WNBA free agency opens with $1.4 million franchise tags for Ionescu, Collier and Plum

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Expansion franchises Portland and Toronto extended franchise tag offers to players. The Fire selected Bridget Carleton with the first pick in the draft last week and offered her the tag. The Tempo did the same for Marina Mabrey, whom they took with the sixth pick.

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The franchise tag is a way for a team to prevent a player from leaving in free agency without getting anything in return for them. The teams and players can also negotiate doing a sign-and-trade agreement for those players.

Starting in 2027, players can only be given the core designation twice, and it can only be if they have less than seven years of experience in the league.

Teams were also able to send out reserved and restricted qualifying offers to players during this designation period, which began Monday. Negotiations will go from Wednesday to Friday, with players able to start signing Saturday.

Training camp is scheduled to begin on April 19 with the first preseason games on April 25.

The start of free agency was delayed until this month because of a prolonged negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement that was not agreed to and ratified until late March. The long-form contract is still being executed by both sides.

More than 80% of the league’s veteran players are free agents this year, as players had signed deals that expired at the end of last season to capitalize on higher salaries from the new CBA.

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

The Canadian Press