Engelbert Hopes WNBA Names Successor by December 31

Cathy Engelbert said on Thursday, November 12, that the search for the next WNBA commissioner is an ongoing process, and she hopes the league finishes it by December 31. Engelbert spoke after the league's annual competition committee meeting. Candidates have been meeting with the league in person over the past two weeks. Asked whether she expects a hire by December 31, she said, "I hope so."

December 31 isn't an arbitrary deadline. It's the day Engelbert's retirement takes effect. She announced on September 4 that she would retire at the end of the year, closing a tenure that began on July 17, 2019, when she became the first commissioner in the league's history. She's 61, and she spent more than three decades at Deloitte, including a run as its chief executive, before the WNBA hired her.

She wouldn't say how many candidates are in the room. Engelbert declined to specify the number of prospects the league is considering, and she didn't name names. The search is being run with Excel Search & Advisory. A September report by ESPN listed the field the league is believed to be looking at: former WNBA champion Swin Cash, New York Liberty chief executive Keia Clarke, players' association president Nneka Ogwumike, and NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum.

There's a fallback if the calendar wins. Engelbert has told the Associated Press she'll remain in the role until a successor is finalized, even if the search runs past the end of 2026. That keeps the league from opening its next season of business with an empty chair, but it's a bridge, not a plan, and Thursday's comments made clear she'd rather not use it.

The job itself is bigger than the one she took. The WNBA's 2026 regular season reached 90 million unique viewers across its national networks, a league record. The next commissioner inherits that audience, an expansion wave that's adding teams across the rest of the decade, and a labor relationship that has defined much of Engelbert's final year. It's the most attractive version of this job that has ever been posted, and the league is hiring for it in public.

Engelbert has been working on this handoff longer than the public timeline suggests. Ahead of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on October 17, she said she'd been working toward identifying her successor for three years. Seven weeks are left before her retirement date. The interviews are happening in person now, which usually means a search is narrowing. Her word for the moment is the one she used Thursday: ongoing.