Report: Cathy Engelbert 'Likely' Out As WNBA Commissioner Once CBA Is Finalized

The league's labor-management acrimony has been thrust out into the open.

Cathy Engelbert is reportedly on her way out as WNBA commissioner. / Andrew Dolph / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

For WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, the end of the line appears near.

Engelbert is "likely" to exit as league commissioner upon the ratification of the WNBA's new collective bargaining agreement, according to a Tuesday report from Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal.

News of the commissioner's hypothetical departure, which Friend wrote has been building for some time, follows lacerating comments from Lynx forward Napheesa Collier about the state of league leadership that received widespread coverage Tuesday.

"The sources said Engelbert’s presumed departure, six years after arriving from [the accounting firm] Deloitte, is relationship driven, tied to the way she has dealt with colleagues and players amid unprecedented growth within the league," Friend wrote.

Engelbert took office in 2019, and helped shepherd the league through the COVID-19 pandemic and an explosive growth period in the years following. However, with the league's collective bargaining agreement up Oct. 31—and its players, backed by a groundswell of popular support, eager for a bigger slice of the pie—it appears a change at the top may be on the horizon for what is suddenly a big business.

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