Outgoing WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said on Saturday, Oct. 17, "thick skin" is a requirement for her replacement, who will take over the league helm following a period of extraordinary growth and controversy.
A search for the next WNBA commissioner is underway after Engelbert, who served as the league's top executive for seven years, announced Sept. 4 that she plans to retire at the end of this year. Speaking to reporters before Game 1 of the Finals between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center in San Francisco, Engelbert was asked what qualities she believes are necessary for the next commissioner.
"You have to have very thick skin," Englebert said. "And you have to have confidence that we can continue this growth
trajectory and confidence in building relationships with players and agents, the board of governors, the owners and the stakeholders."
Engelbert came under fire for her tumultuous relationship with players, particularly while negotiating a landmark collective bargaining agreement that was agreed to in March after 18 months of negotiations. In September 2025, Minnesota Lynx All-Star Napheesa Collier used her end-of-season media availability to unleash a scathing critique of the WNBA's governance and what she described as a "lack of accountability from the league office." Collier also aired a private conversation with Engelbert, in which she said the commissioner brushed off concerns about officiating and said players should be grateful for what they earn.
"Not everybody's gonna like you or agree with your strategy," Engelbert said on Oct. 17. "But that's why you have a key team and you have advisors and you have people who know what they're doing to grow the league. We're constantly working on that. ... I think in collective bargaining, yes, there was a lot of contentiousness, but I mean, again, if you talk to a lot of people who do collective bargaining negotiations, they're saying, 'Cathy, that means you've arrived as a league, because if you didn't have that contentiousness, either side would not have felt like they won.'"
The new CBA, which runs through 2032, increased player pay five fold and allows for salary cap and revenue share increases over the lifetime of the agreement.
During Engelbert's tenure, the WNBA and its teams skyrocketed in value as television ratings rose and player salaries increased. The WNBA is set to expand from 12 to 15 teams with Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029) and Philadelphia (2030) launching within the next four years. Engelbert also helped negotiate an 11-year, $3.1 billion media rights agreement.
The WNBA also found itself at the center of a national conversation about transgender sports participation after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said she wanted to protect women athletes from playing against "biological men." Although no transgender women have ever played in the WNBA, Cunningham's comments sparked a wave of demonstrations outside WNBA arenas from people both supporting and denouncing transgender athletes' participation in sports. Engelbert criticized people for using the league to "sow divisiveness."
On Oct. 17, Engelbert once again condemned people who used social media to "spew vitriol and hate and racism and misogyny at our players."
"It continues to be unacceptable, and we’re, obviously, have worked on kind of a cyber side of that," Engelbert said. "We worked on the physical security side of that by putting more physical security around our players in arenas, outside of arenas, as they travel and things like that, which again none of that existed a few years ago. So we’ve made those investments, and I think the players see the difference.”
Asked to reflect on her legacy, Engelbert said she was proudest of hiring people who helped transform the WNBA into a growing business. Since she took over as commissioner in May 2019, when the league had no chief marketing officer or chief growth officer, the league office and individual teams have significantly built out staff.
"Legacies are for history books to write. I'm not writing it," Engelbert said. "I think we made decisions that really put the W and the WNBA and women's basketball at the forefront under this strategy of player-first, stakeholder success and fan experience. It's really about people investment."
Engelbert gets updates on search for next WNBA commissioner
Engelbert said she's met with the search firm charged with finding her replacement, Excel Search & Advisory, and is receiving periodic updates on the process. She said she submitted several candidates for the role, which she described as "multidimensional."
Engelbert said the next WNBA commissioner must be able to manage the league stakeholders – owners, investors, players, referees, corporate partners and media – work closely with individual WNBA teams and build relationships with players and their agents.
"When I took it over, I didn't realize how broad the platform could become and how we became such a growth stock, as one of our owners called it," she said. "Which has been positive, but it came with some negatives around the attention and the vitriol that's unacceptable that our players get."
Engelbert said she spent the last 3 ½ years developing a succession plan for various scenarios.
"A succession management process looks at people who could take over if I get hit by a bus, people who could take over ready now, two to five years, five-plus years. That's how you do succession," Engelbert said. "We have internal and external candidates that, in my kind of matrix, I've been tracking and talking with the Board of Governors about it every November. And so the search firm, the good news is there's a lot of interest in the job, which I'm excited about, and I think there's a lot of different characteristics I think we're all looking for."
Engelbert says WNBA replay center will be ready for 2027
Engelbert said everything is "on track" for the WNBA to have a centralized replay system in place for next season.
The WNBA has completed a multimillion-dollar renovation of the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey, and will be fully operational by the start of the 2027 season. The next step involves installing the necessary technology in all 15 WNBA arenas, Engelbert said.
WNBA officiating has faced intense scrutiny this season due to a spike in foul calls and several miscommunications in high-profile games. In the WNBA semifinals, the New York Liberty lost Game 2 to Atlanta after the Liberty did not realize they had a timeout remaining; after the game, New York players and officials offered differing versions of events.
Adding a replay center also dovetails with the WNBA's efforts to invest in technology, something Engelbert emphasized several times in her pre-Finals comments.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: After turbulent WNBA tenure, Cathy Engelbert says successor needs ‘thick skin’
