Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
By Matt Yoder on

There may be nobody in professional sports on a hotter seat than WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

Minnesota Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier dropped a bomb on the league when she issued a statement calling out Engelbert and WNBA leadership for their inadequacies. Scores of WNBA players backed up Collier and the response to Engelbert and WNBA leadership has been almost universally negative, with calls even coming for her to resign her position.

Engelbert held a press conference on Friday before the WNBA Finals got underway between the Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces. The embattled commissioner did not resign. Instead, she said there was “inaccuracy” in what was out there and gave a performance that didn’t inspire much confidence.

The biggest headline from her presser was her denial that she made comments about WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark.

Napheesa Collier said that Cathy Engelbert made astonishing comments about Clark and how she should be grateful for the WNBA platform and that it was responsible for her off-court earnings, seemingly forgetting about her entire career at Iowa. Engelbert said she “did not make those comments.”

Obviously, Caitlin Clark is the biggest star in the WNBA and one of the biggest stars in all of sports. The comments that Cathy Engelbert is alleged to have made would show a WNBA commissioner who is completely out of touch with her biggest stars and the current and future success that they are capable of achieving.

But while Engelbert contested Collier’s characterization, a video surfaced on social media that shows her making a very similar argument. In the interview with CNBC, Engelbert said that Clark is actually making up to $500,000 in WNBA salary and is able to earn more money because she plays in the WNBA.

“No CEO do you just put their base pay in there. You put their bonus, you put their stock options, you put everything. Caitlin has the ability to make up to a half-million dollars just in WNBA wages this year. So of course, they’re just looking at a base which is collectively bargained. And actually it’s low because she’s the #1 pick, she’ll make a little more than that. She also has millions and millions of dollars endorsements. Because she declared to become pro her endorsements are higher in dollar value, she has a global platform now, not just a US platform, so she’s going to do just fine as will the top players in the league as every league does,” Engelbert said.

First of all, Clark only made $78,000 this past season. Winning the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup (ironically) could have provided a boost, but the prize for winning their in-season competition is $500,000 for the entire team, not per player. There are other bonuses that Clark could access through various awards and marketing efforts from the league including a $250,000 Player Marketing Agreement, but all pale in comparison to her off-court earnings. An estimate from Sportico pegged Clark at $11 million in endorsement deals.

But the line of thinking with those public comments from Cathy Engelbert certainly align with an attitude that could have been displayed in what she may have said to Napheesa Collier.

But what may be most important, especially with a contentious labor dispute now fully playing out in public, is that the commissioner and the league want to keep salaries as low as possible where the current revenue split given to players is far behind other sports leagues. If WNBA players were paid the same share as NBA players, salaries would skyrocket to multiples of their current level.

Given the meteoric rise in WNBA ratings and interest, led by Clark, Collier, and others, it seems only fair to compensate them in a better way. And the resistance to doing so may lead to a protracted work stoppage.

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