The most criticized commissioner in all of sports, Cathy Engelbert of the WNBA, is stepping down.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert will retire at the end of the season, ending a tumultuous, oft-criticized tenure in which the league reached new heights of popularity, the league announced Friday. ESPN’s Alexa Phillipou had previously reported the news on social media.
Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press, who spoke to Engelbert on the record about her retirement, wrote the commissioner “insists that the decision to leave was solely her own and that she did not feel any pressure to step down from NBA or WNBA stakeholders.”
Engelbert became the commissioner of the WNBA in 2019 and presided over the league as it experienced unprecedented growth in viewership and national relevance, most of which occurred after Caitlin Clark entered the league in 2024.
Despite the success, Englebert’s tenure has been largely marked by criticism from the players, who have found her distant and unresponsive to their concerns, whether on issues of officiating or online harassment. Last year, Lynx F Napheesa Collier described the league as having the “worst leadership in the world,” specifically accusing Engelbert of saying in a private conversation that the players should be “on their knees, thanking their lucky stars” for the media rights deal the league struck in 2024, and that Clark in particular “should be grateful” because “she wouldn’t make anything” without the league’s platform.
Engelbert’s tenure was widely believed to be on thin ice after that point. Her position was further compromised by the slew of controversies the WNBA has experienced since Clark’s arrival in 2024, including some of her own creation — notably (and inexplicably) wearing a dress featuring the New York skyline to deciding game of the Minnesota-New York WNBA Finals at the end of that 2024 season.
Between the increase in television ratings, media rights revenue and franchise values, the addition of three new teams with more to come, and a new collective bargaining agreement that has enriched the players after nearly three decades of minuscule salaries (by pro sports standards), there can be no question that the WNBA is far better off now than when Engelbert arrived. The disconnect between the league’s success and perceptions of Engelbert’s performance made her continued position obviously untenable.
Engelbert is the first commissioner in the history of the WNBA, as her four predecessors — Val Ackerman, Donna Orender, Laurel Richie and Lisa Borders — all occupied the position of “president.” She came to the league from Deloitte, making her the third-straight leader to come from the corporate ranks rather than sports. (Borders arrived from Coca-Cola and Richie from the Girl Scouts.)
Upon the selection of the next commissioner, the WNBA will have had more presidents and commissioners in its 30-year history (six) than the NBA has had in its 80 (five).
