WNBA Players Took Their CBA Victory Lap at NCAA Women's Final Four Weekend

There was a buzz in the air at the NCAA women’s basketball Final Four weekend and it sounded a whole lot like, “ca-ching.”

As the season's top four college basketball teams prepared for the most important games of their collegiate careers, WNBA stars held court across downtown Phoenix, basking in the warm glow of their freshly signed collective bargaining agreement. The new CBA marks a turning point in women’s sports across the board, launching a new revenue-sharing model, significant salary increases, and other perks for veteran players and rookies alike.

That’s why Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association (WNBPA) president Nneka Ogwumike felt it was imperative to be on site at Final Four weekend, where not one but six WNBA draft prospects led UCLA to the school's first-ever NCAA championship trophy. “We’ve really been doing our best to try and bridge this gap between the college ranks and the pros,” Ogwumike tells Glamour, advising outgoing seniors like UCLA’s Lauren Betts and UConn star Azzi Fudd to “savor every moment” as they prepare for next week’s WNBA draft in New York City.

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As the internet argued over the “face of the league,” the women of the WNBA were coming together to fight for fair pay and a say in their future. These five athletes—and 2025 Glamour Women of the Year—represent the real draw of the WNBA: its players.

“Especially coming into this draft, lives are really going to be changed with what we were able to gain out of this last agreement,” she adds, referencing the new rookie salary scale which ranges from around $290,000—$500,000 for this year’s first-round picks. For context, Caitlin Clark’s rookie salary as the 2024 first draft pick was $76,535.

“Women’s sports is completely on the rise—the viewership, the eyes, the attention, the fan bases,” says Indiana Fever's Aliyah Boston. “It’s just at its peak right now and it’s super special because I know it’s just going to grow and thrive, and there’s no better feeling than that.”

Ogwumike and Boston spoke to Glamour at Togethxr House, a bustling hub of branded activations hosted by sports media company Togethxr. The space drew fans in with exclusive Final Four merch from Dick’s Sporting Goods, restorative yoga sessions with Aveeno, and plenty of opportunities to get up close with some of the league’s biggest stars, who stopped by for panels, live podcast tapings, and appearances as brand ambassadors (like I said, “cha-ching”).

“A few years ago, it was nothing like this,” says sports fan and content creator Aliyah Funschell, who noticed a significant increase in major branding since her first time attending the Final Four in 2023. “It’s really cool to see a lot of brands putting their money where their mouth is, and not just saying they’re supporting women’s sports, but really showing up in an authentic way that engages the fans and the community.”

The most clear-cut example of this was Togethxr’s newly launched collaboration with Stanley 1913 on the Changing the Game Grant, which will award $100,000 in funding and other resources to entrepreneurs looking to open women’s sports bars and community spaces. The idea for the grant came when the brands hit a speed bump while looking for a space to celebrate their new “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” tumbler collab.

“We reached out to a bar in New York that was about to open and we found out that they couldn’t open because they didn’t have enough funding, and they couldn’t get funding because they were a women’s sports bar,” says Kate Ridley, Chief Brand Officer at Stanley. We were devastated but we realized Stanley is at the intersection of food and beverage culture as well as sport and lifestyle. This is where we can make a meaningful difference to impact the fan experience and the community experience that helps elevate Togethxr’s mission and elevate women’s pop-up sports.”

But it’s not just consumer investing in basketball players and fan experiences. For the second year in a row, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly partnered with Black Health Matters to bring their free mammogram mobile to Phoenix, no insurance or appointment required. “We have to add an additional day because we filled up the first weekend, so now it’s three days of mammograms,” Ana Larios, Managing Director of Black Health Matters, told me from their station outside the Final Four Tourney Town festival.

Former WNBA champion Diana Taurasi, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor, briefly stopped by the mammogram mobile before heading into the street fair to coach a youth basketball clinic on April 4. Despite her alma mater UConn’s devastating loss in the Final Four the previous evening, the retired Olympian and Phoenix Mercury icon was full of positive energy while taking photos with fans and discussing the landmark collective bargaining agreement with Glamour.

“You always want to leave things better than when you got there,” Taurasi said, emphasizing that the CBA will afford more players the option to stay in the US during the off-season instead of playing overseas like Tarausi did for 12 years.

“The CBA just doesn’t happen overnight,” she adds. “The players that came before me that didn’t have a WNBA were fighting for pay equity in the 60s and the 70s. So to see it come to fruition 20 years later and to see what happened last week with the negotiations…this is just an incredible step for not only our league, but all women’s leagues across the world.”

For Tarausi, the next obvious step is to take care of the WNBA players who fought those early battles, though Ogwumike already worked hard to ensure back pay for retired vets made it into the new CBA.

Back at Togethxr House, Ogwumike received a standing ovation from her cohorts when she popped into the JPMorganChase “Banking on What’s Next Panel” with 2025 rookie Aneesah Morrow, 14-year veteran Tiffany Hayes, and Basketball Hall of Famer Swin Cash. Hayes admits she splurged on a Louis Vuitton toiletry bag after the CBA agreement was finalized, to which Morrow joked, “Louis Vuitton got me too.”

The trio spoke candidly about financial education and security, with their varied experiences highlighting just how far the league has come in two decades—and what it means for the future of women’s sports. “Soccer, softball…We’ve got a blueprint,” Cash said of the CBA’s potential impact on other women’s sports before hammering home the unofficial message of the weekend: “Supporting women is not charity, it’s good business.”

All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by Glamour editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission.

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Originally Appeared on Glamour