$14 million. That is the total new salary committed across the WNBA in the last 48 hours. Ten core designations at $1.4 million each, every one of them a one-year guaranteed supermax deal under the new CBA. That number is more than the entire league salary cap was two years ago.
The core designation is the WNBA's version of a franchise tag. A team assigns it to one player, guaranteeing her a one-year deal at the maximum salary in exchange for exclusive negotiating rights. Before this CBA, the top salary in the league was roughly $250,000. Now it is $1.4 million. The players who got tagged just received raises of five to ten times their previous contracts.
Here is the list. Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana Fever). Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx). Sabrina Ionescu (New York Liberty). Allisha Gray (Atlanta Dream). Kelsey Plum (Los Angeles Sparks). Ezi Magbegor (Seattle Storm). Arike Ogunbowale (Dallas Wings). Ariel Atkins (Chicago Sky). Bridget Carleton (Portland Fire). Marina Mabrey (Toronto Tempo).
The number that jumps out is not who got cored. It is who did not. A'ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart are not on this list because they are expected to sign multi-year supermax extensions directly. The core designation is for players whose teams want to keep them but cannot finalize a long-term deal yet. Wilson and Stewart already have their deals in principle. The core tag is for everyone one tier below that.
What this does to team caps is immediate and significant. Atlanta just tagged Allisha Gray at $1.4 million and traded for Angel Reese at roughly $600,000. That is $2 million committed to two players on a $7 million cap, or 28.6 percent of the cap in two roster spots. Add Brionna Jones at $750,000 and Rhyne Howard at $600,000 and Atlanta is now projecting north of $5 million committed to four players. That leaves roughly $2 million for eight roster spots.
Indiana is the team that should concern everyone. Kelsey Mitchell's core designation at $1.4 million alongside Aliyah Boston at $700,000 and Caitlin Clark at $650,000 puts their top three players at $2.75 million. That is 39 percent of cap for three players. Indiana's depth just became the most expensive depth puzzle in the league.
The expansion teams made the most interesting moves. Toronto gave Marina Mabrey the core tag, which means the Tempo are committing $1.4 million to a player they drafted three days ago. That is confidence. It is also a signal that Toronto's front office sees Mabrey as the franchise cornerstone, not Kliundikova. Portland tagged Bridget Carleton, their first overall expansion pick, at the same rate.
Both expansion teams now have 20 percent of their cap locked into one player before they have signed a single free agent. The math is tight. Toronto has roughly $5.6 million in remaining cap space. Portland has roughly the same. That sounds like a lot until you realize they each need to sign 10 more players.
The broader structural story is the salary compression. Under the old CBA, the best player in the league made roughly $250,000 and the worst player made roughly $60,000. The gap was four to one. Under the new CBA, the best player makes $1.4 million and the minimum is around $75,000. The gap is nearly twenty to one. That means roster-building decisions have real financial consequences for the first time. Overpaying a role player at $400,000 used to be a rounding error. Now it is six percent of your cap.
Our cap tracker at arcwnba.com/analytics/cap-tracker now reflects all ten designations. The team-by-team numbers look different than they did 48 hours ago. Several teams that looked like they had significant flexibility are now projecting north of 75 percent cap usage with fewer than half their roster signed.
The negotiation window opened on April 8. Teams can begin signing free agents on April 11. By then, the cap math will be even tighter. What we know now is that the WNBA just created ten $1.4 million players in the span of two days. The league has never had to build rosters around that kind of salary structure. Every front office in the league is doing math they have never done before.
[ End Report ]