{"id":582662,"date":"2026-04-14T01:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582662\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T01:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:01:15","slug":"engelbert-says-wnba-in-a-good-spot-after-contentious-labor-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582662\/","title":{"rendered":"Engelbert says WNBA in \u2018a good spot\u2019 after contentious labor negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">NEW YORK &#8212; WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she \u201cfeels really good\u201d about her relationship with the players as the league looks to move forward after a contentious labor negotiation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/03\/20\/wnba-releases-cba-details-salary-cap-to-rise-above-11m-by-2032\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/03\/20\/wnba-releases-cba-details-salary-cap-to-rise-above-11m-by-2032\/\">seven-year labor deal through 2032<\/a> that features the first multimillion-dollar contracts in league history might have won over the players who had openly questioned the league\u2019s leadership and Engelbert specifically.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">Engelbert said the CBA long form, a document of 400-500 pages, should be completed \u201cin the near term.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">\u201cObviously there was a lot of postering going on, but I\u2019m proud of what we accomplished together, and know we\u2019re in a good spot,\u201d she said in her annual pre-draft availability. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">However, Engelbert did not take kindly to a question about her future, openly wondering if her gender played a role in the issue being repeatedly raised. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">\u201cI wonder whether you would ask that of a man, by the way,\u201d Engelbert replied to a female reporter. \u201cBut I realize as women we get asked different questions than men do. But look, I\u2019m so proud of this league, and I\u2019m here working really hard to make the 30th season our best ever and continue to build that sustainable economic model that we know we need for the future.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">Prior to a labor deal being reached, SBJ had reported that Engelbert was likely to exit following the CBA due to deteriorating relationships both inside and outside of the NBA league office. On March 25, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver praised Engelbert, though he added that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/03\/25\/silver-praises-engelbert-but-no-talks-yet-on-whether-she-returns-as-wnba-commissioner-in-2027\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/03\/25\/silver-praises-engelbert-but-no-talks-yet-on-whether-she-returns-as-wnba-commissioner-in-2027\/\">talks had not begun<\/a> as to whether she would return to her post in 2027. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">On Monday, she skirted around the issue of how long she wants to remain commissioner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">\u201cNothing to report, which is probably why Adam didn\u2019t report anything,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cThere\u2019s no story here. I\u2019m thrilled with our trajectory; I\u2019m thrilled with the growth; I\u2019m thrilled with what we\u2019ve done over the past couple years, and really looking forward to the next few years.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">One of the next key areas of focus for the league will be globalization. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">\u201cNext year I think you should expect that we\u2019re hopefully going to do something outside of North America for the first time as a truly global game,\u201d Engelbert said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">Look for more coverage of the WNBA Draft in Tuesday\u2019s Women\u2019s Sports Newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK &#8212; WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she \u201cfeels really good\u201d about her relationship with the players&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-582662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}