WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert will retire at the end of this year, the league announced Friday.
Engelbert, 61, has been the commissioner since July 2019.
“I retire knowing we have built something bigger, stronger and more enduring than we could have imagined,” she said in a statement. “I am grateful to the WNBA and NBA team owners and staff, players, investors, fans and the powerhouse league office staff, who believed in what this league could become. I retire with immense gratitude and tremendous optimism for the future of the WNBA, with the best yet to come.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver added, via his own statement: “Cathy has presided over the WNBA through the most significant period of growth in the league’s 30-year history. We are grateful for Cathy’s leadership and unwavering commitment to the advancement of women’s basketball.”
Engelbert’s tenure has been marked by both massive growth for the league and tensions between players and the league office.
Last September, Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier blasted Engelbert, saying the WNBA had “the worst leadership in the world.”
“The real threat to our league isn’t money,” Collier said at the time. “It isn’t ratings or even missed calls or even physical play. It’s the lack of accountability from the league office.”
Collier’s comments came on the heels of growing frustration over the WNBA’s officiating, as well as in the midst of a contentious collective bargaining negotiation.
The league and players didn’t agree to a new collective bargaining agreement until March of this year, and the agreement secured players $1 million salaries for the first time, and also introduced a new revenue-sharing model.
Though Engelbert faced frequent criticisms from players and pundits, ranging from her handling of labor negotiations to the league’s response to culture war battles, she also presided over a boom period in the WNBA’s history.
In 2024, the league signed a new television deal with Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal reportedly worth $2.2 billion over 11 years. The WNBA has since added Paramount, Scripps, Versant and NBA TV as partners, bringing the total value of its TV rights to more than $3 billion.
The WNBA is also expanding to 18 teams by 2030. After adding franchises in San Francisco (2025), Toronto (2026) and Portland (2026), the league will have teams in Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029) and Philadelphia (2030) by the start of the next decade.
Engelbert was named the WNBA’s first commissioner in 2019, as previous leaders of the league held only the title of president. She was challenged soon into her tenure, as the league had to hold its entire 2020 season in a bubble setting in Florida amid the Covid pandemic.
The WNBA is currently in the middle of its 30th season, and appears to be continuing to grow. On Aug. 26, the game between the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky averaged 3.31 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, making it the league’s most-watched game since 1997, the WNBA’s inaugural season.
