Challenged by the players, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert will retire at the end of this season.
According to ESPN, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has decided to retire at the end of this 2026/2027 season. The executive is facing criticism, particularly from the WMBA players, after difficult negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement.
The WNBA is expected to undergo a major transformation soon. According to the ESPN, Cathy Engelbert has decided to retire and will step down as commissioner of WNBA at the end of the season. She was appointed in 2019, the 61-year-old former Deloitte executive faced criticism, particularly from the players. Following the expiration of the collective bargaining deel, negotiations to sign a new CBA were protracted and contentious before finally concluding in March.
“We have the best players in the world here, the best supporters in the world, but right now, we have the worst leadership in the world,” Minnesota star Napheesa Collier, vice president of the players’ union, declared last November. According to the ESPN sourse, relations between Engelbert and the players had not improved yet. Alyssa Thomas (Phoenix) notably criticized the executive for her delayed support after she was subjected to a wave of online harassment following a foul on Caitlin Clark (Indiana) player.
Engelbert will step down after the negotiating two collective bargaining agreements, the first on 2020 and the second in 2026, which have pushed the highest WNBA salaries past the symbolic $1 million annual mark. His successor will be the sixth head of the North American league tornament, created in 1996, in a leadership structure that places NBA Commissioner Adam Silver at the top.
