WNBA 50-game – With the WNBA set to expand to a 50-game regular season in 2027, the players’ union negotiated recovery-focused concessions in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement—while coaches continue pushing for bigger rosters and tougher officiating accountabi
For WNBA players, the shift to a 50-game regular season isn’t just a schedule upgrade. It’s a daily logistics problem—one that starts with recovery and ends with whether athletes can keep showing up healthy.
The WNBA announced last week that the regular season will expand to 50 games in 2027, a move tied to the league’s growing popularity. With that comes more strain, and the players’ union negotiated concessions as part of the new collective bargaining agreement.
“We have the understanding that more games means more revenue, so we knew [the number of games] was gonna go up,” Elizabeth Williams, the players union secretary, told the Sun-Times. “We just had to agree on by how much.”
One of the clearest changes for players is the extension of the regular-season window. It will now run through Nov. 21 instead of Oct. 31. The union also secured minimum standards across teams, aimed at professionalizing facilities and staffing.
Williams pointed to the practical difference those recovery resources can make. “People having their own facilities that have all the recovery modalities is going to make a huge difference moving forward. ” she said. “Having extra staff was also important for that reason. More recovery, more opportunity to get in the work that you need.”.
The Sky, for example, hired a massage therapist, a physical therapist, and additional performance coaches this offseason.
Travel is part of the picture too. Williams said charter planes have helped players manage the increased workload, even as she acknowledged inconsistencies remain. Charter planes are not always the same size, she said. Teams sometimes get smaller planes for longer flights and bigger planes for shorter ones.
“Some consistency there would be nice and helpful when we’re playing more games, to get the big planes,” Williams said.
There is another schedule adjustment the union wants players to rely on as the season gets longer: eliminating back-to-back games.
Even with the push for fixes, Williams said she still sees the larger number of games as a win for the league and for players’ sense of margin. She also said it reduces the pressure of single losses.
“I was just talking to [Courtney Vandersloot] about when we were playing 32 [games],” Williams said. “If you lost a couple, it was like your season was over. Now there’s 50 games, you have a little wiggle room, which is nice.”
Tyler Marsh wants bigger rosters
Coach Tyler Marsh is less convinced that concessions on recovery solve the core issue. He’s expressed wariness about adding games to the regular season, citing how little rest and recovery players already get due to offseason commitments.
Marsh’s preferred solution is bigger rosters. He wants a roster “big enough to where two of your players aren’t limited to just the 12 development games.” He argued that a full season of 14 players is necessary to preserve health.
“You want to have a full season of 14 players to preserve the health of the players,” Marsh said.
But the CBA already builds in 12-player rosters, meaning any change would require an amendment.
Officiating pressure doesn’t stop, either
As the league weighs how to handle more games, calls for officiating accountability are also resurfacing—especially after the Sky’s loss to the Wings.
A backcourt violation on Sky center Kamilla Cardoso swung the game toward the Wings in the final minute. Cardoso said the call appeared incorrect based on the rules around positioning.
“We all disagree with it, but we have to control the things we can control,” Cardoso told the Sun-Times. “We have to know there’s going to be plays like that and play through it.”
Marsh said he argued that call, along with several others down the stretch, to no avail. He continues to push for more accountability from officials league-wide.
“I don’t think it’s too much for us to anticipate that the ones that enforce the rules know the rules,” Marsh said. “I think that’s a fair thing to ask.”
A longer season means more work, but also more expectations—on how teams prepare, how athletes recover, and how precisely the rules are enforced when the games come fast.
WNBA 50 games 2027 collective bargaining agreement Elizabeth Williams recovery modalities Sky vs Wings Kamilla Cardoso Tyler Marsh officiating accountability charter planes back-to-back games