{"id":12685,"date":"2025-07-21T10:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T10:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/12685\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T10:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T10:26:09","slug":"wnba-commissioner-cathy-engelbert-better-not-drive-wnba-into-a-ditch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/12685\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert better not drive WNBA into a ditch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

WNBA players make CBA statement with t-shirts<\/p>\n

USAT’s Meghan Hall shares how the WNBA players make a huge statement during CBA negotiations with t-shirts at the All-Star game.<\/p>\n

Sports Seriously<\/p>\n

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 In case their message to the WNBA and its owners wasn\u2019t already clear, the players sent another one ahead of the All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

Taking the court for warmups, every single player wore a black T-shirt with \u201cPay Us What You Owe Us\u201d <\/a>emblazoned across the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be paid more and hopefully that’s the case moving forward as we continue to grow,\u201d Caitlin Clark said ahead of Saturday night\u2019s game. “That’s probably the most important thing that we’re advocating for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The players\u2019 unwavering stance stands in stark contrast to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert\u2019s almost-Pollyannish take in her annual “state of the union” address. To hear Engelbert tell it, everything is hunky dory and this is just the normal back-and-forth that occurs in every labor negotiation.<\/p>\n

“I want to call it constructive. We had a candid dialogue and this is part of the process,\u201d Engelbert said.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s what Engelbert has to say publicly. But she had better be far more unsparing when she\u2019s talking to WNBA owners. Because this contract won\u2019t only be transformational for the WNBA and its players, it will define Engelbert\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

Engelbert will either be the commissioner who oversaw a historic righting of wrongs for women athletes. Or she\u2019ll be the one who drove this rocket-fueled league into a ditch.<\/p>\n

“I just want to say I really respect the players,\u201d Engelbert said before the game. “The goal (is) to have a fair CBA for all. I want a lot of the same things the players want. I said that last time, too, and it’s not changed. But we also have to have a process where we go back and forth, and that’s where we are in the process.<\/p>\n

“So again, still really optimistic that we’ll get something done, that it’ll be transformational, and that next year at All-Star we’ll be talking about how great everything is,” Engelbert said. “But, obviously, there’s a lot of hard work to be done on both sides to get there.”<\/p>\n

The crowd booed Engelbert and chanted “Pay Them! Pay Them!” as she presented the All-Star MVP trophy to Napheesa Collier, whose team beat Team Clark 151-131.<\/p>\n

Again, Engelbert has to speak carefully. She answers not only to the WNBA owners, but to the NBA. Anyone who\u2019s ever heard NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speak for more than 30 seconds understands this.<\/p>\n

More: 2025 WNBA All-Star Game live updates: Results, highlights for Team Clark vs. Team Collier<\/a><\/p>\n

But the players aren\u2019t stupid, and Engelbert would be wise to remember that when she tries to sell a narrative that is as insulting as it is disingenuous.<\/p>\n

Take what she said about revenue sharing. This, along with higher salaries, is a priority for the players, who see the league and its owners reaping the benefits of the WNBA\u2019s popularity and wonder when it\u2019s going to be their turn.<\/p>\n

When Engelbert was asked about this, she said the league has revenue sharing. Sorry, but players only getting 10% when all of the major men\u2019s professional leagues have 50\/50 splits, is not revenue sharing. It\u2019s an allowance.<\/p>\n

A bad one at that.<\/p>\n

“We want to significantly increase their salary and benefits while balancing with our owners\u2019 ability to have a path to profitability, as well as to continued investment,\u201d Engelbert said.<\/p>\n

“You see tens of millions of dollars being invested in practice facilities and other player experiences by teams, and we want to strike the right balance between those two,\u201d Engelbert said. “That\u2019s helped our hypergrowth, it’s helped our free agency, it’s helped our players play in places where they’re getting a great player experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

And therein is the disconnect.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Why Napheesa Collier has more sway than anyone in the WNBA right now<\/a><\/p>\n

No one ever asks NBA or NFL players to take a discount because they\u2019ve got a swanky new locker room or are flying charter. These are considered the cost of doing business in the big leagues, and it should be no different in the WNBA. The players deserve first-class facilities because they\u2019re world-class athletes, and they shouldn\u2019t have to forego some of their earnings to get them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true the NBA helped keep the league afloat for many years \u2014 though just once I\u2019d like the folks who use this to diminish the W to consider the systemic misogyny responsible for this \u2014 and those owners want compensation for that investment. But team valuations are not skyrocketing and sponsors are not flocking to the W because of the owners.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re coming because of the players. Because of Clark and Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese and Napheesa Collier and Sabrina Ionescu and, soon, Azzi Fudd and JuJu Watkins.<\/p>\n

“Having new brands come in, having new sponsors come in, is exactly what we want. We just also want to reap the benefits of that,\u201d said Collier, who was an All-Star captain along with Clark. \u201cWe\u2019ve been a part of that growth. We just want to make sure that we are also getting a cut of all this new money that’s coming in.”<\/p>\n

Engelbert gushed about All-Star weekend, and rightfully so. It wasn\u2019t so long ago that this was a game and little else. Now it’s an event, with parties and sponsor activations and celebrities courtside and a fanfest and merch stores and, and, and \u2014 same as the NBA\u2019s All-Star Game. The players inserted themselves into casual conversation, with A\u2019ja Wilson dropping a new show and the “StudBudz\u201d becoming an internet sensation.<\/p>\n

It was a celebration of what the WNBA has become and a glimpse of everything still to come, and shame on Engelbert if she can’t make the NBA and WNBA owners recognize the gold mine they\u2019re sitting on.<\/p>\n

“We’re not going to be in hypergrowth forever. No company ever is,\u201d Engelbert said. “So it\u2019s how to continue to sustain this momentum, gain on it, grow and, ultimately, globalizing the game.”<\/p>\n

And define her legacy as commissioner. The clock is ticking on more than just these CBA negotiations.<\/p>\n

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA players make CBA statement with t-shirts USAT’s Meghan Hall shares how the WNBA players make a huge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[7073,461,49,7075,735,48,7076,8520,10665,10668,1329,1112,8891,1571,8519,729,47,2349,459,44,514,927,10232,10666,82,865,1335,630,1872,4134,4143,5368,11932],"class_list":["post-12685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-all-star","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-caitlin","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-canada","tag-clark","tag-collier","tag-columnists","tag-columnists-opinions","tag-content","tag-game","tag-issues","tag-labor","tag-napheesa","tag-napheesa-collier","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-content","tag-opinions","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-u0026","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-all-star-game","tag-womens","tag-womens-sports","tag-work","tag-work-u0026-labor-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}