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WNBA season would begin May 8 if new CBA is reached, league will take 17-day FIBA World Cup break

NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA will begin its season on May 8, assuming the league and the players’ union can come to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Teams will play 44 games over a five-month period with a 17-day break for the FIBA World Cup in early September. The league said last year that with the World Cup this season they would keep the schedule at 44 games despite adding two new teams in Portland and Toronto.

“As we prepare to tip off the WNBA’s historic 30th season, this schedule reflects both how far the league has come and the momentum that continues to drive us forward,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said.

“From welcoming two new organizations in Toronto and Portland, to honoring our history with marquee matchups that connect the league’s first game to today’s stars, the 2026 season will celebrate the WNBA’s past, present, and future. With a record number of games, growing global reach, and unprecedented momentum, this milestone season will help define the next chapter of the WNBA.”

By putting the schedule out now, teams can start selling ticket packages, book travel for away games — including charter flights — and secure arena dates.

“Releasing the 2026 schedule is a key step as we prepare for the WNBA’s 30th season and allows teams, partners, broadcasters, and fans to begin the essential planning for the year ahead,” a WNBA spokesperson said.

All but two teams have at least one back-to-back set of games. Overall, the average of games on consecutive nights is down from 2.4 per team in 2025 to 1.6 this year.

The WNBA hopes to expand the number of games teams play in future years, but that would come in a new CBA.

Training camp is slated to begin April 19, six days after the college draft. The league will have its sixth annual Commissioner’s Cup games in June with the championship game slated to take place on June 30. The All-Star Game is set for Chicago on July 25 with games to resume three days later.

The WNBA will go on break from Aug. 31-Sept. 16 for the World Cup, which will be played in Berlin this year. Teams will have a handful of games after that tournament finishes with the playoffs set to begin on Sept. 27.

All of this is still contingent on the league and union coming to an agreement on a new CBA. The last CBA was announced in the middle of January 2020, a month after it had been agreed to. It could easily take two months from when a new CBA is reached to get to the start of free agency.

The two sides agreed to a moratorium on free agency, which was supposed to begin earlier this month. The moratorium was needed after no new extension was reached on Jan. 9 to negotiate a new CBA. The WNBA and union are now in a “status quo” period where the old CBA is still in effect and the two parties are negotiating on good faith.

Besides free agency, the WNBA also still has to hold an expansion draft for Portland and Toronto.

Other highlights of the schedule include:

— All 15 teams will play opening weekend, highlighted by a WNBA Finals rematch between Las Vegas and Phoenix as well as a matchup of the last two No. 1 picks with Paige Bueckers and Dallas visiting Indiana and Caitlin Clark.

— Los Angeles hosting New York on June 21 on the anniversary of the original matchup between the teams that was the first game in league history.

— Toronto will play two games in Montreal and Vancouver.

— Connecticut will have two games in Hartford and one game in Boston.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Grandfather recovering from surgery after bison attack at Yellowstone sent him flying

By WTOP Staff
(CNN) — What started as a yearly trip for a grandfather and his grandson turned into a visit to a Montana hospital after a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park.Carl McDaniel, 65, was hospitalized with a broken femur after a bison charged and tossed him into the air Friday evening at the park’s Bridge Bay Campground, according to McDaniel and the National Park Service.He was visiting the park with his 13-year-old grandson when they decided to take a walk after dinner.Along the way, they encountered a large bison that appeared to be rolling around in the dust and was not bothering anyone, McDaniel told CNN.“We were about a hundred yards away,” McDaniel said. “He was not aggressive; he was not having problems and we took some pictures and decided to walk on.”McDaniel and his grandson snapped a quick photo and continued with their walk, video of the encounter shows. At the same time, a truck drove by, and the driver laid on his horn in what appeared to be an attempt to get the bison to move, McDaniel said. There is no audio on the video.The bison then appeared to become agitated and began running toward the pair.“There was little time to decide what to do. At that point, he was within 100 yards; he could be to us in seconds, so I told my grandson to run in one direction and I went the other to try and draw him away,” McDaniel said.The animal then pushed McDaniel with the top of its head, sending him flying into the air before he hit the ground, the grandfather said.“When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me. He could have stomped on me, he could have gored me, he could have done almost anything to take my life, and he did not do so,” McDaniel said.After McDaniel hit the ground, photographer Mike MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video, had to step in, he told Cowboy State Daily.“I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible,” MacLeod said.After the bison took off, people rushed over to McDaniel, who was in a lot of pain, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily. Yellowstone EMS arrived soon after, he said.“Park emergency medical personnel responded and transported him to a nearby hospital,” the National Park Service said in confirming the incident in a statement to CNN.This is the second bison attack at Yellowstone this year. A 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano on June 26, according to the agency.After Friday’s attack, “all the people that were there were amazing; they were all positive, they were trying to help as best they could,” McDaniel said. A nurse started tending to his leg, while another bystander held his head.He was then transferred to a hospital in Bozeman, a two-hour journey during which he was in intense pain. He said he was grateful for the paramedic who helped him along the way.McDaniel broke his femur, the body’s strongest bone, in four places near his hip and suffered several bruises. He had surgery Sunday and could stand by Monday.“I will be doing physical therapy for the next few days to get to walk, but it was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel said.The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards away from bison at all times and to never approach the animals. “If the bison follows you, spray bear spray as you are moving away, and seek cover behind nearby trees or cars,” the agency said.Correction: An earlier version of this story understated how far visitors should stay away from bison. The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards from them.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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