Opinion: Cathy Engelbert is holding the WNBA back

Cathy Engelbert is a very successful businesswoman. Her business-minded approach has not always been what’s best for the WNBA, though.

When Cathy Engelbert took over as WNBA commissioner in 2019, there was a tremendous amount of optimism around the hire. Engelbert left her position as CEO of Deloitte, one of the largest firms in the world, to become the first commissioner in league history (previous WNBA leaders held the title of president). Securing Deloitte’s first female CEO as the first commissioner of the league was a huge win.

At the time of the hire, NBA commissioner Adam Silver called Engelbert a “world-class business leader” who was “the ideal person to lead the WNBA into its next phase of growth.”

When Engelbert took over, she said she saw “tremendous opportunity to bolster visibility for the sport of women’s basketball, empower the players, and enhance fan engagement.”

Three years in, Engelbert has done little to inspire confidence in her ability to do that.

If anything, she has done the opposite.

Cathy Engelbert has done some things right…

Engelbert’s first season at the helm went smoothly. Her first major obstacle came in 2020 when the CBA needed to be signed.

The new CBA had many good provisions in it. Sizable salary increases, maternity leave, and “improved” travel conditions were among the important changes the agreement brought.

Then the league had to figure out how to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league proposed a shorter season to the players, but with reduced salaries. The players pushed back on the deal and eventually won out, securing 100 percent of their salaries for the season. But it wasn’t easy, and the players felt that the league was “not listening” to them during the negotiations.

There were numerous unprecedented challenges around player health, as well. Engelbert and the league teamed up with JobSiteCare to plan out the “Wubble,” a small, quarantined site where the WNBA could carry out its season.

The league secured a deal to set up the “Wubble” at IMG Academy for a 22-game season. Every game was nationally televised and carried a message honoring Breonna Taylor and the “Say Her Name” Movement, at the request of the players.

The season (and events within it) led to the formation of the WNBA’s Social Justice Council, a player-led committee that created “spaces for community conversations, virtual roundtables, and other activations to address this country’s long history of inequality, implicit bias and systemic racism that has targeted black and brown communities.”

The league emerged out of the “Wubble” more popular than it went in. Viewership increased by 68 percent. That growth continued into the 2021 and 2022 seasons, with both breaking viewership records across both the regular season and postseason. During those seasons, the league added new viewing platforms and continued adding nationally televised games.

So far, the “Wubble” is Engelbert’s one shining moment.

“Empowering the players” has not happened as it should

Let’s be clear: the “Wubble” was an impressive achievement. It did “bolster visibility for women’s basketball.” But one impressive achievement does not outshine a litany of missteps.

Engelbert’s first major failing takes effect this season: the prioritization clause. The clause ultimately screws the players and allows league owners to be cheap. The owners expect players to prioritize the league over their other sources of income, while the owners prioritize their own income over the players’ opportunities. The league took the position that the salary increases that were given were because of what is to come, not what had already occurred. It did its players dirty.

Engelbert called the clause a “quid pro quo” for better compensation opportunities for the players, and “wholeheartedly” supported the owners in pushing for it. Given that Engelbert technically works for the owners, it’s no surprise she framed the clause in that way. But what she’s saying and what the players are saying do not align, at all.

The clause has received major pushback from some of the league’s biggest stars. It puts players in a tough position. They often make more overseas than they do in the WNBA. Now, they risk an entire source of income regardless of which league they choose to play in.

On top of that, some believe that the players were not given the full extent of prioritization during negotiations, since they had to agree to it, too. Engelbert’s goal was to “empower the players,” yet prioritization does the exact opposite. And she was a driving factor in its inclusion in the CBA.

“Simplifying the fan experience” has not happened

In February 2022, the WNBA announced a record $75 million capital raise. The capital was funded via selling equity in the league and was the largest amount ever raised in a single investment round by a women’s sports franchise. Engelbert explained that “transforming the economics of our league including our digital footprint” and “simplifying the fan experience” were two key areas of focus that the capital would help improve.

The 2022 season saw no changes to either, despite Engelbert saying the league could “do some more things now” after securing the investment.

The league’s “digital footprint” showed no improvement at all during the 2022 season. The official league Twitter page was lackluster at best and made errors, posted incorrect or outdated graphics, and failed to connect with fans.

The league pushed its redesigned app, claiming it was improved from the year before, but the changes were simply cosmetic. The app features some exclusive videos, but the function of the app was still buggy and rather useless. The tabs for scores, schedule, standings, and stats just open WNBA’s website, instead of having the pages present in the app, meaning users could simply use their mobile browser to find the information they were looking for.

WNBA League Pass also remained a nightmare to use, as fans and users found themselves constantly being logged out during games, unable to watch games due to blackouts, and unable to watch multiple games at once. The app also was not available on some streaming devices, such as Roku. On top of that, as part of the league’s “growth,” some games were shown on other streaming services such as Amazon’s Prime Video, which further limited access to them.

