Cathy Engelbert will retire as commissioner of the WNBA at the end of 2026 after seven years leading the women’s basketball property.
The departure of Engelbert, the first-ever official commissioner of the WNBA, was announced on Friday by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
She has presided over a period of significant growth during her tenure as WNBA commissioner. This includes a substantial franchise expansion from, 12 to 18 teams, by 2030.
This year alone has seen the addition of both the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo. Teams from Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia will join by the decade’s end, meanwhile.
The aforementioned growth has also included major gains in television viewership, game attendance, sponsorship revenue, and franchise values.
The average WNBA team is now worth $460 million, according to CNBC. The Golden State Valkyries, which joined the league in 2025, is the first women’s team in any sport to be valued at $1 billion.
Viewership has climbed roughly 454% and attendance has increased about 70% since 2019, according to the WNBA.
Silver said: “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 also helped negotiate a key $3.1 billion media rights deal and a landmark collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which the league expects to deliver more than $1 billion in player salaries and benefits over the seven-year term.
That 11-year media rights deal resulted in a major increase to the league’s annual revenue – to the tune of $281 million – and includes partners Amazon, Disney and NBC. The deal also resulted in more than 200 games being streamed or aired live this season (out of 330 total regular-season games).
The new CBA, which will run through the 2032 season, has set the new salary cap at $7 million per team, an increase of over 400% on the previous CBA’s limit, set at $1.5 million.
The deal includes the first revenue-sharing agreement between the WNBA and the WNBPA, enshrined in the CBA, with the salary cap to be adjusted on a season-by-season basis based on the league’s overall revenue growth. The new CBA will ultimately deliver the biggest pay increases in the WNBA’s history.
However, the CBA discussions were drawn out between the league and the players’ association, which threatened a lockout.
In all, over 100 hours of negotiations were required to ameliorate the divide between the two parties on prominent issues such as the salary system and revenue sharing.
The last CBA expired after the 2025 campaign, with the WNBA opting out of the final year of that agreement (which would have covered 2026) in October 2024 in favor of entering a new negotiation period.
Protracted negotiations took place since the opt-out, but there was significant trouble in reaching a deal, with both sides at times accusing the other of refusing to engage with the process. Engelbert described the talks as “contentious”.
During the CBA process and her overall tenure, Engelbert faced criticism from players, with tension over issues such as pay, officiating, and the league’s handling of player concerns.
Engelbert – who before taking over at the WNBA was the chief executive at professional services firm Deloitte – will retire from the role on 31 December and will then support the league in finding a successor.
In her statement, Engelbert said: “In 2019, I had the privilege of being appointed the league’s first commissioner and to lead a league with enormous potential yet untapped awareness and significant undervaluation.
“Over the years, it has been amazing to watch WNBA players thrive and lead the massive cultural surge around women’s sports.”
In 2022, Engelbert led a $75 million capital raise – the largest-ever investment round in women’s sports – to fund long-term growth initiatives, including marketing and fan engagement, upgrading the WNBA’s digital products and distribution, and growing the league’s footprint internationally.
The regular-season schedule has also expanded to 44 games and will grow to 50 in 2027.
Engelbert added: “I retire knowing we have built something bigger, stronger and more enduring than we could have imagined.
“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.”
