Seven years in charge. Two collective bargaining agreements signed, a broadcast audience that kept climbing, and an expansion map that runs to 18 franchises by 2030. Cathy Engelbert is walking away from all of it when the year closes out.
A contract she could have renewed, and did not
The WNBA commissioner told the league on Friday she would retire at the end of December. She is 61. Hired in 2019 straight from the top job at Deloitte, she became the first person to hold the commissioner title in league history, and her deal was written to expire after the 2026 season anyway. She simply declined to extend it.
Adam Silver framed the exit generously. “Cathy has led the WNBA through the most significant growth period in the league’s 30-year history,” the NBA boss said in a statement.
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Napheesa Collier called it the worst leadership in the world
The last twelve months were ugly. Collier, the Minnesota Lynx forward, went public with the word “negligent” and did not stop there, describing Engelbert’s tenure as the “worst leadership in the world”. Sophie Cunningham piled on last month, telling USA Today the league needed someone more “bold and confident” and less preoccupied with itself. The Indiana guard was not speaking alone.
Two things survive her regardless. The Commissioner’s Cup, the in-season tournament she launched in 2021. And the jump to a 44-game regular season in 2025, a number that climbs again to 50 in 2027.
The timing could hardly be worse
Expansion to 18 teams is on the table right now. Broadcast rights get more expensive every season. And the players have worked out exactly how loud they can be. Whoever replaces her inherits all three at once.
“I leave knowing that we have built something bigger, stronger and more lasting than we could have imagined,” Engelbert wrote in her statement. Back in 2019 she described the league she was taking over as undervalued and largely untapped. The search for her successor starts now.
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