Cathy Engelbert to step down as WNBA commissioner at end of 2026

Cathy Engelbert, the first commissioner in WNBA history, announced Friday that she will retire from the role at the end of 2026, closing out a seven-and-a-half-year tenure that saw the league's franchise values, media rights and player salaries multiply several times over. The league confirmed the decision in a statement posted to WNBA.com, which said Engelbert would remain in the role through a transition period while the league searches for a successor.

"After more than seven years at the WNBA and more than 40 total years in business, I have made the decision to retire as WNBA Commissioner," Engelbert said in the release. "I retire knowing we have built something bigger, stronger and more enduring than we could have imagined."

Engelbert, 61, was appointed the league's first commissioner in July 2019 after leaving her post as chief executive of Deloitte US. She told The Associated Press that she had originally planned to stay in the job for three and a half years and that the decision to leave now, after more than double that span, was hers alone. "This is a really good time given the financial transformation journey we've been on," she said, pointing to the completed collective bargaining agreement, a long-term media rights deal and the league's ongoing expansion.

A league transformed by the numbers

The growth Engelbert oversaw is stark by any measure. The league had 12 teams when she took over in 2019; it now fields 15 and, per the league's own announcements, is on a path to 18 franchises by the end of the decade. Average franchise valuations rose from roughly $10 million in 2019 to close to $460 million in 2026, according to figures reported alongside the announcement. In 2024 the league signed a media rights package with Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal reported at $2.2 billion over 11 years, since supplemented by additional carriage deals with Paramount, Scripps, Versant and NBA TV that have pushed the total value of its television agreements beyond $3 billion.

Labor relations produced the tenure's most consequential document. In March 2026 the league and the players' union reached a tentative agreement on a new eight-year collective bargaining agreement, which the sides formally executed in long form that May. The deal gave the league's top earners salaries above $1 million for the first time in its history, with maximum-contract figures set to climb past $2.4 million by the agreement's final year, and it introduced charter air travel for every team, a demand players had pushed for over multiple seasons.

Expansion accelerated on a similar timeline. The Golden State Valkyries joined as a 13th franchise and began play in 2025, followed by the Toronto Tempo, the league's first Canadian franchise, and the Portland Fire this year. The league has since announced further additions in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, staggered for 2028 through 2030, which would bring the total to 18 teams and complete the buildout Engelbert referenced in her statement. Attendance and viewership climbed alongside the expansion: the league set a single-season attendance record in 2025, drawing more than 2.5 million fans across a 13-team schedule, while national telecasts on ESPN's networks averaged roughly 1.2 million viewers that year, the platform's most-watched WNBA season on record.

Growth alongside sustained criticism

Engelbert's stewardship was not universally praised even as the league's business metrics climbed. The negotiations that produced the new labor deal were contentious, and dissatisfaction with the league office spilled into public view a year earlier, in the aftermath of the 2025 playoffs. Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, delivering a prepared statement at her team's season-ending availability after an injury had ended her postseason, took direct aim at Engelbert's leadership over complaints about officiating, player safety and accountability.

"We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world. But right now, we have the worst leadership in the world."

Collier's remarks, delivered on September 30, 2025, drew wide attention within the league and were echoed by other prominent players, including Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, who separately voiced frustration with how the league office had handled player safety and officiating concerns. Engelbert has since acknowledged the toll of the criticism directed at her, saying it extended into vitriol aimed at her family, but maintained that her decision to retire was not made under pressure from players or the league's Board of Governors.

What comes next for the league office

The WNBA's next hire will be just the sixth person to lead the league in its 30-year history and only the second to hold the formal title of commissioner, following the league's earlier presidents. Engelbert said she has spent roughly three years developing a succession framework and has already submitted a list of internal and external candidates to team owners and to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who under the league's governance structure will make the final call on her replacement in consultation with the Board of Governors. Names reported to be under consideration include NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum, WNBPA president and longtime All-Star Nneka Ogwumike, Unrivaled commissioner and former WTA Tour president Micky Lawler, and Ally Financial chief marketing officer Andrea Brimmer.

Silver, who does not run the WNBA's daily operations but sits atop its ownership structure through the NBA's ties to the league, offered a formal tribute to Engelbert's tenure. "Cathy has presided over the WNBA through the most significant period of growth in the league's 30-year history," Silver said, adding that the league was "grateful for Cathy's leadership and unwavering commitment to the advancement of women's basketball."

Engelbert has said she will remain in place past year's end if a successor is not identified in time, extending what the league has described as a four-month transition window. The timing places the search alongside a packed offseason calendar: the league's own key-dates schedule shows the 2026 playoffs opening September 27, with the league also working through the mechanics of expansion franchises and the run-up to an already-lengthened 2027 regular season. Whoever succeeds Engelbert will inherit a league with far larger television audiences and revenue than the one she took over, but also one where players have made clear that continued financial growth has not by itself resolved their complaints about how the business is run day to day.

The transition also lands during a period of structural change for the sport itself. The 2026 season is the first played under the new labor deal, with expansion drafts and relocation logistics for Toronto and Portland still being finalized, and the league is simultaneously preparing for an expanded 44-game slate that grows to 50 games in 2027. Any incoming commissioner will need to manage that operational load while also addressing the officiating and player-safety concerns players raised publicly during the 2025 postseason.