{"id":318837,"date":"2025-10-20T15:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/318837\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T15:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:13:11","slug":"wnba-at-critical-inflection-point-amid-tense-cba-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/318837\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA at critical inflection point amid tense CBA negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

A season that began with the Caitlin Clark Effect ends with the Cathy Englebert Effect.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not progress, that\u2019s a pause, at a time the league\u2019s players are in financial talks with a commissioner they can\u2019t (or won\u2019t) look in the eye. But all is fair in love, war and CBA negotiations, which means the results could be (worst case) dire or (best case) an 11th hour kumbaya \u2014 all depending on who steps in, who steps away and who\u2019s willing to take 2026 off. The likely scenarios are below, and those in the know are betting on some combination of Nos. 3 and 6:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A lockout.<\/li>\n
  2. A strike.<\/li>\n
  3. An extension of the Oct. 31 deadline.<\/li>\n
  4. Engelbert steps down as commissioner, expediting a CBA deal.<\/li>\n
  5. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver moves on from Engelbert as a nod to the players, enhancing a CBA deal.<\/li>\n
  6. Engelbert stays for now, but Silver plays peacemaker and the sides hammer out a deal.<\/li>\n
  7. No WNBA season in 2026.<\/li>\n
  8. They reach a deal before this story publishes (0.0000001% chance).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But don\u2019t rule out Nos. 4 or 5. Few in the industry have ever seen players eviscerate a standing sports commissioner this way, kick-started by Napheesa Collier\u2019s press conference<\/a> that now rivals Allen Iverson\u2019s \u201cPractice, we\u2019re talking about practice,\u201d Jim Mora\u2019s \u201cPlayoffs?\u201d and Mike Gundy\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m a man, I\u2019m 40\u2033 on the wow meter. <\/p>\n

    There\u2019s no real turning back from Collier saying the WNBA \u201chas the worst leadership in the world,\u201d or from using phrases such as \u201ctone deaf,\u201d \u201cnegligence\u201d and \u201cself-sabotage,\u201d or from portraying Engelbert as a narcissist who supposedly said: \u201cPlayers should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.\u201d Engelbert later inferred Collier\u2019s comments were littered with \u201cinaccuracies,\u201d which led Colllier to cancel a face-to-face meeting–contentiousness galore.<\/p>\n

    Anyone who knows Silver understands this is everything he\u2019s against. Silver learned at the foot of David Stern, who\u2019s on the Mount Rushmore of sports commissioners for a reason. Stern cherished his relationship with his players and made regular pilgrimages to Jordan, Magic and Bird (and they to him) to see where everyone\u2019s heads were. <\/p>\n

    Silver does exactly the same, and, according to one league governor, has a circle of players he leans on, led by Steph Curry, whom he\u2019ll consult on the All-Star Game format, for instance. Considering Silver is Engelbert\u2019s boss, this WNBA spat could ultimately be his problem to solve. Maybe he\u2019ll call Collier the way he calls Curry.<\/p>\n

    Either way, sources have heard Silver describe Engelbert\u2019s people skills as \u201ca problem\u201d for a while, which is why she was conceivably on her way out<\/a> even before the Collier attack. As the Oct. 31 CBA deadline approaches, Engelbert and Collier (who is VP of the WNBPA) will possibly be sitting at the same negotiating table. If it\u2019s a clear impediment to a deal, what does Silver do?<\/p>\n

    The last thing anyone involved wants is to sabotage the momentum the W\u2019s gained these past few seasons with a work stoppage. Just in 2025 alone, the Aces-Mercury Finals<\/a> featured the most-viewed Game 1 since the league\u2019s debut season of 1997, the most-viewed post-season<\/a> across all networks since 1999 and the most-watched regular-season\/post-season\/all-star game combined across ESPN networks. <\/p>\n

    In the arenas, the W also set a single-season attendance record<\/a> of more than 2.5 million overall fans \u2014 all of this in a year Caitlin Clark was largely absent due to injuries. The context, at closer glance, is that every team played two extra home games, franchises like the Dream and Wings moved games to larger venues and the expansion Valkyries averaged a league-high 18,064 at Chase Center–all offsetting the lack of a Caitlin Clark Effect.<\/p>\n

    In fact, that Valkyries\u2019 attendance figure alone illustrates the promise of the WNBA\u2019s future … if it can avoid a strike\/lockout. Think about it. Last year\u2019s attendance leader, the Fever \u2014 without Clark \u2014 averaged 16,560 fans, down from 17,036 the year prior, and the league didn\u2019t bat an eye. <\/p>\n

    So 2025 was the worst of times (Clark\u2019s unavailability; the inconsistent refs; Collier\u2019s revelations) and the best of times (Aces dominance; the Valkyries reaching the postseason). The league would prefer to emphasize the latter.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe get asked a lot right now, \u2018How was what we did possible?\u2019\u201d Valkyries President Jess Smith<\/a> said. \u201cAnd, \u2018How is anybody ever going to do it again?\u2019 I can\u2019t wait to watch somebody do it again. It\u2019s truly how we feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Smith may get her chance. The expansion Portland Fire<\/a> has already raided the Valkyries\u2019 staff in hopes of becoming the best story of 2026.<\/p>\n

    If there is a 2026. With the Cathy Engelbert Effect, everything\u2019s on hold.<\/p>\n

    Tom Friend can be reached at tfriend@sportsbusinessjournal.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A season that began with the Caitlin Clark Effect ends with the Cathy Englebert Effect. That\u2019s not progress,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":318838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[4281,62,114263,67,132,8971,68,232,1707],"class_list":{"0":"post-318837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-print","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-the-insiders","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-upfront","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wnba","16":"tag-womens-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115407146727572069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}