The WNBA’s commissioner’s office is about to be empty.
Cathy Engelbert, the league’s first commissioner, will retire at the end of 2026, the league announced on Friday. The announcement from NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
“Cathy has presided over the WNBA through the most significant period of growth in the league’s 30-year history,” Silver said in a statement. “We are grateful for Cathy’s leadership and unwavering commitment to the advancement of women’s basketball.”
Engelbert, 61, has been commissioner since 2019. Every league head prior to her appointment served as president. Taking over for Mark Tatum, Engelbert had previously served as the first female CEO of Deloitte.
“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,” Engelbert said. “Over the years, it has been amazing to watch WNBA players thrive and lead the massive cultural surge around women’s sports.”
While the league has seen unprecedented growth under Engelbert with current expansion teams in Toronto, Portland and San Francisco and future franchises in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as new media contracts, her tenure has been fraught with discontent from players and fans alike over player pay, officiating and a lack of concern over online hate and racism faced by the players.
“We have the best players in the world,” Minnesota Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier said last fall in her role of union vice-president. “We have the best fans in the world. But right now we have the worst leadership in the world. [Officiating] has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates. They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging to be fixed — that is negligence.”
Engelbert says she is walking away confident in the league’s future.
“I retire knowing we have built something bigger, stronger and more enduring than we could have imagined,” she said. “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.”
