WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert will retire at the end of 2026, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, closing a more-than-seven-year tenure that remade the league’s finances while drawing sharp player criticism, the Associated Press and CNBC reported.

“Cathy has presided over the WNBA through the most significant period of growth in the league’s 30-year history,” Silver said. Engelbert, who turns 62 in November, told the AP she had been thinking about retiring for months and insisted the choice was hers alone. “When I first came to the league I intended to do this for 3 1/2 years,” she said. “The 7 1/2 years exceeded that time. This is a really good time given the financial transformation journey we’ve been on. Getting the collective bargaining agreement done, getting a long-term media rights deal done, getting expansion done.”

Under Engelbert — the league’s first commissioner after she left Deloitte in 2019 — average franchise value rose from about $10 million in 2019 to roughly $460 million in 2026, per AP and CNBC figures. CNBC said viewership is up roughly 454% and attendance about 70% since 2019, with expansion on a path from 12 to 18 teams by 2030. This year’s CBA produced the league’s first million-dollar player salaries. New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, a players’ union vice president, said Friday she was “happy for” Engelbert despite a “tough” CBA fight.

The growth came with friction. Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier last year called the league’s leadership “the worst … in the world.” Players have pressed the office on pay, officiating, online harassment, and how the league talks about eligibility rules. Engelbert told the AP the WNBA has “no current eligibility issues” on transgender athletes and that any future question would go through a thoughtful policy process with the players’ association. She said succession work is underway with internal and external candidates; if no replacement is ready by Jan. 1, she offered to stay on. “A leader knows when it’s time to drop the mic,” she said.

Sources