Many of these issues were turnoffs for diehard fans. Their impact on newer or more casual fans was even more tremendous. For a league whose commissioner swears they’re “listening to fans,” it certainly didn’t seem like it this season, despite the build-up around the capital raise.

And that’s just the digital fan experience

Engelbert also made a giant mess of WNBA All-Star Weekend. The events were hosted in Chicago, home of the 2021 WNBA champion Sky.

The weekend was a disaster from day one.

The first day featured the skills competition and 3-point shooting contest. However, instead of being held in Wintrust Arena where the Sky play, the events were held in a convention center nearby. Wintrust was unavailable because of a cookware convention. To make things worse, the relocated events were closed to the public.

Fans were forced to watch the event on TV, and even that was a mess. Some fans moved to the “fan fest” area, which was described as “little more than a mosh pit in a parking lot.” The competitions were slated to play on ESPN but were moved to ESPNU just minutes before their start so ESPN could play the end of the men’s doubles at Wimbledon. ESPNU is not as widely accessible as the main channel, and the move knocked many fans out of being able to see the event. While ESPN did rebroadcast the competitions later, the damage had already been done.

Later that day, there was an invitation-only concert featuring Chicago rapper Chance the Rapper. When asked why the concert attendance was so limited, Engelbert had this to say:

"Because of security concerns given dating way back to Mandalay Bay, dating back to other things that have happened here in Chicago and Uvalde and Buffalo and there’s a lot of concern about outdoor events right now unfortunately in our country, so we were just trying to do the best we could."

Engelbert added that she and the league had “consulted with security experts, Chicago PD, our WNBA security experts.” Chicago PD quickly released a statement saying that they “did not advise the WNBA to cancel or not to hold outdoor events.”

The All-Star weekend fiasco stems directly from Engelbert and the league’s failure to plan further in advance for what should’ve been an exciting weekend in a basketball hotbed. Instead, it was a failure that deviated from a successful precedent.

The lack of progress on expansion is concerning

The hottest topic around the WNBA has been expansion. Fans want it. Players want it. But the league seems overly hesitant to move towards it.

Part of what has always made the WNBA unique is its willingness to make ambitious changes. Early in the league’s existence, it was maybe a bit too ambitious. Between 1998 and 2000, the league doubled in size, adding eight teams in just three years. Of the 16 teams that played in the 2000 season, 10 are still around today, with three having relocated.

The Sky and Dream were added in 2006 and 2008, respectively, and both have seen great success. So why the hesitation now?

That is a question Engelbert herself can’t even give a solid answer to.

When discussing expansion with The Athletic, Engelbert said a whole lot of nothing new:

"We’ve got data, we’ve got interesting discussions going on but it’s not something we’re going to rush it to just to say we expand. I’ve told so many business leaders this, and they all seem to agree with me — like I’m a big, big believer in let’s transform the economics and then we’ll expand, not expand and then hope that economics transform. We want to bring new owners in that are going to be successful in standing up a franchise that can compete for a championship. So I’m not in a rush, but yeah, would we like to get it done in the next few years? Absolutely."

Compare that to the way NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman discussed the expansion of her league, and you’ll see why WNBA fans are fed up with Engelbert’s consistently vague answers on the topic.

Engelbert also added that the league is looking at 10 particular ownership groups, which was the same number she gave when she spoke to The Athletic in June. She also told them at that time that she aimed to “identify one or two cities for an expansion franchise by the start of the WNBA playoffs in September or by year’s end at the latest.”

Well, it is now December, and neither deadline has been met, and Engelbert still hasn’t been able to give a solid answer as to why, or what the league has been doing in the meantime. She even went as far as saying they had been “busy assisting” with the “full hands-on effort” to bring Brittney Griner home.

Engelbert is a businesswoman, but not a sport businesswoman

There is a large disconnect between the WNBA front office and pretty much everyone else in the league. Engelbert does not seem to understand the nuances that come with working in sports. She is more focused on things like corporate partnerships than continuing to build the fanbase. For all the good she talks about the players, it doesn’t seem like she is truly on their side often enough.

Even in her business endeavors, there are concerns that beg the question if she is the right fit for this particular league. Her praise of former President Donald Trump, involvement with ICE, and mishandling of a sexual assault investigation don’t align at all with what the league stands for. It certainly doesn’t align with what the players stand for.

As important as money is, the WNBA is not in a place where that can be the sole focus. Alienating existing fans, hindering new fans from accessing the game, and making players have to choose between league and livelihood are not ways to better the WNBA. Not right now.

There are ways to improve the financial status of the league without completely ignoring what makes it unique. Engelbert uses the buzzwords that go along with doing that: accessibility, visibility, expansion. But her actions have spoken far louder than her words.

There needs to be more emphasis on the human element of the WNBA. And Cathy Engelbert is not the right person to do that.