind and the toll that it takes, I’m not sure that it helps. We all want to be at our peak form.”
More games means more tickets to sell and more media inventory. In other words, more money, which everyone wants. But the tension comes in how that growth lands — mostly on players’ bodies and minds. And lately, they’ve started to push back.
Players union vice president Satou Sabally recently called commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s decision to add games “irresponsible.” Veteran guard Natasha Cloud said Engelbert “needs to extend the season.”
But it’s not just the vets feeling the impact. The compressed schedule is especially difficult for rookies, who have to adjust to a more physical game and nearly an extra game per week compared to college.
“Honestly, it’s been hard, especially coming right off the [college] season where I played pretty much 40 minutes a game,” Sky guard Hailey Van Lith told the Sun-Times.
And though the schedule is more demanding, the team-provided recovery support isn’t much of an upgrade. However, now that Van Lith has a salary, she’s choosing to invest in her own upkeep, paying out of pocket for a personal nutritionist.
It’s a value her teammates share: putting in what they can to keep the product strong.
“We talk a lot about salary,” Sky center and players union secretary Elizabeth Williams told the Sun-Times. “But we want a good product. That’s something we value, as well.”
Still, pay remains a sticking point, especially when it hasn’t kept pace with the boom around the league.
The WNBA recently signed a landmark media-rights deal reportedly worth four times its previous agreement. But player salaries haven’t increased since 2020, when the current collective-bargaining agreement raised the veteran minimum from $56,000 to $78,831. The next CBA likely will include another raise.
In the meantime, on-court performance is taking a hit. Some of the league’s biggest stars, including Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Kelsey Plum, are in the middle of uncharacteristic shooting slumps. After a social-media graphic highlighted the trend, Plum tweeted back: “Cause we’re tired.”
So if the quality of play requires more recovery time, should the league consider extending the season into November?
“I wouldn’t mind that,” Williams said. “Spreading the games out — that logically makes sense.”
The problem? Scheduling conflicts on both sides of the globe.
At home, six WNBA teams share arenas with NBA teams, and their seasons start in October. Abroad, many WNBA players need to report to European or Asian teams around the same time.
Convincing those international leagues to shift their calendars would be no small task.
“I don’t know Cathy’s relationship with FIBA, so that’s a little tougher,” Williams said. “But something’s gonna have to give.”
An idea that wouldn’t require adjusting the calendar is expanding the rosters.
WNBA teams are limited to 12 players. The NBA allows 15. That extra depth helps with an expanded schedule, giving coaches more flexibility to rest players and stay competitive through injuries.
It also could help with development. Instead of rushing rookies into big roles, coaches would have room to bring them along gradually.
Back when the Sky were deciding on roster cuts, Marsh said it would make a difference.
“Having a couple developmental spots — where if something happens to anybody, you’ve got someone who knows your terminology and system and can plug in and play — that would help,” he said during training camp.
In the long run, expanding the pool of WNBA-ready players would elevate the product. And it’s exactly the kind of change fans want to see.