The WNBA just signed what many are calling the most transformative CBA in league history, raising the salary cap from $1.5 million to $7 million and pushing the average salary to around $600,000 for the 2026 season. For many players, that deal ended the debate over whether to stay or look elsewhere.
Sophie Cunningham, who officially signed with the startup global league Project B back in November, is standing firm on that commitment, and she sat down with Front Office Sports to explain exactly why no amount of CBA progress was going to move her off her position.
Sophie Cunningham Says She Could Play In Project B League
“When they’re offering that type of money, plus the signing bonus, plus having equity in the company, it’s a no-brainer,” Cunningham tells FOS.
“I have financially smart people around me, and they’re like, ‘you got to do it. Your body’s got to suck it up.’ When companies pour into us, they really see our value. That’s not just on the basketball court, that’s just in life as a businesswoman.”
Cunningham isn’t just a player chasing a bigger paycheck. She is talking about equity, about ownership, about being seen as something more than an athlete with a contract that expires when she retires.
Project B is offering players a stake in the company itself, and for a 29-year-old who has spent her entire career watching the WNBA generate enormous capital while paying its players a fraction of what they are worth, that kind of offer has a different kind of impact.
Cunningham spent the first six seasons of her career with the Phoenix Mercury before being traded to the Indiana Fever ahead of 2025. She made roughly $100,000 last season, the same year she became one of the most-followed athletes in women’s basketball.
Reports from Front Office Sports claim that her Project B deal is around $2 million annually, in addition to her equity stake. That number is more than five times the new WNBA supermax of $1.4 million, and it is an almost incomprehensible leap from the $100,000 she took home in 2025.
Even with the WNBA’s new CBA taking a massive step forward, the math between the two leagues is not particularly close for a player in Cunningham’s position, which is likely why the financially savvy people she mentioned in her comments were telling her the answer was obvious.
Cunningham isn’t a free agent anymore. She recently signed a one-year contract worth $665,000 with Indiana and looks set to make a lasting impact on the team as a vet once again.
