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Engelbert departs after quintupling franchise values and securing **$2.2B** in media rights; her successor inherits CBA talks and **$1B** expansion closings.
$20 million
She leaves with Toronto paying
$115 million
for the 14th franchise and Golden State bidding north…
$1 billion
for the 15th
$2.2 billion
starting in 2026
Cathy Engelbert will step down as WNBA commissioner in December, ending a five-year tenure that rebuilt franchise economics from the ground up. She arrived in 2019 when the average team was valued under $20 million. She leaves with Toronto paying $115 million for the 14th franchise and Golden State bidding north of $1 billion for the 15th.
The league added five expansion franchises during her run—Golden State, Toronto, Portland, Cleveland and another to be announced—and negotiated an 11-year media deal worth approximately $2.2 billion starting in 2026. That structure splits rights across Disney, Amazon and NBC, tripling the annual take from the prior $60 million cable package. Charter flights became standard in 2023 after years of players posting airport-terminal photos. Average attendance rose 48 percent between 2023 and 2024, crossing 10,000 per game for the first time.
What matters is the ownership class she brought in. Mark Davis bought the Aces and moved them to a custom facility in Henderson. Joe Tsai paid $50 million for the Liberty and put them in Barclays Center. Larry Tanenbaum is writing a nine-figure check for Toronto. Engelbert's sales pitch leaned on two numbers: the WNBA's 18-34 female demographic skews 68 percent toward women who make household spending decisions, and jersey sponsors are paying $1 million to $3 million annually for patches the NBA assigns at $8 million to $20 million. The arbitrage is obvious. Sponsors now include Coinbase, Google, Meta and Ally Financial.
The league's financial structure remains opaque. Teams are still losing money—most recent estimates put collective losses near $50 million annually—but the expansion fees are covering league-level debt. The players' union opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement in November, which expires in October 2025. The negotiation will hinge on revenue splits, and the baseline just moved. Players currently receive approximately 10 percent of basketball-related income; NBA players take 50 percent. The media deal resets that conversation.
Engelbert's successor inherits a clean set of problems. The CBA negotiation will define margins for the next decade. Golden State's expansion fee will set the floor for Portland and any 16th team. Nike's apparel deal expires in 2027, and the league will want to triple it. The draft format needs reworking—Paige Bueckers is headed to a lottery team in a Dallas market that would pay double for her—and schedule expansion to 44 games will require arena cooperation NBA teams don't always offer.
The commissioner search is already underway. The league is using DHR Global, the same firm that placed Engelbert. Names circulating include former NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, current NBA executive vice president Kathy Behrens, and Wasserman Media Group's Casey Wasserman, though Wasserman is considered unlikely to leave the agency. The board wants someone who can close the next media renewal in 2037 and manage what is now a $1 billion asset class.
Engelbert's final board meeting is December 17th. Golden State's expansion ceremony is tentatively scheduled for January, with a $1.05 billion fee now reported. Portland follows in early 2025 at approximately $750 million. The CBA talks begin in February. Her replacement will be named before the draft in April, which means the search is happening now, not later.
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