England captain Heather Knight has sounded a simple yet ominous warning for Cricket Australia ahead of the start of the WBBL.
Shrink its length, or the number of big-name overseas players may shrink instead.
"It's definitely something I have to think about a bit more now, (whether to sign up)" Knight said.
"It's obviously a long tournament, the schedule is just so different to what it used to be both internationally and with all the other franchise tournaments."
Knight's warning is delivered with no animosity and is not intended as a threat.
But rather, it is a genuine reflection of the changing face of global women's cricket.
When the ninth edition of the WBBL begins on Thursday night with the Sydney Sixers hosting the Melbourne Stars, it comes with a hugely expanded salary cap and an improved schedule with less neutral venues.
But it still exists in a very different environment to when the tournament launched in 2015.
At its core, the six-and-a-half-week competition remains the best women's franchise cricket league in the world.
But there is now competition, with England having launched the Hundred and India the WPL in recent years.
Other leagues continue to pop up, while the best players are also playing more international cricket than ever.
The squeeze is on, and the calls are growing louder for the WBBL to follow the men and drop from 14 rounds to 10.
"I think that would make it more attractive," Knight told AAP.
"You look at the Hundred, it's a comp that's condensed into three-and-a-half weeks. Same with the WPL.
"There's players that have not put themselves forward for the whole comp. Danni Wyatt has pulled out.
"You want the best players playing really. A lot of that is around just managing your workload physically and mentally."
Knight's voice is not alone and officials know the competition is entering a critical juncture where decisions must be made about its next evolution.
In the past week the likes of Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy, Ashleigh Gardner, Jess Jonassen and Georgia Wareham have all advocated for a shorter season.
But decisions on scheduling are not easy, and the voices beyond Australia's international stars must also be listened to.
Big Bash bosses had seriously considered dropping the league to 10 rounds this year, in a move effectively designed to cut the fat out of the schedule.
But the proposal was knocked back by two states, that wanted to protect the domestic players who hold the WBBL as the pinnacle of their season.
A squeeze may inevitably come next season, when a women's T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in October threatens to cause a scheduling clash.
Beyond that, there are also fears from some players that India's lucrative WPL could move into the same calendar space as the WBBL and cause even greater headaches.
Even with a shorter season, Cricket Australia would still face headaches on how to provide premium content for domestic women's players to replace it.
There is a case for the introduction of domestic red-ball matches given the rise in Test matches, but AAP has been told that is extremely unlikely.
Another option would be the return of state-based T20 matches in the lead up to the WBBL, but the games would still need context.
"I think you can only drop the games once that's been established, and it's not just a hit-and-giggle preseason comp," Jonassen said.
"Because ultimately, a reduction of WBBL games is going to help facilitate the international talent coming over and keep generating that revenue.
"But you've got to also remember the domestic players that don't play international cricket. This is all that they do."
For others such as Ellyse Perry, the length of the tournament shouldn't be the main consideration.
Instead, it should be how to regularly drive crowds into big stadiums going forward, as the league returns to the SCG, MCG and Adelaide Oval later in the summer.
"I think it's really simplistic to just look at the length and the matches in isolation and pose that as a solution," Perry said.
"For me, it's probably a bit broader than that and.
"What we're trying to achieve is a really successful and commercially viable competition that hopefully evolves into being played in the major stadiums around the country with really big crowds on a weekly basis.
"And there's lots of considerations in that, rather than just talking about the length of the season.
"It's actually probably about working what's relevant for us to achieve that goal. That's what we should be aiming for."
Perry's Sixers will enter this season as favourites.
But it's the answer to other questions that loom as most crucial for the WBBL for well beyond the next two months.
